Your best childhood present

[JeffJarrett]

I'm feeling all nostalgic, what was your best Christmas present as a kid?

Mine was a Sylvanian Family Treehouse, it even had wallpaper to stick in the rooms, booody fantastic. I think I was about 7 at the time. Hero Quest was also a great one. How I wish I'd kept hold of that now!

Etch a sketch for me. And the Tree House thing with wee car and lift in the trunk

Petite 99 typewriter and it came with a brown suitcase type thing which opened out into an office. It has a telephone, stationery drawers etc.

A la carte kitchen. Can still remember the feeling when I opened it

Rollerboots. My Mum made the very reasonable argument that there were very little places that I could actually use them but persistence won out and Santa brought them. I almost wore them out and got another few years of belief out of them too.

Yes to Etch a Sketch too, but my all time favourite was one Christmas when we were staying at my aunt's house. Once all the presents had been done I noticed that there was one more at the back with no label. No one knew who it was for, then my little dad quietly said it was for me. My mum looked surprised as she always did all the Christmas shopping. Anyway, it was a big fluffy toy squirrel that he'd secretly bought and wrapped for me. I loved that squirrel 😊

Those Cadbury red vending machines. Got one every year and loved them.

Lundby dolls house. Lamps that plugged in and light switched on.
Had a stable and remember putting real straw from my rabbit in the feeder!!
Kept it til I was on my 30's until bastard exh took a hammer to it.

Rocking horse , now going strong with my niece.

My most memorable was actually very small.

Double sided tape. I guess I must have been nagging about it forever, but that was one of my presents once. Loved it. Obsessed about it. Eked it out for months.

The experience has made me pay attention to my DCs' lists and particularly the shit little things on the lists. My then-5yo put "red sizzers" on his list and was similarly over the moon with a perfectly ordinary pair of red-handled paper scissors. He still points them out in the craft box as the scissors he got for Christmas that time, and prefers them over other apparently identical pairs.

Lundby Doll house with working lights. You can still buy them now I think.

You had one too Winter! amazing weren't they. They were quite popular at the time I think. Sorry to hear the circumstances under which you no longer have yours. I don't know what happened to mine.

A hand made dolls house my dad made, it took him months, he fibre glassed the roof, it had wall paper, carpet, windows, curtains and the rooms were big enough that I could hide in it.

Honestly the most unique and amazing present I could have asked for

A NES the year I turned 10. I still have it and I'm 37 soon!

So many hours playing it, I absolutely loved it. I was the Tetris Queen.

One year my toddler sister got her first bike - and as I already had one, Father Christmas brought me a big box filled with loads of small presents to the same value as the bike. They were all pretty cheap things but the quantity was impressive and I've never forgotten it! (Strangely both toddler sister and I were equally convinced we had got the best deal....) One of the presents was one of those crystal growing kits which I was massively impressed by. I must have been about seven or eight at the time. Have never forgotten it!

Gosh yes, I loved my crystal growing set.

One of my most memorable was a small stocking gift of the book telling the story of Babushka when my class had performed it as our end of term play. I just couldn't believe how Father Christmas knew.

Handmade dolls house made by my Dad perfectly the right size for my Pippa dolls, he worked on it for months in the shed and I lived it and still have it today.

Also a little sweet shop complete with tiny little glass jars with sweets in them and little scales to weigh them out. A gift from my godmother when I was 3 (she died shortly thereafter so I always wonder if that was why it was so special in my memory. I also still have the angel advent calendar that she bought me when I was a baby and it comes out each year (the kids think I'm bonkers).

1970's, pottery wheel, made of plastic. Think the results were then popped in the oven. Some truely unique results.

RedastheRose I came onto this thread to say a horse for my Pippa dolls.

My parents didn't do Christmas really. I never really liked it until I had my own kids.

One of our neighbours once asked what I'd like and for some reason I plucked out of the air "a red ring binder with a t-rex on the front".

Obviously this was pre-internet so this random idea was not to be found. But I unwrapped a plain red ring binder with a cuddly t-rex wrapped on top of it.

Best present ever! :) The fact that she had actually thought about what I'd said and put that together meant so much to me even as a little girl.

Some of these stories are lovely.

For me, it was Mouse Trap. Loved it. However, when I bought it for my children ten years ago it was not well made - no matter what we did, the little bloke wouldn't dive into the tub!

A little box full of sewing kit, when I was either 8 or 9. A rather random gift from my aunt, but I was delighted by the fact that it was all "real", and not just a toy. Still using bits from it today, and they always remind me of her, and how pleased she was by my enthusiasm for it all.

The video of The Little Mermaid. I still remember opening it and being totally over the moon.

I was so excited about my My Little Pony Dream Castle. Even though I'd seen it on top of my parents wardrobe for weeks before Xmas I was still so delighted on Xmas day. We don't do santa so it wasn't a problem that I'd seen it- it maybe built the excitement up even.

I do also recall getting a large carrier bag full of card, paper, pens, glue, scissors etc and being delighted.

What a nice thread OP Mine was a Fashion Plates toy, which was a sort of plastic frame with different embossed outfits/"models" - you chose a design (ie you could mix and match your own design), put a piece of thin paper over the top and press down. The outline of the design would appear on the paper and you coloured it in. My Nana and Grandad got it for me. I found out later they'd originally got me a toy sewing machine, but when they went to wrap it up just before Christmas it didn't work. So they rushed out and got me the Fashion Plates as a replacement - it was fate because I absolutely loved it and still remember it clearly, 30-odd years later!

There were so many! A Sindy house, a massive stuffed ST Bernard, a BMX and a Commador 64. Not all at once obviously!