Little things that brought you absolute joy as a child

[DevilledEgg]

For me it was silver balls on cupcakes. Such a simple thing but we didn't have them very often, so whenever I saw some on a cake I'd bubble with excitement. I bought a cake today with some on and I swear, I was five years old again!

Letraset Action Transfers.
When I was about six, I had one where the background was a showjumping arena. The action figures that you 'transferred' onto the scene were evidently meant to be horses and riders but due to some factory error, my set had comedy painter-and-decorators a bit like the Mario Brothers. I had the hugest fun positioning them into the snooty showjumping scene.

My dear mum used to read the robin stories to my daughter when she was little. Lovely memory isn’t it ❤️

Rolls of stickers. Especially furry ones!

Novelty rubbers that looked like juice cartons etc. My very favourite was a black heart shaped rubber with a little rainbow on one side, in a clear plastic box. Perfection!

When a new Sweet Valley High/Twins or Point Horror book arrived at WH Smiths. So exciting!

The smell when you opened a tin of Quality Street at Christmas.

My friend had a reversible 101 Dalmations jumper that I coveted. My mum got me a fake one from the market and I LOVED it. I wore it all the time!

Birthday cards with the Forever Friends bears on.

Making up a 'basket' at The Body Shop. Bath peals, strawberry body wash, a soap shaped like an apple. All nestled on shredded paper in a little wicker basket and then wrapped in cellophane.

Ooh, yes, @Sunblocker , shrinky dinks were really exciting (for no good reason that I can think of!!)

And 10p mix-ups! Those jelly sweets shaped like pints of beer. White chocolate fish and chips. Chocolate in those little foil cups. Jelly cherries 🍒

What a lovely thread!
Seeing Dad at the school gates abd him allowing me a drink of Tizer and sweets “ But don’t tell Mummy”
( I have adoptive mum who was strict about sweets when we were kids)

Oh I also loved those silver balls - are they dragées? Haven't had any on a cake in years!

Newly polished floor: We had a lovely old parquet floor in the living room and dining area, which my poor mum would spend a full morning polishing... only for my sister and I to go running and sliding about in our socks on. If you angled it just right you could do a very long slide from the dining area, through the tiny hallway bit, and into the living room, and end by crashing into our bedroom door. Even now the smell of wood polish makes me feel happy.

Sparklers, especially as my dad never bought any other fireworks for the family to use (very safety conscious - and rightly so, but also super weird in SE Asia where households do the equivalent of a city display from their front yard). It was so exciting seeing the one (🤣) paper packet on the kitchen counter right before New Year's!

Wrigleys Juicy Fruit: after an unfortunate but rather unsurprising Hair Incident where both my sister and I went to bed with bubble gum, we were banned from ever having any gum for a good few years. Finally the day came when we were allowed to choose some at the checkout, it felt like such a treat and that little yellow packet may as well have been a bar of gold.

I'd forgotten about these transfers but I loved them!!

New clothes for my Sindy doll
cherryade
coloured glitter especially silver and gold
my weekly witch comic (I forget the name) that came via the paper boy along with my father’s Saturday Telegraph
weekly episodes of Bewitched on TV
Butter scotch Angel Delight
Sunday night Indian takeaway
my swing ball set
a new famous five book or most Enid Blyton books
those fruit salad and black jack sweets( I had a tin under my bed)
our annual trip to see Father Christmas in the Harrods toy department
an ice cream in the park with my mother as soon as half term started.
watching Starsky and Hutch with my father when my mother was out playing bridge
playing cluedo with my parents
my maternal grandmother letting me play with the contents of her huge vanity case
my paternal grandmother letting me have some of her Lap-sang tea and homemade walnut cake😁

My sister always had a screwball. She used to chew the gum, pull it out of her mouth as far as it would go without snapping off and chew it back in. A woman in the village complained to our mother that what my sister was doing wasn't ladylike 😂

I too remember the smell of “ Mansion Polish”
with wooden floors- using a rug as a skateboard 🛹- great fun!

Buying smash hits every week,new pens and and buying new scented rubbers. Going shopping with my mum into town.

Reading these has made my heart feel all fuzzy!

When my dad used to make chips and make the letters of my name out of the potatoes

Sleeping on a camping bed on the floor in my mums room for absolutely no reason but to pretend I was ‘camping’

When I was allowed a glass of dandelion and burdock as a treat

Avon chocolate scented bubble bath - amazing

Swimming in rivers in Scotland

These!

I still love this nostalgic smell

Little toys in cereal.

'Bunty' being posted every week through the door by the paper boy

Miniature versions of real items, like dolls house accessories. I had miniature books and small play food and groceries but my friend had an amazing dills house with tiny, realistic cooking pots and pans and plates with realistic looking food on them.
Sindy was great as her accessories were not pink and glittery like Barbie's.

Oh Harrods Toy Dept!
I actually used to DREAM of that at night sometimes, going up on the clackety escalators to the 4th Floor.

They used to have Rocking Horses and really expensive toys in but was great fun to look.
It was strictly Christmas and Birthdays for Harrods- or Hamleys- Tridias for pocket money toys🥰

Polystyrene paper aeroplanes for 20p

We actually called them clacky shoes 😁

Ice pops in the summer.

Roller disco in the sports centre every Saturday. I was the first one there, and the last to leave. Very happy days!

Toffee poppets at the pictures! Mini mars bars as a treat. Being allowed to paint my toenails during the school holidays. Staying at my grandparents house and having a room to myself! Being sent to the corner shop with 20p to buy the Saturday paper. Also a mini can of Diet Coke to appease us when doing the Friday evening food shop.

Your mum sounds wonderful.