We use cookies and other technologies to enable you to watch films. Continued use of this site indicates acceptance, as part of our Privacy policy.
Your cookies are disabled - you'll need to enable them to play any film. Find out how in our Privacy policy.
iPhone and iPad users: Chromecast now available via your iOS device. Download app version 2.8 to enable. See Help for more.
This film is part of Free
Party hats and finger food, funny faces, and a snowball fight; the Lane-Scrutton families enjoy a Christmas get-together and a giggle in this 1951 home movie.
Home movie 1951 10 mins Silent
From the collection of:
For the Lane-Scrutton family the staple of a successful Christmas party is a quality finger buffet. There follows funny faces for the camera, Nanny first. And if the festive season allows for snow then a snow-ball fight adds to the family “Party ‘Strife’”! The filmmakers, brothers-in-law Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton feature last in the line-up of ‘funny faces’.
In an age before television, the hobby of home movie-making would fill in those vacant hours for brothers-in-law Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton. Throughout the years they captured a number of family events – away days, play days and parties – even employing a set of free-standing floodlights to ensure indoor scenes at their Norwich homes were adequately captured. They bought their 9.5mm cine camera in 1951, so this film must have been their first Christmas recording. Not only capturing, but also screening these home movies would become an integral part of the family’s winter schedule, accompanied by a bought Charlie Chaplin film short for added entertainment.
Do you recognise a place, building or location in this film?
Help us populate the Britain on Film map by spotting and plotting the street or location you know. This is a BFI project and anyone can help.
Go to our Britain on Film crowdsourcing site and contribute to our mapping mission – to identify locations within our archive films.
Add a location
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1988 5 mins Location: South Shields
Barbie dolls in pink battle khaki killing machines in a Christmas animation that cocks a snook at the “Disney Doctrine”.
Amateur film 1965 2 mins Silent Location: Becontree
Two-minutes glimpse of an East London Christmas part, with a small amount of present-opening and a whole lot of hat-wearing and raucous dancing.
Drama 1914 33 mins
Moving theatre-set Christmas tale of a former dancer and her child
Amateur film 1962 17 mins Silent Location: Cambridge
The filmic memoirs in Cambridgeshire of heart surgeon Christopher Parish and his family, beginning with Christmas traditions, and including a royal visit. The year is 1962.
Non-Fiction 1914 1 mins Silent
Recruits of Lord Kitchener's 'New Army' parade on Christmas morning.
Amateur film 1940 10 mins Silent Location: Heath
Life with the Iles family: Summer is for cycling, the seaside, tending to tortoises and meeting delightful collie pups. Christmas is for crackers and the gift of a perfect doll.
1974 5 mins Silent Location: Norwich
Alan Partridge would have plenty to say on this look at conservation and redevelopment in Norwich city centre
Travelogue 1953 20 mins Silent Location: Norwich
Norwich opens its gates to the amiable presence of Richard Dimbleby in this cinema travelogue
Home movie 1934 4 mins Silent Location: Norwich
1930s home movie of a tennis party with the Salter and Bird families at a country house in Norfolk.
News 1975 4 mins Location: Norwich
Tennis pro Linda Mottram at the Robinson's International Tournament in Norwich in 1975 speaking about equal pay for women competitors.
Sport 1977 4 mins Location: Norwich
Norfolk is doing well in the top group at the Intercounties Hardcourt Singles Tennis Championships in Norwich. Anglia TV reports in 1977.
Sport 1979 8 mins Location: Norwich
Anglia TV report by Steve Rider in Norwich on 'short tennis', a new type of tennis to encourage children into the game.
Amateur film 1971 5 mins Silent Location: Windsor
Join the Lee family as they tour Windsor Safari Park and its famous Dolphinarium in this film from 1971. Then follow them to Blackpool Beach for pony trekking and donkey rides.
Amateur film 1962 2 mins Silent Location: Hythe
Hythe is the location for this short film which features a new library under construction as well as other views of this attractive Kent coast town
Amateur film 1963 6 mins Silent Location: Hilsea
Witness that last years of Hilsea Barracks in this short and wintry film from F Howard - featuring a community of buildings that have vanished from the map
Amateur film 1976 4 mins Silent Location: Netley Marsh
The hot summer of '76 is made even hotter by a line-up of working steam traction engines in this nostalgic film from R H Collins
Amateur film 1965 15 mins Silent Location: Chichester
The ancient city of Chichester's new and very modern public library rises from its concrete foundations in this fascinating film from the mid 1960s
Amateur film 1974 11 mins Location: Hayling Island
You'll be up to your knees in clay when you meet the Pyecrofts in this delightful film about a family brick making business on Hayling Island -
The East Anglian Film Archive, the first and largest Regional Film Archive in England, was established in 1976. Since 1984, EAFA has been owned and operated by the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UEA), to support research and work to preserve our moving image heritage. More than 250 hours are freely available online as examples of the wide range of film which attracts interest the world over.
