Whatever happened to good old bath cubes?

I WAS pondering the big day recently — largely in terms of how much it will cost me — and I was struck by the thought that there are lots of items which were once staples of the Christmas season but are no longer available.

Take bath cubes. Do you remember those? I haven’t seen any in years but my Aunty Florrie always gave a box to my mother and sister.

For the uninitiated, they were a sort of solid block of bath salts which you crumbled under the running taps. I can only imagine they were overtaken by all the gunk in bottles that women now pour into the tub.

Aunty Florrie always used to get hers from the Conservative Party fair at the old Town Lane club in Dukinfield.

I used to tag along but it was very boring because there were never any toys. And we always had to hang about while she waited for a chat with Mrs Staff who, she said, had been on television once or twice.

I was always underwhelmed when the great meeting took place. After all, I had never seen Mrs Staff in “Stingray” or on “Crackerjack”. Mrs Staff — our much-loved Kathy who sadly died on Sunday — went on, of course, to become Nora Batty.

Remember Christmas seals? They were colourful seasonal scenes, sticky on the back like stamps, which charities dished out. I used to love festooning envelopes with them.

How about tangerines in coloured tissue paper? They used to look great in the lit-up shop windows. I have a question. Do tangerines actually exist? When I do my shopping, I see clementines and satsumas but nothing labelled tangerines. Yet that’s what I’ve always called them.

Another thing I miss is smokers’ sets — the toffee type that is.

When I was five or six, I always used to look forward to my smokers’ set which included a liquorice pipe, chocolate cigarettes and banana-flavoured cigar.

But I suppose they’re banned now.

On the telly, I liked the “Blue Peter” Christmas edition in which they lit the last candle on the Advent crown and always managed to reach their charity target.

It always amazed me how everything somehow fell into place in time for the big day, and then I realised it was a fix.

They had probably had enough stamps, keys or whatever 10 days before but it wouldn’t have been so climactic if the announcement had been made on December 15.

I also loved the animals getting presents. Shep once got a balloon and immediately popped it.

Merry Crimbo.