Toys you remember from your childhood Christmas

I've just remembered a doll I had where you pressed her chest and her arms flew up.
They could and did give you a nasty poke in the eye.
I called her Michelle, because the Beatles song with that name was my favourite.
I feel I must have been very young.

We were very lucky that, like ?Juicy Lucy, our father was a woodwork teacher. We used to have one “big” present every Christmas, something wooden he had made. I remember a slide, a seesaw, a rocking horse, a toy ride-in engine for my brother, a doll’s cot that would have taken a small child for me, though I wasn’t a very dollsy girl. This was well before the days when those things were widely available either as garden toys or plastic indoor ones. When we moved house, we were at the stage of growing out of them by then, my parents persuaded to give the big toys to the local hospital, as there wasn’t going to be room for them in the new house, I remember being very sad. Especially when somebody told Dad they were put in a store cupboard and never used, health and safety early days I expect.
I also remember quite a few of the toys mentioned earlier.
We always loved a preChristmas visit to the department stores toy department in the city, always with people demonstrating toys, followed by tea in the store cafe, a real treat.
I remember my brother having a huge train set which had been passed down from my father’s two older brothers to him, he was the only boy of all the cousins. Dad built a table on folding legs to mount it on in the attic, and made little hills and bridges for it to run through, all painted green, with little people at the station. He sold it in his 20’s to buy his first car, would have been worth a lot now. I also remember Bayko, a construction kit with metal girders you slid tiles of bricks up, with different roofs you could buy to add to it. We played with it for hours. And tins of toffees with pictures of kittens on the lids. And hanging up Dad’s old rugby socks for Santa; always a tangerine and a couple of walnuts in the toe, with some small presents to keep us occupied till the grownups woke up.

I remember now that we too did have a Hornby train set,Also a steam engine which was absolutely fascinating to watch, I think you used methylated spirits to get the steam but can’t really remember but just remember that my brother was thrilled with it

The most memorable was a cowboy outfit when I was six. It arrived on Christmas morning - with measles.

Ive got a Magic Robot game they still make them. I got a nurses outfit, Chad Valley projector. Spirograph, Sindy doll I think her hair grew, painting by numbers and the other one which was with coloured pencils but my fav was a pen set from WH Smiths loved the different coloured ink catridges still love coloured ink now.

I wanted Meccano but was given something called Bako which had bases, rods and slide on bits to make houses

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I wanted Meccano but was given something called Bako which had bases, rods and slide on bits to make houses

I’ve still got some of that. They have some on display in the Museum of Scotland which makes me feel very old!

Shinamae

I remember now that we too did have a Hornby train set,Also a steam engine which was absolutely fascinating to watch, I think you used methylated spirits to get the steam but can’t really remember but just remember that my brother was thrilled with it

My husband remembers the steam engine Shinamae . He says the methylated spirits was pored into a metal tray, set alight and pushed back into place under a boiler that you'd filled with water. Health and Safety rules would never allow it now.

I went into "The Works" the other day, and they have so many versions of these older games.
I almost bought myself a huge Spyrograph type set. Spiro?

I was born in 1946 so Christmas gifts were usually toys made by my father. A doll's cot, a desk, chalkboard, ironing board and clothes horse. He made my doll's pram and built a pedal car too, he was a clever man who went on to build working steam trains.

We were very lucky and, for all his bigotry and other unpleasant characteristics, our father never treated us like girls. We had dolls and teasets, but plenty of Lego, a Scalextric, and were encouraged to play outside with bikes, skates, scooters and generally rough and tumble.

I remember the Spirograph, the Sindy doll, the miniature sewing machine, and the all the wonderful Annuals and the books. Were they called Dean's classics? I still have Villette, Alice in Wonderland and a few others, given to me by my godmother, Auntie Florrie.

Wrapping up presents for all the cousins to be sent off in the post was a family affair and we were never under any illusion that Father Christmas existed, except as a figure on Christmas cards.

Once I remember several nights in a row, laying in bed, trying to get to sleep, I heard a noise downstairs like an animal growling. I was a bit frightened but as long as it was downstairs I didn't worry. A few days later, not sure if it was my birthday or Christmas, my DM told me to look in the spare room for my present. She had been making me a bedspread to match my newly decorated bedroom - lots of long stretches of sewing, I don't know how I didn't work out that the growly animal had been the sewing machine!

Christmas was such a magical time. My mam (Santa) used to leave a filled pillow case at the bottom of my bed. In it was usually : a jigsaw, book, sweets, pencil case, paints and satsumas and nuts. Not much by todays standards but special and magical all the same. When I was a teenager I wanted a hair dryer like the type the hairdressers had. I can still remember the sound of my dad carrying it upstairs and leaving it outside of my bedroom. The stand rattling away. Ahhhh those were the days.

So many memories brought back by this thread. Bayko! For years I tried to describe this to someone but had no idea what it was called. I remember getting the post office set, and the typewriter that you had to turn the dial for. How I wanted one with real keys! One of the best was my little sewing machine that I made dolls clothes on. I loved that machine but was persuaded to give it to a younger cousin. Oh and the dolls house and miniature furniture, some bought and some made by my clever dad. Happy days