Retro Sweets

This Christmas why not take your loved ones back to their happy childhood-days by buying them some retro sweets.

Lots of treats fro yesteryear are have become available again, and you can buy them in all shapes and sizes from single items to whole boxes of your favourites, and some that are gift packaged in hampers or used to create tree or flower designs.

Many of us will remember sweets such as Space Dust, Black Jacks, Flying Saucers, Refreshers, Sugar Mice, Parma Violets, Midget Gems, Wham Bars  and Traffic-Light Lollies- and I could go on to name many more. For me it was a Friday treat to have 10p to spend and select carefully ‘one of those and one of those etc’ which  the assistant would  then place into a little white paper bag and hand over to me. I would then joyfully savour them as I walked home from school taking ages to decide in which order I’d eat them.

Behind those items, all laid out in small trays on the counter, were shelves crammed with tall glass jars, containing items such as Pear Drops, Bon-Bons, Pineapple Cubes and Cherry Lips, all of which were more commonly bought by the quarter.

There are now many shops with these layouts again, selling retro sweets. These range from tiny independents to chains that have many branches across the country. They all create a sense of nostalgia, and I’ve watched grown ups get such joy in once again telling the assistant ‘I’d like one of those and one of those etc.’ They are even known to whoop with delight when they find an old favourite again for the first time.

Such retro sweets have also become firm favourites at weddings, where special candy carts are sometimes set up for guests to enjoy.

So if you are old enough to remember when Snickers used to be called Marathon, chances are your friends and family are also of the right era to enjoy a Sherbet Dip liquorice stick or some Fruit Salad chews.  Why not take them back to their carefree days, pop in to an old fashioned sweet shop and tick another present off the shopping list.

You could also arouse the interest of your younger relatives too, who won’t familiar with these sweets but are sure to find them as delightful as we did.