Today, 21st October 2015, marks Back to the Future Day. The day to which Marty and the Doc travelled to in the 1985 classic movie.
As the world celebrates this historic day, we wanted to join in. So, we travel back in the opposite direction to 1985, the year the movie happened. What was it like at Christmas in 1985?
Nothing like shoe-horning some relevant content in, huh?
1) Christmas Number One (UK)
Christmas 1985 saw Shakin’ Stevens top the UK chart at Christmas with his incredibly festive Merry Christmas Everyone. Still one of the most popular and widely played Christmas tunes annually, the inclusion of downloads in the music charts since 2007 saw it return to the charts in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
2) Toys R Us and Transformers
UK retailer Toys R Us enjoyed their first Christmas in 1985, having opened its first store earlier that year. One of the top selling toys of Christmas that year was the Transformers Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime model. You could also buy Transformers Sketch Pads. The excitement.
You can see the Transformers toys TV ad 1985 below.
3) Woolworths was in its pomp
Yes, everyone’s favourite UK retail chain was flying at this point, little did we know what would follow a couple of decades later. Even Marty McFly couldn’t have seen that coming!
For nostalgic purposes, here is there Christmas catalogue from 1985. Ah, we miss Pick n Mix.
Images above kindly supplied by the excellent, Woolworths Museum website
4) Christmas television
Christmas TV saw Only Fools and Horses take the primetime 7:30pm spot on Christmas Day, as illustrated on the front of the Christmas edition of Radio Times for 1985. Other festive TV included Top of the Pops Christmas Party, The Two Ronnies and Noel Edmonds’ Live Breakfast Show.
Meanwhile, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day started with “Pages from Ceefax” on both BBC 1 and BBC 2. Ah, smell that nostalgia.
5) Santa Claus the Movie hit cinemas
Yes, one of the all-time Christmas movie classics, Santa Claus the Movie, was released in cinemas for Christmas 1985. It generally got a poor reception from critics, and it’s reported that in the Box Office it came nowhere near tor recouping its $50million budget.
It was however, an absolute classic that is watched every Christmas by many around the world. We’ll have a feature about this movie in the coming weeks, by the way!
6) Super Mario Brothers on the NES
Gaming was still at an early stage, but advancing swiftly on. Just three years after the Commodore 64 Christmas Demo game that had you dropping present from Santa’s sleigh to random flashing arrows in buildings, Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
