Old Family Fun - Who remembers Blockbusters?

Feeling quite nostalgic today so thought I'd revisit some of the old family fun we used to have. 

I've seen videos making their way around TikTok of traditional family Christmases, the tacky red and green with spangly tinsel ceiling decorations and a humble sized Christmas tree strewn in multicoloured flashing lights... and it's really made me think about how much things have changed over the years. This isn't a Christmas blog post, so bear with me, it just had me reminiscing about the past and how different things were when it came to family time and doing things together. 

That doesn't stop with Christmas though it seems to be a year-round thing for every event and situation. 

One of the most notable for me is the way we view films and programmes changing so much. It wasn't that long ago that you had to physically leave the house to go and rent a film or get your Saturday night munch. 

I remember as a child, every single week without fail on a Saturday with mum, dad and my brother and my dog Snoopy would walk down to Blockbusters at the end of the road and we were allowed to pick a treat ... I'd normally chose a chocolate bar, mum would get her Walnut Whip, dad opted for peanuts or crisps, and my brother chose chocolate - he is diabetic so was his one treat a week really.

We'd get our coats on if it was cold, a scarf and hat added in the winter, and off we'd go. We would usually choose four videos - one for mum and dad, one for us as a family, one for me and one for my brother, Shaun. If my memory serves me correctly, we actually had a monthly pass for unlimited videos (go us!). We had to return them within seven days, only after rewinding the videos right back to the beginning of the film though so we didn't get a fine or penalised in anyway - do you remember that? 

But to be able to get our munch and grab a film to watch together we had to leave the house. There was no Just Eat, Uber or Deliveroo at our finger tips. No Netflix or Prime. Whilst that convenience of access is lovely it's no longer a luxury and just a given isn't it, sometimes I miss how it used to be and the effort we had to put in to do these things. 

The same goes for things like takeaways. They were a pay day treat every once in a blur moon weren't they, something we splurged on and very, very rarely used for convenience. 

What is something you miss about your past? A tradition or way of doing something that you wish we could bring back? 

A friend of mine wishes she could go back to 90s Christmas time and I get it, I really do. The buzzing in the aisles, music blasting through every loud speaker, every second song on the radio being a Christmas song, the family get togethers ... it just isn't done the same any more, doesn't have the same warm feeling. Maybe this year we should take it back to the 90s, what do you think?