Toys you remember from your childhood Christmas

An Emma Peel doll. Plasticine, a walkie talkie doll one year.Tin of toffees and a magic painting book.

I used to get a post office set , The Beano Annual. One year I got roller skates and I also used to get a bride doll which had a paper mache head that only ever lasted a few weeks before the head got smashed .

That's beautiful Maywalk
It is, indeed very precious and it's been looked after, all this time.
Thankyou for sharing your lovely stories.

A beautiful tea set Maywalk and a lovely story.

Maywalk,that is fabulous….?

The teaset shown was bought for me on the day I was born by my eldest brother out of the halfpennies he saved when running errands for folk way back in 1930.
It has gone all through the London Blitz and gone through us being bombed out twice but it only had a chipped tea pot and a cracked cup that was glued together way back during the war.
I took it with me when I was evacuated but never ever had it out of the box from then on.

My lovely d-i-l has it in her cabinet for quite a few years and it was brought out for my 80th birthday, over 11 years ago for the photo to be taken. As you can see from when I was born it now well over 91 years old. It will be staying in the family from what I gather with the story that goes with it.

My aunt was a GI Bride and moved to America after the war. She used to send me parcels at Christmas. I remember one was a selection of hand cream, bath bubbles and soaps perfumed with 'Desert Flower', very nice I'm sure, but I was only about 4 or 5 at the time. Other years she sent me 'American' dresses, one was bright pink another was bright turquoise, made of taffeta (which was scratchy and made a noise when you moved). They were both very frilly and fussy. Living in a remote part of Wiltshire at the time - I don't think I ever wore them.

I’ve just remembered one my DH told me. He lay in bed on Christmas Eve and could hear noises coming from downstairs. On Christmas morning he came down to see a Scalextric all set up for him. It was battery operated and I think he managed once round the track when the batteries died. His dad had played with it so much the night before that he had worn down the batteries and with no shops open, they couldn’t be replaced on the day. How lousy was that!

Every doll I was ever given…………I hated dolls, particularly the walking talking doll that was as tall as I was. When you held its hand and sort of pumped its arm up and down, it walked with you. For some reason no one ever noticed that I didn’t play with them. Now teddy bears were a different matter, I welcomed them with open arms.

Oh I remember so many of the toys mentioned here, though I didn't get them all!

I seemed to get a doll every Christmas from Mum. But one year my Dad gave me a doll with soft squidgy skin (filled with something like kapok) and rooted hair. She was always my favourite, which really annoyed Mum who stuffed her in a cupboard and eventually threw her out.

I also remember a Triang dolls house, a play farm with animals, and a red three-wheeler trike with a boot at the back and a basket on the front. I rode that trike till it fell apart beneath me. My Mum paid into a 'toy club' at our local toy shop all year to be able to buy my presents. I also got a Rupert Annual every year (I still have them all). My stocking usually contained a tangerine, some walnuts, chocolate coins, colouring pencils and a small toy. My favourite stocking toy was a tumbling clown on a ladder, I played with it for hours and hours until the sound of it irritated my Mum and it too was consigned to the bin!

Relatives and family friends gave me colouring books, magic painting books, paper doll dressing books, jigsaws, French knitting sets and compendiums of games (pity I had nobody to play the games with), Oh and boxes of children's hankies.

What I longed for was a two-wheeler bike and roller skates. I never got either. But I considered myself very lucky to have so many toys, and I was expected to look after them. I don't ever remember writing to Father Christmas to ask for things and I was never taken to Santa's Grotto.

I think a lot of the magic, anticipation and appreciation is lost for today's children when they list what they want from the Argos catalogue, and expect to get it ALL, and often do!

One Christmas morning I called on a neighbour with a present for her son. He was sitting in the middle of a room full of presents and wrapping paper. He snatched my gift, ripped it open, barely looked at it, then said 'Is that all?' Neither him nor his mother said Thank You. I never gave him anything else. My generation may not have had so many presents at Christmas but I'm sure we appreciated what we had far more.

Oh this really is a lovely thread. I’ve read through most of it and the memories that have flooded back!
Although my parents didn’t have a lot, my two brothers and I always had a wonderful time at Christmas. They were 5 and 10 years older than me so by the time I was old enough to know what Christmas was, they would know about Santa but they never spoiled it for me.
The two things that stick out for me are a beautiful “bouncy” coachbuilt pram that probably wasn’t brand new, but I loved it and mum and dad took a sunshade (for a baby’s pram). Dad made the frame smaller to fit my pram and mum sized the fabric down. They were both very good with their hands. I was a very “dolly” girl and so this was almost my dream. My real dream was a Silver Cross dolls pram but they’d never have been able to afford that. Then another Christmas I got a wooden trunk which dad had made, and mum had knitted and sewn lots of clothes for my dollies. I still have that trunk in my loft and there are three dolls inside. Topsy, a little black walking doll, Moira, a baby who drank and wet her nappy that my cousin (14 years older than me) had passed on and Caroline, a doll with tufted hair who I bit the ends off some of her fingers while I was in hospital ?. My stocking always had a large orange with a “baby orange” showing (I think Navel oranges do that). And a shiny rosy red apple, a silver penny (I think a half crown) and some wee bits. There were lots of other presents laid out (they were never wrapped because Santa didn’t wrap!) maybe new pyjamas definitely an annual, a selection box. Oh yes I loved the magic painting books and I did once get a painting by numbers.
I really wanted a Sindy but I’d be around 12 when she came out so didn’t get one. I remember visiting friends of my parents once and their daughter had a Tressy - I was so jealous. I thought she was wonderful!
I remember going to see Santa in Lewis’s in Glasgow one year and got a John Bull printing outfit which I was absolutely delighted with.
Thank you for stirring up these memories Shinamae I feel all lovely and nostalgic now. And I really want a piece of juicy orange! ?

