Peace and austerity: how Britain celebrated Christmas in 1945

By Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham University

Eighty years ago, Britain celebrated its first peacetime Christmas since 1938. It was a time of hope indeed, but a look through newspaper archives reveals a complex picture. Christmas 1945 was an austerity Christmas. One in which grief and suffering, remembrance and loneliness mingled with reunions, church attendance and muted celebration.

It was the first Christmas under the Labour government elected in 1945, though Prime Minister Clement Attlee did not address the nation.…

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