Christmas Crackers

The Happy (Christmas) way to save! Santa plugs Premium Bonds in a 'prize-winning' 1950s TV ad.

Meet the animated sci-fi fixer from a strange atomic race who knows the value of Christmas.

Chomping alligators, a boomerang throwing kangaroo, a turkey in Turkey, and an angry lion, all mollified by a world touring, bumbling Santa.

A classic Christmas carol brought joyously to life in this engaging and colourful Sheila Graber animation, with help from her school class.

Tommy's Christmas parcels are despatched to the Front in a fleet of trucks.

Santa's on strike! This charming animation for the GPO advises early posting to keep Father Christmas onside.

Round Table members parade a giant Christmas pudding in Kingsbridge South Devon and raise money for charity.

A well-acted early version of Charles Dickens' much loved Christmas story, featuring some impressive ghost sequences.

Ho ho ho! The children and staff of St Giles School Croydon enjoy a special visit from Father Christmas himself

Dorothy Sleightholme, Yorkshire's answer to Fanny Cradock, makes a meal of turkey leftovers in this seasonal offering from the Farmhouse Kitchen.

A glittering assortment of screen stars brings some extra Yuletide sparkle to a charming festive greeting to 1930s cinemagoers.

Christmas is coming and the Norfolk turkey's getting fat...

All Richie wants for Christmas is a toy farm – simple. But the world is complicated, disturbing. Happily, he gets more than he bargained for!

Dashing through the snow; on a six-horse open plough... The streets are ready for sledging in 1920s Buxton.

Taking the lid off the creative process - of a group of theatrically-minded 11-year-olds as they stage the nativity.

6,000 miles from home, after a perilous voyage to escape terror and oppression, five child refugees from Vietnam experience the magic of a British Christmas.

A quirky festive message courtesy of a pair of courting camels.

Theatrical shenanigans in London's West End as thespians celebrate a Twelfth Night tradition.

London's famous shopping street is captured just before Christmas in 1971 in this montage with an impressionistic view of all the action.

It's an austerity Christmas from 1948 with a scary looking Santa Claus dishing out the presents and the kisses.

Britain's first full-length science fiction feature has been restored by the BFI National Archive and given a new score by composer Matthew Herbert, commissioned by the BFI and the BBC.

Ever wondered how your Christmas Stilton is made? All is revealed in this delectable short produced by pioneer Charles Urban.

The ring on the string keeps moving! Party games, a finger buffet and a ventriloquist dummy entertain the children of the Lane and Scrutton families at Christmastime.

Heavy snowfall makes Christmas dreams come true for residents across Britain.

A dreamy Christmas advert for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Agnes Mendelstien is heading for a nervous breakdown as more and more unwanted Christmas presents from her over-generous suitor, start piling up.

Treat your kiddies to the latest mechanical wonders, promoted in this festive newsreel item

An eccentric parade of mechanical toys to tantalise 1920s kids - and to remind us that Christmas consumerism is nothing new.

Feathered friends prepare to meet their fate in this seasonal newsreel outing to a Norfolk turkey farm.

10 years into building his empire, Anglia TV cameras catch up with Bernard Matthews about his humble beginnings, living and sleeping with turkeys and his plans for the future.

A great example of an integrated family of immigrants from different religious backgrounds showing just how Christmas can be enjoyed the traditional way in post-war Britain.

A crew of not-so-lonely lightshipmen enjoy a festive knees-up - 40 miles out at sea - in this heart-warming newsreel.

A lucky schoolboy gets a brand new bike for Christmas in this charming wartime promotional film.

There isn't a battery in sight in this Christmas film from 1967 but we do see the pudding being made and sense the thrill of presents being opened.

Discover a haunted gem, the earliest film of the Christmas ghost story The Mistletoe Bough. Guaranteed to spook a whole new generation over a hundred years after its creation. With new music by Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne, commissioned by the BFI.

