Toys you remember from your childhood Christmas

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.

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.

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! ?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Maywalk,that is fabulous….?

A beautiful tea set Maywalk and a lovely story.

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

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 .

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

Just reminded me.
Walkie talkie sets.
They never worked, but the idea was exciting!

As a very young child I’d say my beautiful navy & cream coach built dolls pram, it was second hand but I loved it. Other favourites were, a bundle of beautiful home made outfits for my Sindy doll, made lovingly by my Auntie, a small white Magnus electric chord organ which I’d heard my parents testing out (playing it very badly) when they thought I was asleep in bed, I pretended to be totally surprised on Christmas morning.
My other ‘best’ presents included Spirograph & Monopoly, it actually snowed on Christmas Day the year I got Monopoly! Other favourites were the Diana & Judy Annuals, The Chronicles of Narnia books, fizzy bath cubes & a big selection box with proper full sized bars! I loved to snuggle up under my eiderdown reading my new annuals on Christmas night. Some years we would have a really big tin of Quality Street to share, a proper tin & so much bigger than the plastic tubs you get now, a real treat diving into that. As I got older I loved to get a record token, couldn’t wait to go off to Woolworths in the New Year to spend it. We always seemed to get a littke box of embroidered handkerchiefs in our stocking, can’t say that I was thrilled but they were useful to put a dab of Penetrol on when you had to go back to school with a stinking cold.

So many memories mentioned here. I loved my toy sweet shop and after I retired I had a part time job in a real live sweet shop… Happy days!
As for painting by numbers I did three during COVID lockdown periods. Such a relaxing hobby for those darkening afternoons…which start tomorrow! ?

One toy I remember was called (I think) Mr Potato Head. It consisted of a variety of plastic noses, eyes, moustaches etc with spikes sticking out of the back.

You stuck them into a raw potato to makes different faces.

So many I recognise here. The typewriter was a blue Petite? My mum had a John England catalogue and from September I would salivate over the toy pages, marking my favourites.

One year I got a Dalek. I loved Dr Who. And a 'Tressy' doll. She had hair that came out of a hole on the top of her head by turning a key in her back, and tiny rollers and a comb.

We also got a Christmas stocking..... filled with chocolate bars..... they were in a red net covered cardboard shaped stocking...

I always got a book as well as an annual.... I do remember Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women...

Loved the board games, monopoly....

One present that stands out was the post office set. I got hours of fun out of that, it had postal orders and telegrams and stamps and an ink pad for doing postmarks - wonderful.

I know I keep talking about it but my best present ever was the rocking horse my father made me when I was six. I've never known how he managed to make it in secret, it must have taken weeks. it was life size to me at that age and was dapple grey with a real horse hair mane and tail. The most exciting thing I ever had.

Drell

So many I recognise here. The typewriter was a blue Petite? My mum had a John England catalogue and from September I would salivate over the toy pages, marking my favourites.

One year I got a Dalek. I loved Dr Who. And a 'Tressy' doll. She had hair that came out of a hole on the top of her head by turning a key in her back, and tiny rollers and a comb.

We also got a Christmas stocking..... filled with chocolate bars..... they were in a red net covered cardboard shaped stocking...

I always got a book as well as an annual.... I do remember Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women...

Loved the board games, monopoly....

My mum had the Gratton catalogue and we too combed through it before making our lists to go up a chimney….?

Haven't had time to read all the replies, but I'm probably not unique. I was born 6 weeks before the war started. I never thought to ask my mum what the experience was like, but it must have been a very scary time with a new baby and a 2-year-old.
Toys were almost impossible to get, and my dad was away in the army for most of my childhood that I can remember. I suppose we must have been given some toys, but I have no recollection of them at all. After the war we weren't very well-off. We knew no better, and I was delighted with the few things we found on Christmas morning. I remember a little doll I called Dorothy, and a chunky Bonzo dog stuffed with sawdust or straw, I think. Also one of those celluloid Kewpie dolls. So dangerous with open fires about, but no-one thought of that. I usually got a book and a jig-saw. Maybe a board game, pencils and a colouring book, a few sweets, an orange....... all treats because we only got presents at Christmas and Birthdays.
I got more excitement and delight from the few gifts I received than my GCs have ever known, which I find very sad.

Maywalk's tea set story reminds of one my husband told me. Their house suffered a near miss, during the war, and was badly damaged. He was about 6 at the time, and wasn't bothered about the mess the house was in, because his favourite cup was still hanging on the hook in the kitchen.

What a wonderful thread. So many memories of gifts as a child.
I loved my Lego very basic in the late 1960s early 70s and I had miniature gardens which I had been starting to think were a figment of my imagination until I saw them mentioned on here. Sadly I was persuaded to give both my Lego and the miniature gardens to neighbours children.
I had the usual dolls and one year my dad made a wooden wardrobe and mother stitched 10 outfits for my favourite doll who I called Samantha, I still have her in one of the outfits no idea what happened to the rest.
Another favourite memory was a sweet shop with real sweets from an elderly Aunt.
I always wanted an etch-a-sketch and buckaroo but never got either.
Looking back I realise how lucky I was.

My daughter in law in the far East did not want me to buy ny toys for my grandchildren there as she said whe bought them ( unbelievably) 50 each and they had everything ......... By contrast
I , like Polnan was a small child during the war. my brother and I received 1 gift each from our parents..... usually a book for me and some second hand Meccano for him. This he disliked and I coveted but when I asked my parents to help me make something they explained gently that it wasn't a girl's toy
My father had once spent a whole week's pay ( £2) on buying me a doll which my mother told me, I threw down the stairs shouting ' You know I hate dolls. Its head was smashed

No Christmas stockings but something either useful ( often handmade from their discarded bits and pieces) or improving from grandmother and aunt

Post war, my father decided we should learn to be more charitable. After 2 hours searching through my scant toy drawer, I appeared with ONE domino for the poor children

The next thing I knew was that his car was being laden with all sorts of gifts.... dolls' houses... trains.... games books etc

My brother and I ( aged 5 and 8) were bundled in and taken to the local orphanage where my father rang the bell and pushed me in to give them to the orphans. 'why; ' because they are poor chilsdren who don't have any mummies or daddies like you do' They get better Christmas presents' I said thinking I would like to swap my parents for the construction kits
That was an experiment he did not repeat and I read a science subject at university

One year I got a cinderella watch which I loved.