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?

Yes to clackers!
Electroset (spelling?)
Address book
Nighties, peticoates & baby dolls Night sets 😳
Long socks
China ornaments (horses pulling a cart)
Clip on earrings
Glass stink bombs

I wonder if any arthritis in wrists from my generation could be traced back to persistent Clacker trauma when young?

@SeasideArms - Shaker Maker, you're a genius, that's absolutely it. 👏👏👏👏. And reading @MrsAvocet's post, I think she's talking about the same thing too, and actually it was probably Snow White etc that I had.

She also mentioned Plasticraft, and that's #2 of my list. I can still remember the smell of the hot resin.

If I found a plug in my Christmas stocking I knew that my dad had bought me something electrical for my 'big' present. In those days hair tongs etc came without a plug attached.

@ginginchinchin

I got a girl from UNCLE set )United Network Command for Law Enforcement). It had a garter gun for shooting baddies and a fountain pen with invisible ink! You wrote your note then the person receiving the blank letter had to hold it over a naked flame to make the words visible again

Oh my I coveted that. I was convinced at 8 that I would be a glamorous spy in a black leather mini skirt and go go boots. A penknife at 9. Dad was sick of me borrowing his.

We still have satsumas at the bottom of Christmas stockings! It’s the law.
Was tangerines when I was small and they were very much a seasonal treat.

Post Office play sets (I loved those)
Sets of children’s stationery for writing your thank-you letters. But at least the sheets of paper were small so it wasn’t such an effort to fill the obligatory one side.

@BornInAThunderstorm my grandparents had those souvenir dolls. When I was very young (early 90s) I thought they were SO classy and must be expensive collectors' items.

@Graphista we had one of those balls with the plastic ring. I was hopeless at it (and skippits, or anything requiring basic coordination) but my best friend was amazing and could bounce for hours.

Not a gift as such, but a huge childhood treat was half a pomegranate which we ate, from the age of 5 or so, with a dressmaker's pin.
It was a revelation a couple of years ago to see Jamie Oliver whacking one with a spoon and all the insides falling out. In my head, pomegranate = pins!

Etcha sketch

A Space Hopper! (Do they still exist?)

Haha yes clack ers what a top toy..

Stripy knee socks with separate toes. ....always seemed to get those at Christmas off the neighbours. ..loved them...

Back in the day, vibrators used to be advertised in mainstream publications as "personal massagers" with no reference to their true intended purpose. Our best christmas was watching our mum, who had been suffering back pain for a few months, opening her present from our gran to find a massive vibe complete with attachments. The cherry on the cake was when my blissfully naive gran broke the awkward silence and stifled giggles with "If You can't reach I'm sure 'dad' won't mind doing it for you".

HahahahaI bet that one went into family lore.......

@LovingLola

Doing school projects on a country and writing to their Embassy for info. Always got a big pack of stuff back. Oh the excitement 😂

Oh yes forgot this - just love those parcels

Soap-on-a-rope was a very exciting gift around 1970!

I got a chemistry set when about 13 in the 1980s that I'm sure most of the chemicals wouldn't be allowed today.

Go back even further and I think you could get them with radioactive material in them, which unsurprisingly is illegal these days as would contravene the 'not allowed to put radioactive material in toys '.

Still have your clack ers? ? I am so jealous. I miss my clackers and etch a sketch.....never got a spirograph though. Might buy myself a set this xmas...

Of course they weren't made of glass....

Yes yes to dolls in tubes.

Also china dolls, I mean WTF? My kids would run screaming from the room if they unwrapped this on their birthday

We all had one in the 80s though

Scented rubbers which we all went through a stage of rubbing on a ruler to collect the bits rather than using them. Bath pearls, strawberry soap from the body shop, cherished teddies, forever friends lunchbox, loads of random ornaments (there was like a rabbit family collection with weird big eyes that I collected?), endless thread to make friendship bracelets.

Can't imagine buying my kids soap, ornaments and thread and them thanking me for it

Funfax! From the school book fair

And Point Horror books!

I had a perfume making set, omg it was rank.

IMO you can obviously make better perfume soaking rose petals in water and leaving it in the sun for a few days!!

Mum's rose bushes were always a target 😂

So many memories! Plasticraft - we had that and entombed various treasures forever in resin which quickly looked like it had been soaked in urine.