How many toys did children have in the 1950’s/1960?

[AuntieAunt]

We live in a post war semi three bed semi.

My mum grew up in a pretty much identical house with her four siblings. Even with bunk beds it seems pretty impossible to physically fit everyone in but I’ve been wondering how on earth did my Grandparents fit all of their five kids worth of stuff in too?

Mum said with five kids any toys didn’t last long. I know they used to have a piano and a table in their front room and with upstairs filled to the brim where did the the toys go? I know that the kids were expected to play outside and the girls to help with chores but did kids really live without actual toys?

I was a kid in the 60s . If memory serves me, I had a large Pedigree doll which walked and talked . A dolls pram which lived outside. Many puzzles which lived on a bookshelf. A set of little gardening tools which lived outside. In general I was expected to play outside, and if I was indoors I'd be learning how to cook with Mum, or other household tasks . By the time I was 8 I could knit, crochet, and iron . Doing those things well made me feel good. . My childhood was happy, despite having few toys !

One present each for Christmas plus an annual and a selection box, one for birthday. Presents from relatives and friends (birthday) were small or books. There wasn't the mounds of plastic tat that there is these days!

I was born in the 60's and we had nothing like the volume of toys and crap that kids have nowadays. I remember having a Cindy doll (pre Barbie) and that was it - there were no accessories available back then.

As PP said, plastic tat hadn't really been invented then. Plus birthdays and Christmas we would only really get 1 or 2 presents

We never really played indoors either as we'd be out playing with other kids all day

DM was born early 50’s. They would get one toy at Christmas so there really wasn’t the volume of ‘stuff’ that they have now.

Plus they had very few clothes, baths only once a week, so fewer towels that were shared, and just less stuff in general. They didn’t have the storage issues we did.

DGF once chopped the table up so they had something to put on the fire to keep them warm. They’d have had loads of space after that!

I was a child in the 60s and although I was perfectly adequately looked after, it was the norm that you only ever got a new toy at Christmas or on your birthday, never at any other time in the year. I seem to remember this being the norm for all my friends, too. So yes, less stuff at home.

I was born in 1960 and had lots of toys for that time but as an only child had nobody to play board games with.

But in those days lots was: three dolls, a dolly pushchair, Sindy and a set of bedroom furniture which lived under my dressing table, a teaset, about 6-8 board games, lots of craft things but once they were done, they were thrown away, some books but mostly from the library. I didn't have puzzles because my mother thought they were untidy. Everything could be stored in a small cupboard in my bedroom. Oh, and a dolls house - I used to make curtains for it. I was never allowed more than one toy out downstairs.

Plus I had a bike, scooter and roller skates which were kept in the garage. Oh and space hopper and klackers when they were the rage.

Children played out a lot more. The library was a treat. We played French skipping and more ball games.

My DC probably had double but nothing like some of the plastic tat nowadays. My mother thinks they were deprived because they didn't, like me, have a pony. My mother to this day drones on about their deprivation having no cognizance that livery in zone 2 is a little tricky.

I had a few toys, growing up in the fifties and sixties. We had a few presents at Christmas and birthdays. Dolls, a tennis racquet, paints and colouring books. We used to play out in the street a lot of the time. There was more freedom to roam about and far less parental involvement. No after school clubs, just girl guides once a week.

I grew up in the 60's. Not many toys. Only presents at birthday or Christmas, nothing inbetween. Most things in those days were very expensive.
I had a second hand bike for Christmas. A Tiny Tears doll and dolls pram. Roller skates were a big thing then. Every year I remember getting a compendium of games.
There was also lots of board games and books around.

We did play outside a lot. From about 10ys old I would be out all day in the holidays with friends, only going home for dinner in the evening. We had much more freedom then.

I was one of four children, all born in the early- mid 1960s. We each had a big doll plus a couple of other smaller ones. Nothing fancy that walked or talked, or took a bottle. Their clothes were hand-made. My father made us wooden toys like dolls cots and a wooden farmyard which we filled with Britain's farm animals.

Other than that we had a bit of Lego, wooden building blocks and model villages and lots of jigsaw puzzles and books. We always had colouring pencils and paints as well as various card and board games (draughts, snakes and ladders and ludo, plus things like dominoes, marbles and tiddly winks).

Outside we had a swing, a paddling pool on the summer, one big ball, and when we got older, roller skates, bikes, and homemade stilts. I craved a space hopper but never had one!

Whether inside or out, we were expected to play with each other quietly and not need to be entertained or supervised.

Our Christmas presents were put in a pillow case. Each one was usually less than half full. My parents would usually give us three presents each: eg a main present, a book, and something to do like a card game, jigsaw, new set of paints or something crafty like a French knitting set. Then we'd have 3 or 4 other similar smaller presents each from grandparents, aunts and uncles etc.

I distinctly remember being rather disappointed one year (I was probably about 9) because every single present I received was a book and I had nothing new to play with.

born in the 50s - had a couple of dolls, pram, jigsaws, books, fuzzy felt and some games. Colouring books and crayons

Born late 50s. I had a teddy bear given to me when I was born, another given when I was a bit older. Shared lego, meccano, blocks with my brothers. One bro had a famtastic fort which we all played with.

