Black and white Christmas photos show the festive season hasn't changed as much as you'd think

(Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A street filled with shoppers, a family crammed around a table laid with food, and children visiting Santa: such descriptions sound like familiar scenes from a twenty first century Christmas.

But these are in fact moments from the early twentieth century found in photography archives, which show that while we may gather around TV sets and pine for iPads and gadgets nowadays, some things have barely changed.

A little grainier than we're now used to, the photographs from Getty Images show Christmas back when images were black and white.

In one photograph, women in Edwardian clothing gather at the Peter Robinson department store in London, while another shows a woman pinning ornaments to a Christmas tree while young girls clutch toy dolls beneath.

And traditions festive remain important to many Britons, according to a new survey of 2,000 UK adults conducted by children's publisher Egmont Publishing.

Asked what the most important part of the holiday seasons is, over half of those surveyed named spending time with their family.

The poll also explored traditions that people would like to see future generations continue. Playing parlour games, such as charades, with the family topped the list with 33 per cent of the vote, while carol singing followed on 31 per cent.

Making paper chains to decorate the home, meanwhile, received 28 per cent of the share, with putting satsumas and nuts in stockings scoring just over a quarter.