Have you ever asked your now adult children...

[fatulousatforty]

...what their favourite Christmas present was, that they received as a child?
I asked mine this evening after reading a couple of threads from people who are struggling with Christmas.
Dd1 27 said her most favourite presents was mousetrap.
Dd2 22 said her favourite gift was a nail dryer shaped like a dog.
Neither of these were expensive and they actually can't remember most of their "main gifts".
So I was just wondering what was your child's favourite gift?

@Toddlerteaplease

Loved my fashion wheel.

This thread is so cool - loving the childhood memories. I’d forgotten loads of these toys. Toys today are so crap in comparison !

My DD says a big box of art materials I’d got from The Works. They were individual grown-up paints etc I’d put in a pretty box. Must have cost a tenner.

My favourite ever present was the playmobil Victorian house, I got all the furniture packs too, played with it for years and years!

This one is lovely

“A big stuffed horse, big enough to sit on and ride. His legs were stretched out fore and aft so his belly was actually on the floor. He was a beautiful bay with a white blaze and fluffy white socks around his hooves. He had a removeable saddle & bridle so I could untack him after a ride, and a plastic voicebox thing in his head so he could neigh and whinny and make clipclop noises when I patted his nose. His name was Jock and he was the closest I would ever get to owning a horse.

He arrived on Christmas morning 1983 and I loved him. Even when the zip broke on his voicebox pouch and he developed a nasty bulge under his chin. Even when his tack fell apart and had to be mended with gaffer tape. I made him rosettes when we triumphed at gymkhanas. I made him a rug for the winter when he was turned out at night in the chilly bedroom field. In my role as farrier I made him foil shoes and stuck them on with sellotape. We had some adventures together galloping the moors.

No other christmas present comes close in my memory.”

I remember the selection boxes and Mr. Frosty.

This thread reminds me of when we get back off exciting holidays abroad and dd tells everyone about the burger king she had at the airport..

Action Girl was another one
My brothers had Action Man

Oooh I also had the original littlest pet shop, nothing like the ones in more recent years. I loved that thing and the little tiny hamsters and stuff

Twin twos was a beanie baby husky, he called it "his name" 2. It went everywhere with him, including when he moved out. He's still got it at 28.

This was my best Christmas present ever. I wish I had kept it for my own children.

Mine are still young, but the gift my 7yo DD uses the most that Santa brought is her night light, found in the aisle of crap in Lidl for a fiver when she was 4. It’s actually a great night light!

Other than that, they play with board games Santa brought like Ludo and Guess Who.

Also had a fantastic Sindy house. It was three storeys high and must have been taller than I was.

A petite typewriter! Absolutely loved it. It was sort of bluey turquoise colour. Another year my sister and I got a doll's house which was amazing. We spent hours playing with it. Best present ever.

Does anyone remember the Fashion Wheel? I think thats the name of it. Ypu used to turn it around and create pictures of different outfits on it. Was great!

Yes, my aunt brought it from American so it wasn't a Christmas present but I played with it constantly.

My favourite toy was a little professor, a basic hand held set of maths games. I always was a geeky child.

DDs favourite was the Nintendo DS, she and all the cousins all got one at the same time and would play it for hours, especially the puppy game which I can't remember the name of right now.

Mine was a dolls house.. handmade by my stepdads uncle. (I called him uncle too) It was the most amazing thing and my friends all envied me.

DD2 age 19 says mini notebook she was given in year 6 that she covered with hello kitty stickers (she is very dyslexic and I think this was first time she started to cope with it)

Ds age 17 (almost 18) says his Scalectrix

DD3 (age 16) says her stuffed toy rabbit she was given age 13 months for her first proper Christmas.. He became her faithful companion and is now a very well-loved "rabbit" with little fur left and torn ears very much the colour of love.

dd1 very rudely is not answering my question on messenger so I dont know.

I had Sasha dolls which I loved. I was excited to have a train set with a real clockwork train from my grandparents one year.
I do remember smaller bits and pieces such as Rupert Annuals and that plastic stuff in a tube that you stuck a straw onto and blew into bubbles that you could handle and touch but I don't remember bid 'wow' that was wonderful presents though I must have had them.