The Dawson family from Norwich conjure up a great Christmas with games and trickery to entertain the children in this home movie.

A Cleveland family ring in the festive season with Bucks Fizz. But this family Christmas is not what it seems.

The timber-framed establishments of old Godalming lure shoppers with their enticing displays of yuletide fare and mistletoe.

An animated tale with a Lutheran message that's equal parts Christmas spirit and good old-fashioned guilt

The Royal Marines Band hold a Christmas Parade with Gus Honeybun in Weymouth.

It's the season to eat, drink and be merry in the Tigg household, with feasting and jollity captured in this vivid amateur film.

There's magical mayhem in the kitchen when the magician's wife makes use of a most unusual cooking utensil - her husband's magic wand.

A thoughtful Christmas message in hope of peace from early in WWII - the absence of loved ones hit hardest at holiday times.

Ilford parades, Post Office Tower views as well as weddings, birthdays and Christmas all feature on this fantastic home movie from Redbridge in 1966.

A table overladen with food, a wolf-pack of hungry visitors, trendy teenagers in the kitchen and lots of eating. It's Christmas 1963-style.

Christmas decorations jostle for attention among thousands of street signs in this amateur exploration of Hong Kong Island’s busy streets.

Santa Claus – wearing the traditional robes and a black mask – arrives in the village of Craig Cefn Parc, near Clydach, Swansea, with a horse-drawn sleigh full of presents.

With the war now over, these children make the most of a civilized Christmas Party with home-made hats, dancing and tucking into the traditional fare of sandwiches and cakes.

The Night Before Christmas meets Toy Story in this charming British cartoon from 1958.

Moving theatre-set Christmas tale of a former dancer and her child

A heart-tugging moral melodrama with echoes of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Two-minutes glimpse of an East London Christmas part, with a small amount of present-opening and a whole lot of hat-wearing and raucous dancing.

This family film by eccentric and gifted filmmaker Alan Sidi could well have been made as a demonstration for other families on how to have a relaxed and enjoyable Christmas.

Live music and dancing, party games and more are enjoyed by members of the cine club. For one fellow a cheeky kiss under the mistletoe!

Life with the Iles family: Summer is for cycling, the seaside, tending to tortoises and meeting delightful collie pups. Christmas is for crackers and the gift of a perfect doll.

Pedestrians hustle briskly through a snowy George Square in Glasgow, while others stop to gawk at a stricken carthorse.

Party hats and finger food, funny faces, and a snowball fight; the Lane-Scrutton families enjoy a Christmas get-together and a giggle in this 1951 home movie.

The filmic memoirs in Cambridgeshire of heart surgeon Christopher Parish and his family, beginning with Christmas traditions, and including a royal visit. The year is 1962.

A rich spinster aunt, the last post before Christmas, and an expectant nephew with a fondness for port spell trouble in this short comic cinema ad.

A decade before the BBC's version of M R James supernatural classic came this chilling version from the North Downs Cinematograph Society

Richly detailed evocation of Hans Christian Andersen's heart-breaking parable.

Poignant scenes of Allied troops enjoying their Yuletide rations at the first Christmas of WWI.

Recruits of Lord Kitchener's 'New Army' parade on Christmas morning.

Christmas features twice, in this 1970s compilation. After each Christmas dinner the family opens its presents. Dad gets underpants in 1972 and six years later - a compost bin.

It's Christmas Day and while the family enjoys their annual feast the cat is having a Christmas 'banquet' of its own.

Sweet and touching wartime cinema appeal for 300,000 London children spending Christmas far from home.

Quirky photo-montage film warning of the perils of drink driving.

"Wise people are hastening to Walton-On-Thames". This inventive ad promotes the Surrey town as the ultimate Christmas shopping destination.

Santa Claus arriving at a house full of children on Xmas Day has not forgotten their elders - even Lloyd George gets a present! And the new year brings Chow Chow pups and snow.

