IN THESE credit-crunched times, many of us are reconsidering our plans for a costly Christmas this year. Can we really afford that ultra-expensive new games console for the kids?

But as the latest TimesPast supplement suggests tomorrow, there have been times when, out of necessity, our Christmases, private and public, have been low-key.

From the dark days of the Second World War, through the post-war, ration-riddled early Fifties; from the boomtime Sixties to the high unemployment of the Seventies, the city has always come smiling through - as it will do this year.

The TimesPast supplement, laden with pictures from the Evening Times' unique archive, looks at all the things that make Christmas great, recession or not: the pantos, the festive lights, the shops and stores, the parties, the Kelvin Hall carnival and circus, and the Gang Shows.

Regardless of the era, or of what was or was not in their stocking, kids have always adored Christmas - even if money was tight, and Santa's costume was a little more threadbare than usual ...

Santa visits Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital in 1936	Christmas lights in Buchanan Street before it was pedestrianised	Hilary Allan, Harry Gordon and Will Fyffe in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Alhambra in 1949	The toy counter at Lewis's does a roaring trade in 1954	Bringing joy to Yorkhill hospital in 1932

Mairi Mackay enjoys her first Christmas in Clarkston in 1950

Having a scream at the Kelvin Hall carnival in 1955

Clowning at the Kelvin Hall circus in 1957

Dressing up for the 1939 Gang Show