Post office set and Typewriter ,I was always writing to magazines and local newspapers and had some very nice replies from them .When I could read though my preffered christmas present was a stack of brand new books .My dad and I used to take our books to swap at a wee shop nears the Barras on Sundays.his only full day off work so books that weren't second hand were treasured.

I can remember being thrilled with a Compendium of Games which contained Tiddlywinks, Snakes and Ladders and Ludo amongst other games. We also used to get brightly coloured tins of Bluebird toffees. My brothers used to get pea shooters, catapults and water pistols which they became a flippin nuisance with.

I remember receiving a typewriter one year. Just as I was growing out of toys, the last doll I had as a Christmas present was a teenage doll. She had blue/silver long hair, a blue sparkly dress and white high heeled shoes. She eventually got passed on to my little sister.

As a small child during the 1940's toys were hard to come by as were books, etc. However, every Christmas my parents would somehow manage to get together enought things ( gathered all through the year), to half fill a pillowcase. So exciting. Usually also got one BIG present. One year a much-wanted and well-loved doll - it stood up by itself. Later I understood that my parents had actually ordered that during the Spring of the year for the shop to get it from USA. That doll was the love of my life. Another year my Dad managed to get a pre-loved (as it would be called today), large trike. He rubbed it down, painted it, renovated it and I had several yers great fun with it.
Had a large extented family and Aunts and Uncles allhad their own children and did not give presents to neices /nephews. Neither did g.parents (far too many grandchildren.
There was the satsuma inthe corner of the pillowcase, and maye a small bar of chocolate also. The rest of Christmas Day was not really much different to any Sunday.

A rosebud baby doll that weed in it's nappy.

I took my tiny tears doll to my mums friends house, and despite having been warned not to let her son near my doll, I did.
He poked her eyes, and she was forever cross eyed as a result.
I got into terrible trouble for letting him do it.

What a nostalgic post Shinamae . I remember getting a Hornby train set, my Dad and Uncle putting it together, my Sister and I loved it. Also the Bunty annual, post office set, the knitting peg. A doll that my dear late Mum had knitted all the clothes, even the pants………..must of been itchy.
We both received a marionette puppet each, and an elderly Aunt had a go and tangled all the strings!!!!!
The tangerine in silver paper, the sixpence in the Christmas pudding.
We certainly didn’t receive what today’s youngsters get, but sure we were much happier
Wonderful memories.

I also had a little 3-legged piano, loved it. My brother 5 years older got a tool set......... 'yes', he used screwdriver to remove main lid and the ivory keys all fell out; he could not fix it; hence plenty of tears from me!

Litterpicker

*Zoejory*, my sister and I collected Britain’s Miniature Garden during our summer holidays visits to grandparents in Bournemouth. We spent ages in Beales toy department deciding on the next set to get. I still have it and my children and grandchildren have played with it. The plastic ‘plants’ are very brittle now.

My best remembered Christmas presents are a bride doll called Dorothy, a large doll that walked when you held her hand and tipped her sideways, on to each leg to make them go forward, John Bull printing set and a pile of books (must have been the year I learned to read).

Oh I had Britains Garden! I gave it all away and its worth quite a bit now!

Oh yes magic painting book, painting by number set. I remember one year my mum 'delivered' my pillow case and then fell down some of the stairs. She was ok but I remember thinking that FC couldnt have brought the presents. Then I checked the fireplace and there was no soot. I still have some of my teddies, one still has his burp! I didn't really like dolls either. As I got older Sindy came along and Cluedo, Monopoly. Happy days.

MissAdventure

Someone mentioned "We'll see".
That was the stock response to asking for something for Christmas in our house.
You really did have to wait and see, too, because you didn't always get what you'd yearned for.

that was me and yes it really did mean "we'll see" because money was tight

I loved fuzzy felt. It wasn't like it is today, ready made people, animals, houses, etc., but thin bits, round, square and triangular bits of different sizes. I spent hours playing with it.

Stocking had usual apple tangerine in silver paper, a very few walnuts, almonds (which I hated) peanuts in shells (loved those) chocolate drops and some kind of novelty paper party toy. From FC the only item I can recall is a childs tea set. The best present I can remember was a pair of roller skates with rubber wheels. I had wanted a pair for so long but too expensive for parents I suppose but, I had a brother 14 years older who was a professional footballer who could afford them (nothings changed in that world) and he sent them for me. Must have driven parents mad clunking about the house until the snow disappeared that Christmas.

Tiny Tears doll, I had her for years and my mum used to knit clothes for her every Christmas.
Shaker Maker to make characters, let them dry and paint.
My dolls house, it was beautiful. My mum made me give it to my niece and she drew all over it with felt tips, I was so upset as I really looked after it, it was like new when she got it.