Toys you remember from your childhood Christmas

Blossoming

Zoejory

I was an incredibly lucky child. My father was the director of a massive department store in London. We'd go along on a Sunday and play real shops.

As for toys I tended to get everything I wanted. The only thing ever denied me was a real tiger cub.

I took that quite badly

Gosh, that must have been horrible! I hope you reported them to Social Services for abuse and neglect.

I was tempted! ;-)

I didn’t have many toys but I the first presents I opened at Christmas were the annuals from my grandma,

I had a toy farm, which I loved.
A till, Tiny Tears, and a pogo pony.
I lived my Pippa doll (the pocket sized friend)
I had a Chatty Cathy doll - you pulled a string in the at the back of her neck, and she said things like "Let's play!"

I also had a puppet, with strings.
A Tressie doll whose hair grew, and a dolls house.
A blue go-cart that my dad made me, all made of metal and welded together, and a dolls pram.

Sacha dolls! I have quite a few of those still. Gorgeous dolls which luckily I didn't play with often so they're in great condition. Not that I'm selling any.

I too loved Pippa dolls. So petite!

And Patch, Sindy's sister. My sister had a party and one of the guests walked out of my house with my beloved Patch. I tried to get my Mum to intervene but she failed to act. A moment in my childhood that caused massive trauma. That I can remember as if it was yesterday.

Also has anyone mentioned the gorgeous Britain's miniature gardens? I loved my set.

And of course my doll's house which is still upstairs, on display.

I liked the thing that spun around, and you dropped blobs of paint into it, so it made patterns. (And a mess!)

And a Wendy house.
I loved that!

You’ve just reminded me misadventure, spirograph, we absolutely loved that ?

And clackers.
The two balls on a string that you made clack together really fast, if you were good at them.
If not, you got bruised wrists!

I remember a toy typewriter (Mettoy Supertype) and a weaving loom. I still have the loom. One year we each got a hula hoop. I can remember waking up one year and seeing something shiny which was a budgie cage with a budgie in it (that was for my sister not me). My brother got lots of Meccano. Most years I had a book from my godmother and I still have some of them. I also have Mary, the doll I got when I was five, with clothes made by my mother. I have enjoyed reading these posts and remembering childhood Christmases. Sister and I always had new dresses and mine was usually torn or stained before the end of the day.

One of my earliest memories is of a Teddy almost as big as me and it was a patchwork of pastel colours.
He was known affectionately as (very originally) Big Ted.
I am enjoying this thread too, thank you for starting it Shinamae.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202110/medium-670781-3ef5e8de-7173-4ef9-8e22-0415ca2c8721.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202110/medium-156496-313e048b-dba4-4f3b-b6c9-1d224275e16e.jpeg

I managed to hold onto one of my favourite dolls from 60 odd years ago. I thought I’d lost her when we moved to this house 30 years ago. I often thought about her and felt bad I’d inadvertently thrown her out.

Then just a few months ago I opened a box in the attic containing my Mum’s china tea sets and other bits and bobs. And my lovely doll and her twin babies were in the box. I was transported right back to my childhood !

I had a gorgeous black doll with thick long hair and I called her Jonty. I wonder where on earth she went to. I since discovered Jonty was a boy's name but my Grandmother had suggested it to me. She'd lived in Tripoli many years earlier and had liked the name.

I also had a large family of koala bears of varying size. Of course I now understand their fur was real so not great looking back.

Another reminder, a box of dolls from all over the world dressed in the national dress of that country. Had forgotten all about that until GNW’s post….?

Mousetrap and Twister.
Etch a sketch.

How about those things that were a hoop of plastic you put around one ankle. There was a piece of string tied to the hoop with a ball on the end. With the hooped leg you swung the ball around and jumped over the string with your other leg.

I sold my Pippa dolls on Ebay a couple of years ago and made over £100. People collect them like fury now.

She's adorable Grannynannywanny. Those babies!

Thank you Scones , I’m very fond of her and the babies. The babies are bus pass age now?

Oh yes!
The hoop around the ankle thing.
I was very good at that!

If I’d had a doll with twins like yours Grannynannywanny it would have been my favourite too! ?

I always remember getting a chatty Cathy doll ,with lovely blonde hair and blue dress and when you pulled the string on her back she would say hello.

Stylophone.
Spirograph.
Blue Peter Annual.

My mum would always buy me colouring book and pencils for christmas as well as other things. that to me was the most important present.

We got very little in the way of presents, but one thing I treasured for years was from the late 1940s - it was a small circular cardboard box that was supposed to be the inside of a 'big top' with loads of tiny smudgy faces of the audience, and 2 tiny paper acrobats. The box had a see-through lid, and if you rubbed it with a piece of material, the acrobats did somersaults. I thought it was magic! I didn't know about static electricity at the time!

My mum tried very hard to get me one present I really wanted every year and so I had a large, china faced doll, a Spirograph and a Monopoly set in successive years. I loved them all. I also had a Post Office set and a Tina doll. Cindy was the cheaper version of Barbie and we couldn’t quite run to Cindy! However, I was very happy with Tina. My dad made me a doll’s house one year and another year did up a second hand bike. My husband was given the cheap version of Tommy Gunn and he was content with him. I think it counted most that our parents loved us.