What gift items do you remember from your childhood which would never be gifts today?

[FredaFrogspawn]

Another thread ended up accidentally debating the fact that ashtrays were common gifts for weddings or twenty first birthdays. I remember big marble or onyx ones, and ones on a stand which went by the arm of the chair. No one smoked in our house and we still had a shed load of these things.
Another thing I remember is steering wheel covers, in pleather. What were those about?? And leather covers for the TV listings magazines we all had to have before papers printed what was on with ‘Radio Times’ self importantly embossed on them. (My dad kept his TV Times in there and ringed the programmes he wanted to watch with a Quink ink capitalised ‘Tell Dad When This Is On.’)

Anything else?

Handkerchief sets - with one corner embroidered, or lace trimmed or with a monogram. Usually three in a square box folded just so. You weren’t supposed to use them to do anything so vulgar as blow your nose - there was also a pack of tissues lurking in a handbag for that.

The larger monogrammed ones were a default for Dad presents - if they weren’t having sachets of car wax or pairs of socks. Oscar winning performances of looking suitably thrilled.

I still get a satsuma and an apple in my stocking From my mum and I’m 22
I would love some nice scented talc as a present! I also maintain a box of Maltesers is a great present

Oh I loved Dinky Diaries and those plastic box pencil cases that had a place for everything. Also make your own perfume sets and the pencil cases that were like a roll out plastic covered box with a popper to close it with, had pencils and felt tips etc inside.
Anything from Past Times always made me feel really grown up and interesting!
Diaries that locked.
Fountain pen sets (would actually love more of these again!)
Soap rose petals
My eldest sister had this fashion plates set and I was so jealous but I was never allowed to play with it

Kaleidoscope ,
view finder ( i think that was it name ) you put in a disc and pulled a lever on the side while looking through the lenses a bit like binoculars .
magna doodle and etcha sketch
comics , Dandy , Beno , Topper and Bunty ,
I cant recall which comic they were in but the card cut outs of ladies that you could 'dress' in paper cut out outfits by carefully folding tags ( or swiping dads stapler ) over the shoulders .
That is badly described, some one more eloquent please explain what I mean
Invisible dog , a plastic rod lead attached to a plastic hoop collar

I liked cherry lips , floral gums and them Devon sweeties

www.victoriahealth.com/product/Devon-Floral-Cachous/6370
And liquorice root

Magic pictures, where you had to stare at a page of squiggles and go boss eyed in order to see a hidden 3d shape! Used to give me a headache but I loved them.

Also loved the viewfinders!! Like a poor mans VR set of today!

Anyone remember those things you's hook around one ankle and it had a wheel/ball type thing on a length of plastic and you swang it around the ankle it was on and jumped over it with the other foot?? I had one and bloody loved it! They used to count how many rounds you had done too

I bit my nails, so received several manicure sets. Didn't make any difference to my nail biting but I used the cuticle pushers to pop my blackheads out.

A pogo stick

Sticker books with scented/puffy/double imaged stickers inside!
Nail stickers (not nail shaped, little colourful star and heart shapes)

AlCalavicci
It was Twinkle magazine!!

My dad gave me a pen knife for my ninth birthday. Bet people aren't buying kids knives these days!

@Teaseall

Does anyone remember Whimsies?not sure if that's the correct spelling, little china miniature animals etc. Used to have quite a collection of them.

Yes I had a few of these

Ooh, nearly forgot the little white plastic radio I got when I was 7, I was thrilled!

Right, 2 things that I just cannot remember the name of, both from the 1970s.

1. a set that you mixed up some powder with water (I think) and it turned into a sort of plaster of Paris, which you then poured into a mould - I had one shaped like a little gnome. When it was dry, you could paint it or colour it with felt tip pens. Yuk, I can still remember the horribly dry, scratchy feel of it.

2. another set. I can't remember how you started the process, but basically it made a clear resin which, again, you poured into a mould. Before it set though, you put things in it - my major triumph was setting a little egg timer into the resin, and adding some blue and yellow sprinkly bits. I still remember the smell of that.

I also had whimsies! Little fat things weren't they.

And a toy gun made of metal that I thought was most realistic. It fired loud bangs from a kind of paper tape that must have had gunpowder in it. It smoked! I loved that gun.

