Ann Farina was a school girl in Gosforth when the Second World War broke out. She attended Newcastle Central High School for Girls and was evacuated to Keswick along with the rest of the school. Her evacuation diary can also be found on this site. These pages record her experience of Christmas during war time in Gosforth with her family, when she was 13 years old.

On the first page she compares their small Christmas tree to the large one that they had before the war. She also complains about rationing and having to use coupons to buy presents. She says that she misses the Christmas lights in town (Newcastle), but is pleased to have been given lots of chocolate.

The second page describes Christmas morning. The family go to church, have breakfast and then open their presents. Ann lists her presents, including an orange! They then have lunch – Ann bemoans not having a turkey, but admits that they are lucky to get a chicken.
Ann goes into detail about the wireless [radio] programmes that the family listen to together on page 3. She mentions Churchill and his “Bulldog voice” towards the bottom of the page. On page 4 she describes having tea (although rather full) and is very pleased with the Christmas cake, especially as marzipan is “rare”. After tea, the air raid siren sounded so the family had to get into a shelter. The “all clear” was sounded half an hour later.

Diary of Ann Helena Farina, August/September 1939 – NRO/07896/2.