Fish paste sandwiches and orange squash

British Visqueen children's Christmas parties

By Gill Clements

My Father worked for British Visqueen, a company in ICI plastics division in Stevenage.  There was a large workforce and the company threw Christmas parties for the employees’ children.

Party time

Coach loads of us would be bussed in.  We were all given a party tea with jelly, orange squash and fish paste sandwiches.  The long runs of tables were covered in uncut rolls of the plastic carrier bags that they manufactured; one year it would be all union jacks and another year peacock feathers, according to the design they were producing at the time.

They had a Father Christmas giving every child a present and music and games, which always seemed to include a “twist” dance competition and singing “We all live in a yellow submarine”.

This page was added on 20/09/2010.

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  • A lovely memory, it reminds me of the winter school parties that we had at my local junior school, which always finished with a visit from Father Christmas and chocolate cake.

    By Jane Toyne (21/09/2010)
  • This brings back memories of the Christmas parties I went to when I was a child. My Dad worked for the New Towns Commission in the 60’s. I can remember playing all the usual party games and the highlight of the afternoon was meeting Father Christmas and receiving a present from him.

    By Gill Winters (21/09/2010)