@Waitingandwaitingandwaiting my mother was the same always wanted to give the teachers tights. She thought it was a lovely practical present, I hated it thought it was like giving your teacher a pair of knickers.

Sp@SillyCow6 it was called a skippit. You could get a fancy version with a digital reader to count the skips. I had the basic version - had to do my own counting :(

Metal roller skates that expanded as your feet grew so one pair lasted a lifetime!

@WatchoutfortheROUS
Ah you could be right , it was bought for me a few times ( I prefered the beno ) pah girly stuff was for girls I much prefered playing with my DB and his corgi matchbox and tonka cars

@Firefretted , I got a Swiss army knife for my 14th birthday it had all sorts on it inc a magnifying glass , I loved it and had it for may years .

Anyone remember those things you's hook around one ankle and it had a wheel/ball type thing on a length of plastic and you swang it around the ankle it was on and jumped over it with the other foot?? I had one and bloody loved it! They used to count how many rounds you had done too yes a skippit! My Mum refused to get me one. I remember I tried to make my own out of an old washing line and ball. Epic fail.

I too had a post office set including dog licenses, that was awesome.

I can still remember what my drawer liners smelt like. Padded coat hangers with the little bags of pot pourri attached. Cos that’s what you desperately hoped for for Christmas! Also we always used to get Flower Fairies set from our uncle.

I remember thinking I was so cool when I got a kid’s Filofax. It had pages with fun facts as well as a diary and note pages.

Some of these sound positively modern to me! Scrunchies?!

Mine are:

Getting blank video and audio cassettes as stocking fillers - very useful at the time for recording favourite tv shows (or bloody footie in bros case!) or recording the charts off the radio on a Sunday! Be quick with the pause button if you don't want djs continuity blather ruining it

Lo-lo ball - a ball encircled with a plastic disc, sort of looked like a representation of the planet Saturn! You had to put one foot on one side then jump just right to get on the other and bounce it - how this didn't cause many broken ankles I don't know!

@LinemanForTheCounty a cap gun I think? The paper tape held the red blobs of the caps. The paper tape was much sought after by small boys who would bash the tape with a sharp pebble to make the bangs. Exciting stuff!

@SillyCow6 are you one of my DSis?
I had that Fashion plate drawing thing & it was kept well hidden after one of my DSis tried to use it without paper & coloured in one of the plates'

Fleamaker Fuzzy Felts- they love them. We had some old ones in Yr 1 and I bought the castle one from somewhere and took it in for my Nurture Group. They absolutely loved it. They didn’t get on very well so I had one group playing a game and the others with Fuzzy Felts. I had to photo copy it afterwards( no mean feat) and we displayed the picture with one to go home. This was about five years ago.

I am loving this thread. Pearl bath balls if you were lucky you got some for Christmas. My Gran had soaps from Paris I used to think she was very rich.

I got a large American ( who knows why) dictionary for my sixteenth birthday. Can you imagine giving that to a sixteen year old now? I still have it by the way. It has all the Presidents in a section at the back and other info.

For a brief period in the early 70s the Mary Quant doll, Daisy, was a cult classic, and me and my sister and friends, all aged about eight,were obsessed with her. Her outfits were very limited edition though and they go for a fortune now on eBay!

"Upherefordancing" I had Pippa dolls with some rather funky outfits and I used to get my big sisters hand me down Sindy's but they'd usually had a grade 1 by the time she allowed me to have them

Ada Your right it was a cap gun. My cousin had a pair of silver guns in a holster. He would give one to me and we would hide all over the yard with them and shoot his sisters and tie them up with washing line. Sometimes I got tied up by the sister the same age as me. She had an Indian squaw outfit and he had a Stetson and a sheriff badge.

My cousin had the Fashion plate.
I had a penknife when I was fourteen too. It had a hoof pick for my horse and I cut the twine on the hay bales with it. We used to carry them everywhere including school and always for gymkhanas and shows so you could fashion some sort of stall from twine and length of wood so you didn’t have to hold your horse all day. I didn’t have a horse box neither did my friend so we’d get there early and nab the best stall or go on the way home from school and tie something to it to bag it. I was gone all day no mobile phones those days. Bliss!