Not sure what they would say were their best presents but I know child 3 and child 4 would say that their best Christmas was the one where daddy said he would hit them with the tube from the vacuum cleaner.

He was pretending to be a big grumpy giant and roared and chased them from room to room to make them pick up their things and put them away before visitors arrived on Christmas Eve. All good fun - the house got tidied and the kids had fun doing it.

Weeks later they told someone that daddy would shout and say he was going to hit them if they didn't tidy up.

@BobbinThreadbare123 I had that exact one in 1990 too I adored it. I played with it for years but I think I got it for my birthday not Christmas.

@YolandiFuckinVisser your post was so beautiful it nearly made me cry. So much love for your wonderful pony. What happened to him eventually?

I think my best ever Christmas present was this Cassette player/recorder. I LOVED being able to listen to my own music and play audio books at bedtime and later my friends and I used to use it to record our own 'radio' shows. Eventually when I was 12 it got replaced by my boom box with CD, cassette and radio and later an amp and separate units. But none of them held quite such a huge place in my hear as this one. It came with a yellow cassette tape which had, for some reason, some mike oldfield music on which I could to this day sing/hum to you.

I love this thread, so many toys I had forgotten about.
My favourite was a Barbie house that folded into a case. I also remember getting this polly pocket money box and a crayola set.

Update from dd1 age 21 who says it was her minecraft subscription .. Then added

But I remember getting that ICarly game and I thought it was the BEST one and OMG my first Uggs.! :)

Lovely memories on this thread!

Another vote for the Petite Post Office! I had the office set originally (a yellow box with a phone and exchange switchboard!) and then got both the Post Office and Travel Agent for Christmas one year. I remember not being able to decide between them and then being lucky enough to get both! My parents really weren't wealthy but went to TOWN for Christmas for us all, clearly!

Anyway - the really nice bit about my meandering story above is that my Dad only kept them!! He got them out of the garage about a year ago and my daughter now plays with them so they're back at my house all over again! And to hear her play with them almost exactly as I did is the best! Except for the fact that she isn't nearly as careful about not writing in pen on all the bits etc etc! And she'd stuck a stamp on an envelope within the first 15 minutes of playing with it all! I had it for YEARS and never stuck a stamp because then it would be ruined?!?! Weird child........

I also had a Bingo "Bet it all" Beaver from the Get Along Gang and Woolma the Lamb as well I can look back on my childhood and remember LOADS of my Christmas gifts so my M&D were defo getting something right - I must tell them

The Sindy horse was my favourite when I was 6 or 7, mainly because I was so excited to have the biggest present under the tree! As a teenager I got a book to construct a paper theatre and that was incredible, loved it so much and spent ages making it. There were sets for two ballets included.

Oh my goodness @wafflyversatile I remember “I can fit in your pocket!” doll. I don’t think I had her so it must have been a cousin or a friend.
My favourite was either My Little Pony Show Stable aged 10 or Adventure Kit when I was 6 - it had a real camera, water bottle, compass, binoculars, and other stuff. I basically wanted to be one of the Famous Five so it was the absolute best thing ever.

This thread has also sent me down a wormhole of retro / 1980s images of children's toys on a Pinterest page! Gah! DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

For me
as a child it was my girls world, hours of fun playing with her hair. I've been a hairdresser for 30yrs so it was a good investment from Santa.
As a grown up my kitchen drawer unit, we had built an extension and were having to do the kitchen on a budget, we could only afford cupboards and I wanted a big base drawer unit so my Inlaws and my mum clubbed together to get it for me-best Christmas present ever 🎄

A Walkman and later a cd walkman

A bike

A beautiful little native American rag doll from boots called kissing moon. She had a little baby in a papoose called River running and they had little magnets in their faces so she would 'kiss' her baby. She had hair made of black wool that you could braid and I adored her.

Sylvain families

A toy telescope and constellation map. Not much use in the city but I lived in hope!

In fact I loved the toy telescope so much I've got one for ds(6) this year 😁