Christmas with a budgie and a Dalek keeps three generations of the family happy.

A teddy bear, a toy telephone, and lots more for baby Gary's first Christmas.

A cautionary tale adds some chill to a drunk’s festive Christmas Eve.

From Santa Cruz to Santa Claus? I feel a song coming on...

It's Christmas 1952 and after the presents, the decorations and the cake are made ready, all generations of the family gather for the big party

Merry Christmas! Anyone up for a game of table tennis to work off the turkey?

A not-so-little variety star shows off his appetite

Women factory workers go full steam to make sure troops on the Western Front have a little tradition at Christmas.

Join at the Yeatman family's Yuletide celebrations with this delightful home movie of their 1937 Christmas dinner.

Oh, you really shouldn't have, but thank you - presents and party hats for everyone at a family Christmas.

A toy banjo and Groucho Marx novelty glasses-and-moustache supply all the fun for the youngest member of the Geck family at Christmastime.

Baby boomers celebrate Christmas with a party at a prefab in post-war Wallsend.

Christmas Day, Norwich 1952 and following the traditional lunch for 4 generations of the Youngs family and offspring - the party is out in the back garden for some fun and fresh air.

A Christmas tale of woe and merriment in Middlesbrough with a scary Santa and teetotaller tippler.

The war rages elsewhere, but the festive season offers a brief escape

It's Christmas in Sidcup in 1963 and the Diamond family - including dancing Nan - open presents, tuck into the turkey and raise a glass – or three

Topical Budget infiltrates a yuletide Aladdin’s Cave.

A stunning record of life in Craig-cefn-parc, Swansea, showing the local mine, the chapel (Pantycrwys), the school and the community.

Debut film outing for Dickens' Yuletide classic

A scene from Bleak House is the first ever screen adaptation of Charles Dickens

Wintry fun as a gang of Victorian boys launch a boisterous snowball assault

It’s Christmas morning at the Linehan household. Santa's been, the kids are happy and Dad's playing his guitar under the tree.

The tree is up in Old Market Square, the pantomime is on; it's time to celebrate Christmas in Nottingham.

Happy festive hockey - just what the doctor ordered for seasonal over-indulgence?

People are interviewed about that perennial question - the cost of Christmas.

As picture-postcard snowfall blankets the world outside, a decorated East London home hosts a festive family Christmas get-together.

With Beacon Hill, the highest point in Norfolk, just three kilometres away the steep hillside down to the beach at Cromer offered excellent sledging in the 1930s.

John Clague's colourful film captures those last exciting days before Christmas – with Christmas trees and Christmas lights all ready for the big switch-on

A new home and a crisp, dewy Christmas morning marks a fresh start for the Spurr family.

Crowds descend on this temporary skating rink and prove there's plenty of icy fun to be had even if you don't own a pair of fancy skates

Angela Rippon reports on the Women's Institute's pantomime

Christmas planning on a grand scale in a Lancashire workplace.

A medieval Lord Mayor of London and his famous cat are remembered in rural Gloucestershire.

Wrap up warm for a frosty portrait of a wintry 1960s Scotland in this chilly episode from the Seasons in Scotland educational series, with snowmen and snowball fights galore!

Free accommodation and festive fun in this period recruitment advert.

Chock-full of 60s advert nostalgia, here is the ideal Christmas gift for every lantern-jawed Dad - the Remington Four-Most electric shaver

Two young children skip school to do their Christmas shopping on Oxford Street.

From Africa to Bayswater: international students receive a charitable welcome in 1950s London.

There's no business like snow business for a Hertfordshire health resort, though this swim-suited snowball fight may be taking things too far.

A group of performing Russian Cossacks pose, skate and sledge on a frozen lake in Ruislip shortly before being deported from London.

The once popular sport of Fen Skating, gracefully demonstrated on the frozen expanse of Oulton Broad near Lowestoft.