Both bros had Action Man and I had Sindy, then later Patch. I saved up for Action Man myself.

We had dressing up stuff, loads and loads of books, pens and pencils and crayons, chalk etc.

I was born in 1960's but was a child mostly in 70's
in early childhood we had building bricks , a doll each and one teddy, later on my sisters and 1 shared the following outdoor toys a space hopper, ride on tricycle and a dolls pram , several balls and a skipping rope, inside there were jigsaw puzzles, a few board games lego, a dolls teaset, we got presents at christmas and birthdays only generally about 5 presents in total from Mum and Dad both sets of grandparents and 2 aunts, things like nurses uniform, special felt pens, lego, dolls tea set. a joint board game badminton racquet
the only "toys" replaced in the year would be crayons paints there was always paper
we played outside a lot using old bowl as doll's bath, a pair of old curtains over the washing line as a tent, a net curtain as a vail for mock weddings,
books were generally from library we changed them most weeks
I don't remember getting bored that often or thinking we didnt have enough, in any case being bored and complaining would get you a job like weeding or cleaning

I was born early 60s, as was my brother. He had Action Man, Meccano and lots of little plastic soldiers. I had a couple of dolls, Stickle Bricks and Fuzzy Felt. Between us we had some Lego and several board games. We didn't have anything like the quantities of toys kids get nowadays, and none of the plastic tat, but we were happy and played outside a lot and used our imaginations. We were always making forts with chairs, cushions and blankets, or a sheet thrown over a rope across the garden. We spent a lot of time out on our bikes too.

I was a child in the 60s. Toys were given (only) at Christmas and birthdays. There was a lot of playing outside, in the garden. I remember…
a doll’s pram
a doll
an annual every year
getting a weekly comic (The Mandy or The Bunty)
roller skates
a bike (got that when I was about 13)
ludo
snakes and ladders

Born early 60s, working class family, low income, scraping to pay mortgage. One toy for birthdays, one toy and a couple of sticking fillers for Xmas . Small presents off aunt/uncle/granny.
Nothing close to the mountains of tat that kids get now, yet we are the ones who are being blamed for f**King up the planet 😡

On the back of my weekly comic there was a cut out doll.and a variety of outfits. I spent hours cutting out, glueing the doll to card so she would stand up and fitting on the clothes with little paper tabs.

I was born in the mid 60s with 2 older siblings ( 4 years between us all ) and we had loads of toys , we’ve got old photos with piles of toys in the living room and I remember shelves of toys / games in our bedrooms .

Grew up in the 60s and had very few toys and clothes.

A couple of cuddly toys and dolls. Lego. A few boardgames and puzzles. Crayons and watercolours. A swing and a skipping rope. Plus quite a few books. That's it really.

I remember being desperate for a record player or a radio, but I had to wait until I was 14 and able to earn the money for them. Also had to buy most of my own records.

It wasnt a question of money. My parents seemed to have very little awareness of my needs.

My mum was 6 in 1950. Gran had 3 kids and no husband (he died) so they were poor. My mum had multiple dolls, including a black baby doll and a china doll with long hair. A big doll's house. A pram for the baby doll. A bike. Board games, lots of books and School Friends annuals. I've seen photographic evidence of most of it. They had an Noah's ark my great grandfather carved too and a farm but they were shared toys.

Once Gran snared a rich second husband there was a TV, a car and a lot more stuff.

Child of the 50s/60s - very few toys so the few I had were cherished and played with endlessly. Plenty of books though. However, I was outside far far more than I was inside, with friends, and we made our own fun - wouldn't happen now. We roamed round our village for hours on end but now there is too much traffic and parents are more afraid to allow young children to 'run wild' in the local fields.

I was born in the 60s and had a very similar experience to PP. Playing out in the street (or down to the stream or the park) was very much the norm then.

Born in the sixties too. I had the same more or less as everyone else of this time. I would add that my dolls had lots of home knitted or home sewn clothes too

I was born in the late 40s. My brother and I shared a room. At Christmas and birthday we had one gift only. My mother did not approve of reading.She said it was lazy to sit around with a book. My dad bought us a comic annual each at Christmas. He also bought us a comic each week. We had second hand bikes, a scooter and skates these lasted for years.Winter and Summer we were expected to play outside.

Our parents did not play games with us. All of our toys were kept in a sideboard and we asked permission to get them out. Bedrooms were only for sleeping. When we were not doing chores we would play pencil and paper games or colouring.

They certainly had fewer clothes, wardrobes were much smaller. My Mum had lots of dolls, Sindys etc. Toys were smaller, not huge plastic things, even the dolls house was small. My Mum had the cupboard under the stairs as her toy cupboard.

But then I wonder how they managed to fit three adults and 4 kids into the house. And the huge silvercross pram in a tiny three bed terrace. But somehow they did and had a piano.

This. We had a big family. So that was a good lot of toys with one each but we got boardgames as we had lots of people to play against. And books. During the year books came from the library so the house wasn't filled with books. Lots of colouring and jigsaws. We had bikes/ footballs etc outside. But a lot of our play was imaginative play/ dressing up/ making up plays and performing/ playing shop etc. We spent a lot of time just running around.
Also far less clothes.