CBS Chicago Vault: Bob Wallace shows us England's finest holiday traditions in "A Merry Olde Christmas"
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Years ago, the late reporter Bob Wallace went on all kinds of adventures—sampling the food at a street festival, getting into an outdoor hot tub in the snow, riding on top of a propeller plane, climbing into terrifying spinning circus contraptions—pretty much anything you can think of, he did it, for Channel 2 News.
Wallace, of course, stuck to the Chicago area for most of his adventures. But for the holiday season in 1984, he traveled 4,000 miles across the pond to England for a Channel 2 special where he showed Chicago families all the traditions and customs of Christmas there.
The resulting special, "A Merry Olde Christmas," was nominated for an Emmy Award. This year, we're celebrating its 40th anniversary.
In the first segment (video above), Wallace takes a tour of London, where he finds the streets singing with music and merriment and throngs of joyous children. He makes a stop at Henry Birch's Christmas Funfair at Covent Garden—a winter carnival with all different rides, vendors in the surrounding marketplace hawking everything from old-fashioned wooden toys to chestnuts, and a Punch and Judy puppet show for some amused kids.
Wallace also stops at Harrod's, which is bedecked in 11,000 light bulbs—where he finds a life-size rocking horse, a Volkswagen convertible with a caravan, or camping trailer, attached, and plenty of Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. Plenty of youngsters were at the store to see Father Christmas too.
Wallace also got to visit the kitchen at Dunns Baker and Confectioner to see how the mince pies were made, and also got to see pheasants, geese, and turkeys with their feathers still on—all waiting to be dressed for Christmas dinner.
Finally, we see a bit of a production of "A Christmas Carol" with a very convincing Ebenezer Scrooge.
In the second segment of "A Merry Olde Christmas," Wallace made the rounds in the English countryside to check out some holiday traditions in a variety of towns.
At St. Mary's in Ross-on-Wye, some youngsters were putting on "Hansel and Gretel" as a play—dressing as trees and rabbits in some cases. Just outside town, Wallace visited the home of the Smith family, where young brothers George and Richard were pulling Christmas crackers, decorating the tree, and making jokes about a red-nosed camel who may also have been tormented by Olive the Other Reindeer.
There are also stops in William Shakespeare's fabled birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, Burton-on-the-Water, the ancient town of Cirencester in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, and Royal Leamington Spa—where a torchlight procession through town featured a marching band playing traditional English songs such as "Hey Jude" and "Get Back."
Finally, there is a stop at Warwick Castle, one of the most magnificent castles in the country that hosted quite a Christmas party.
Legend has it that when Wallace was in England filming this special, more than one Chicagoan who happened to be there on vacation came up to him—reasoning that London was the last place they'd expect to see a famous reporter from back home in Chicago.
For a more recent look at Christmas in England, Rick Steves has a comprehensive article on his website, and the official London visitor guide has all kinds of ideas for Christmas activities.