This article commemorates the 40th anniversary of Bob Wallace's 1984 Christmas special, 'A Merry Olde Christmas,' which took viewers on a journey through English holiday traditions. It highlights key moments from the special, including Wallace's explorations of London's Christmas markets, Harrods department store, and traditional Christmas performances.
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
CHRISTMAS ENGLAND SPECIAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY BOB WALLACE CHICAGO NEWS
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