Why I AM Celebrating the Jubilee!

This mops up the topic of Why I Will Be Celebrating the Jubilee, which was a little series I did earlier this month. The final reason really is that there is so much tradition of royal celebrations in my family. Like so many of the rest of you I have fond memories of waiting, bored yet excited, to see the Queen's coach pass for the Silver Jubilee. Our house was full of royal memorabilia - I thought it all belonged to my Grandma and my Mum, but it turns out that a lot of it had been collected by my dad. Who bought this, though?

Isn't it wonderful? I don't have it - it's still at my dad's home.

It's very small, and probably lead, I suppose. But what a wonderful history of Britian can be followed through a collection of royal goodies!

I do have these at home - the George VI coronation book (charity shop last year), George VI coronation pin cushion (my mum's collection - I never saw it before I started sorting through drawers) and British tin (Troc Shop here, for some reason!) I'm more uncertain about modern British patriotic memorabilia, but you will note I generously allowed a Matthew Rice design to grace my collection...

Have a wonderful Jubilee weekend! We will be partying with Brits and (confused) French people at another English home in our town!

Why I'll be celebrating the Jubilee - Part 2

It's been fun to read your comments on my first Jubilee post - like Vicki, I celebrated with the Armed Forces in 1977, like Autumn Mist I waited for the Queen in my Browine Uniform that year, like Dormouse, I watched Charles and Diana's wedding (and made a great scrapbook of all the cuttings, too!) and like Polkadot Petticoat I have celebrated July 4th - in the Bicentennial year, in fact! I love thinking of us all celebrating in our own ways but joining up here on the net to remember it all.

However, I was not in the mood at all for celebrations in 2002, the year of the Golden Jubilee. I felt quite unconvinced by the role of the Royal Family in a modern Britain. As you can see, our boys made up for my lack of enthusiasm! And I did let them dress up and wave flags, of course I did...

Ben's mum gave the boys a commemorative mug each, and I really wondered why on earth anyone would want one. Son 1 got a commemorative resin teddy figure with the 50 years crown on its chest - a gift from school. He quite quickly scratched the crown sticker off the bear, and I felt that summed it up - what was the point?

I think I'll leave you on this cliffhanger for now - how did I return from unconvinced nearly-Republican to cheerful flag-waver over the last 10 years? But if you have any similar experiences, or totally different ones, do share...

Why I'll be celebrating the Jubilee - Part 1

Well, look at me - I've been doing it all my life, evidently!

This must actually be autumn 1972, so it wasn't a Jubilee year, (probably the Silver Wedding Anniversary, Google informs me) but as you can see, I was also there in 1977:

And am doing my bit for 2012 as well! However, the full story is a bit more complicated than that, and that's why this is only Part 1. What's your history with royal celebrations?