Do you have a present you have treasured since before your teens?

Thanks, SachaMac it is special and made something that had become redundant into a family piece. I also have his gold collar studs and collar stiffeners he gave to my father I could have them made into a new piece of jewellery but I like them as they are.

I also still have the bible I was given on starting senior school at 11

I have a silver charm bracelet that my best friend bought me for my 18th birthday. We have now been friends for 60 years.

I have a carved wooden box with a piece of lava from Mount Etna that my daughter brought back for me from a school trip when she was 16, treasured and on display in my bedroom.

A lovely expensive pen with my name engraved on it from my other daughter . I’m so afraid of losing it I only use it in the house.

Three books of my fathers kept from my childhood, they have coloured “plates” in as illustrations rather than photos . This is the only thing truly from my childhood but the other things are treasured just as much, all from people I loved/love best in the world.

Your charm bracelet & the charms representing different memories sounds lovely*Yammy*, a great way to keep your grandads watch chain in the family.

I have a silver charm bracelet. My grandfather had his watch chain divided up for his two grand daughters.
The first charm they bought me was a cross, a heart and an anchor, faith ,hope and charity. My gran added to the charms at significant times in my life. like a book when I passed the 11 plus, tiny globe to get away and see the world, a pair of scissors when I met someone medical who I probably would marry and a whistle when she knew I wanted to teach. The last she bought was a church that opens and a couple getting married, she didn't live to see it but she hoped I would and be happy.

Rosie51 The carousel looks beautiful and precious.

Thank you for your memories and ideas.

I like the gift Rosie51 shows, it appeals to a child and will want to be kept forever.

I still have the Bible inscribed to me at Christmas 1948 by my father. I was 8 years old, and I had actually asked for it, thinking that was the kind of thing good girls did. I hadn’t worked out then that my parents were both agnostics - though they would have wanted me to know the Bible as part of my education, anyway.

There are also two children’s poetry books from the 1940s, also from my parents. They are much battered and loved, and I still look at them sometimes. They have everything from Edward Lear’s limericks to Shakespeare.

I have a beautiful silver bangle that my dad brought me when I was 13. I would never part with it and still wear it occasionally, I’m in my 60’s now.

I still have a small French dictionary I got when I went to Grammar school. My best friend wrote Mrs SS, using the surname of a boy I liked so much at the time. It did actually become my surname, but I married his brother instead.

I've just remembered a dictionary I was given on my first day at senior school in 1960 aged 11. It has 'I love George Harrison' and names of all the pop stars I liked in the mid 60s - Billy J Kramer, Gerry and The Pacemakers etc. Very nostalgic.

I have a replica of one such. When I was maybe 10, had goldfish and was interested in such things, a grandfather gave me a book of his called Freshwater Aquaria - written in probably the 1880s or 1890s by a clergyman, full of his own line drawings and info about every sort of creature and aquatic plant you could possibly find in U.K. ponds and streams.

I read it so much, I almost knew it by heart.

My parents moved area when I was in my first year at university, and got rid of a lot of my books - I was particularly upset about that one.

Some years ago my lovely dh found an identical copy on a 2nd hand book site - it could almost be the same one.

My books of fairy tales that my elder brother choose carefully and lovingly inscribed.

A copy of Alice in Wonderland that my parents received from couple to mark their appreciation of my parents' help after the couple were in a car accident, probably summer 1930. Then my parents gave me the book.

A child's story book that my chum gave me for a birthday present and inscribed to me.

Rosie51

Mine is a carousel horse music box given to me by my parents. I love rocking horses and carousel horses, and mine was obviously one of a series because it's labelled 'summer'. I'd never part with it, but of course today's youngsters likely wouldn't be so entranced.
Mine is similar to this style but much nicer.

I’m quite sure my elder Gdd, coming up to 7, would be entranced, Rosie51!

When I was a small child I was fascinated by a lump of green slag glass which my grandmother had as a door stop. I often asked her for it but it had belonged to her mother. She told me I could have it "when she was gone".

My gran died in 1979 when I was 35 and she left me the entire contents of her house. Some of the furniture was quite vauable and brought a good price in Christies. I was in a flat and had no room to keep large furnishings but I did keep a number of small pieces to remember her by. I still own them today.

Chief among them is that piece of slag glass. It has little monetary value but great sentimental value to me.

I had a little book, The Dawn Shops, I think it was a Sunday School prize. I didn't bring it with me when I got married and my mother cleared out my room and gave away all my childhood books. I have often reminisced about it to DD.
At Christmas I opened my gifts from my DD and there was my book. It brought tears to my eyes, I was really touched that she thought about it.

My Taid (grandfather) loved working with wood and made lots of things for me - rolling pin, apple corer, egg cup and spoon, bread board, salt spoon and more.

These were usually given as birthday presents which I wasn’t always grateful for as a child....now, all the money in the world wouldn’t be enough to part me from them - and I use them regularly.

I have 2. A fountain pen and a necklace. Minimal value but priceless.

I have religious books I was given and still use that were given to me when I was quite young, under 10. For my 18th , my DF gave me a gold locket which I have just passed on to youngest GD. I also still have the teddy bear I was given when I was 6 months old and several framed prints and original art works I was gifted age 12. Oh, and DD has my first watch.

Not from my childhood but about 25 years ago we went on holiday to The Amalfi Coast. We visited Amalfi cathedral and a young Italian priest began talking to us. I had bought a set of rosary beads and the priest blessed them for me.
I gave the rosary to my granddaughter when she left to go to uni. She treasures it still.

Mine is a carousel horse music box given to me by my parents. I love rocking horses and carousel horses, and mine was obviously one of a series because it's labelled 'summer'. I'd never part with it, but of course today's youngsters likely wouldn't be so entranced.
Mine is similar to this style but much nicer.

The gift that has gone around the world with me several times and which I treasure most is a musical jewellery box given to me by my paternal grandmother when I was 11 years old. I still wind it up sometimes and watch the ballerina inside turn gracefully when I open the lid to the Swan Theme or Song of the Swans.

A book definitely. My aunt bought me The Snowflake when I passed my 11+ and in my teens I received a beautifully illustrated copy of Alice in Wonderland from an elderly family friend. But what I really treasure are the handwritten letters/notes that accompanied these gifts so perhaps an album to keep such things (that's where I keep mine). When I read it it feels as if they're still with me. Of course you must write those letters!

Like Aveline, I have a small (hand) mirror. Mine has an elaborate gilt frame and handle and a Limoges plaque on the back. It lives in a black pocket. It’s unlikely to be valuable, but it’s precious to me.

My grandfather gave me a beautiful little mirror when I was a wee girl. It's just a little thing and has a picture on the back and has a silk cover for it. It's nice to think of him and my Gran also being reflected in it back then. It's not valuable but it's a treasure to me.