What was your all time favourite Christmas present?

[PrueHalliwell]

Hi all,

A thread has just reminded me of my favourite Christmas present I got when I was around 6 or 7 and I was just wondering about everyone else's?

Mine was a cat. I don't really agree with giving animals as present but my beloved cat died a year prior from cancer and my parents said I couldn't have another one so I just sort of accepted I'd never have a cat again (kids are dramatic haha) but we went to my grandmas and she was like "oh I've left your present on the bed, go and get it" and I walked in and there was this little cat with a pink bow wrapped around her neck ( it was removed straight away ) and honestly I was so happy and the cat was the sweetest little thing and she became my best friend, I'm even tearing up a bit now thinking about that Christmas.

Just a light hearted thread as I don't think Christmas should be about material things.

Sindy house for me.

A puppy. We had loads of animals but the first dog that was officially mine and the first pet I’d had the responsibility for training. I still miss her everyday.
A blue bmx. Not only because it was fabulous, but it stands out as one of the few occasions I got the main present I’d actually asked for, rather than the pink girly equivalent or the things I was expected to want as a girl.

A cot for my dolls. It had beautiful, frilled pink bedding - pillows, sheets eiderdowns - everything. It was only years later, when I knew Santa wasn't real, that I realised that my Mum had made the bedding and my Dad had painted the cot.

If I am allowed to have a favourite as an adult, it would have to be my bookcase/drawers that my 2 (adult) sons found in a second hand shop, hid in their grandmother's garage and then in the boot of the car until I had gone to bed, and then they assembled it and left it for me in the living room.

Weird one - a plush cuddly seal from Avon in a turquoise jumper. It wasn't expensive but I adored it.
A tape player plus 70s disco hits (it was the 80s by then!) was also a big hit

My cassette tape Walkman.

A record player, probably around 1966-67 Christmas. It was red and the top came off so you could play LPs.

I think the first record I played on it was a Beatles one, a present from my nan that same Christmas.

My aunt and uncle, who I didn't see very often, turned up one Christmas Eve when I was about 8 or 9 with a boxed set of Enid Blyton books. I was in heaven.

I got a great Alba hi-Fi system once. Must have been 1993, because I also got Hits 93 and Parklife CDs to play on it!

Rub a dub dub. A plastic dog with a pink bone shaped sponge. I don’t think it even did anything, it was just a bath toy, but I’d seen adverts, really wanted it, and when I woke up on Christmas Day and opened it it was the best thing ever. I can still remember the feeling of excitement 35+ years later.

Omg me too, I loved it and all the noxious fumes that came with it 🤣

My parents were great when I was a kid buying electronic items for us - I remember, over a number of years, getting Simon, Pac-Man, Little Professor, Speak & Spell. DF worked for the BBC and, one year, he came home with a BBC B computer for DB and I as our joint main present (we’re close in age but not twins) and a pile of papers which was the programming instructions for the game Elite - we spent ages sat at the breakfast bar in our 1980’s kitchen typing in about 33,000 lines of computer instructions!!

DP’s were very careful with me not to buy joint birthday/Christmas presents (birthday is December 20th) and I always had as much spent on me for Christmas as my 3 siblings but I never considered how difficult it must have been for them to do so close to Christmas.

Things I wanted but never got were the Cadbury chocolate dispenser mentioned by others, a Big Yellow Teapot and the treehouse that was similar, a Mr Frostie (though I’ve since heard it was completely useless!) and, inexplicably, indoor fireworks as I’d seen them at a friend’s house and loved the way one seemed to grow like a snake - they’re banned now as they’re highly dangerous and would never pass the safety regulations but they were such fun to a kid in the late 1970’s/early 80’s

DM refused to buy me Mr Frosty.

One year I really wanted Buckaroo and found it hidden in the bottom of my DM’s wardrobe and I was so excited I blurted it out one day, so she sent it back!!!

Favourite presents ever were my roller boots and my Walkman ❤️ (most of the 80’s for me was spent on eight wheels more than on two feet😁). Happy days.

i was just trying to remember what the Simon says game was called. That was the first thing that sprung to mind.

you’ve also reminded me of the Christmas my sister and I got Walkmans from our uncle. He bought my sister fantastic mr fox cassette and I got a st Claire book. It was just magical - we have photos of the pair of us on Christmas Day, wearing fancy Laura Ashley dresses (don’t know why we were dressed so nicely that year!) headphones on, completely engrossed.

a few years later, I got beautiful box with all the Beatles albums on cassette. Goddam that was awesome!

My granny was more of a 2nd mother to me and always spoiled us at Xmas so I have 2 favourites, both from her. 1st was a radio inside a toy poodle and 2nd was a mini organ (mini but huge as it was the 70s). I learned to play it but sadly my mother sold it months later (she was a cruel mother and I've been nc since I was 15)

Nothing springs to mind - & I was probably a spoiled brat! Christmases make me think of family & my beloved late grandparents & parents.. feeling loved & cherished. I think that was the best gift EVER.

A ballerina Sindy. I remember peeking in my mum's wardrobe before Christmas and seeing her in her tutu, doing the splits in the box and my heart soared 😁 she had dark brown hair and she was so beautiful.

Like this

A huge set of polly pockets when they were actually small. There was an ice cream shop, a pizza parlour, a school, a church and lots of houses. Spent many hours playing it with my sisters.

@blackberrybat same !!

Oh God yes, I too yearned for a Mr Frosty - along with every other child from that era- I never got one either. The Mr Frosty marketing campaign must have been amazing. But my mum was so pragmatic, she used to say, just get some ice and crush it up in a glass.

And yes! My rollerskates! They are also up there in my top 10. I bloody loved them and rarely took them off.

Did anyone else's mum used to wrap Christmas presents in newspaper? We weren't poor, I don't think, but my mum did this one year at Christmas. We all had black fingers from the print so she didn't do it the following year 😁

One year I asked for a "very realistic" toy rabbit, and my poor mum had to make one out of brown fake fur, because all the toy rabbits available looked too much like toys. He's absolutely beautiful, and of course I've still got him.

Another year I got a Mamod model traction engine that ran on meths. I used to take it for walks down the drive. It hissed and steamed, and dripped oil everywhere ... can't think why on earth I got rid of that; I wish I still had it.

A casette player, with a tape in it- a recording from the real Father Christmas!

Bits of makeup and hair accessories from an auntie far cooler and aware if what kids wanted than my parents ever were!
My parents tended to give practical things that we would need through the year so the complete indulgence of my aunties gifts seemed totally magical at the time.

This just made me well up. What a beautiful memory. Your parents sound very brilliant indeed.