What gifts do you remember (childhood)?

[MrsJonesAndMe]

I have few memories of presents specifically:

• a barbie aged about 6 best thing ever
• a Snoopy handbag from granny, was his little house shaped with him on the top
• a bike at around 10

Yours??

Oh I had the baby My Little Pony too - I loved it! It came in a set with a play pen and other baby bits.
I also got Little Professor one year. It was basically a calculator in the shape of a man so not that exciting, but I really wanted it!

A portable cassette radio with Olivia Newton john and bucks fizz cassettes.
A crayola caddy.
A pink needle cord beanbag! I cried at that one. 😂😂😂

My Grandma bought me a desk and a blackboard. As a child, I was never spoiled or lavished with presents by either my parents or grandparents so this gift was extraordinary and I genuinely felt that Santa had made a mistake and one of the two was meant for someone else.

I was 15 and living in a children’s unit. My previous foster Carers weren’t big on Christmas so I was kind of weary of it all. Then all the residents got told we were each getting £50 from the local Round Table. Then I thought all my Christmasses had come at once It was the mid 80s so spent most of the big day pouring over the Argos catalogue!

The first of 60
Cabbage patch kids. His name is Alistair Malcolm and I still have him.

I had an a la cart kitchen and I still have by yellow teapot!

My little pony Dream Castle
A Sindy fridge, it was great, tiny little blocks of cheese and pizza boxes etc inside
Mouse Trap
Kiddy make up set
Really twirly skirt
Box sets of games for my Spectrum

I didn't have a fraction of the toys my son has!
I always wanted those mini Dairy Milk machines and those robots that put either a penny or chocolate into their mouths?! Need to look these up in case I imagined it...

@Twainiac I agree, which is what made me think to post this (in part). Remembering only 3 things out of 18 years or so of birthdays and Christmases must mean it doesn't matter much in the end.

Pretty Cut ‘n Grow: she was a doll with luminous yellow wool hair that you could cut and then pull to make it “grow” again. I think I covered our house with half inch hair clippings that year. It was one of the very few times that Santa got it absolutely right and didn’t bring a cheaper alternative to what I’d asked for. I was sooo proud of her.

I once received a playmobil Victorian mansion with extra extension floors and all of the rooms and extra sets.

It was the best present ever!! I've still got it in the attic and can't wait for my 2 daughters to play with it when their bigger!

I lusted after speakandspell too! I got playschool maximus with cards that you put in. I don't remember playing with it much, I hope I didn't look too dissapionted. My brother got tomy 3d technologics head sets x2 and that was coolest toy ever, we were very good at sharing. Loving this thread and 80s nostalgia. My dad did all the Christmas shopping he made Christmas and I've inherited that from him. This year's 80s rainbow tree is dedicated to my dad.

Ballerina Sindy. I thought she was the most beautiful thing in the whole world.

Tiny plastic toy kitchen. I must have only been about three, but I love it.

Pink Popple
Sylvanian windmill
Lights alive
Play doh set that looked like a basket of flowers. You put the doh under the basket, pulled the handle across, and ‘flowers’ grew.

A brown China owl moneybox and a doll who had been dressed in the Norwegian national outfit which had been knitted by my mum.

As a teenager, a copy of Deep Purple's Fireball LP (yes I'm that old) even though my dad said "it'll never take the place of real music"

A pram
a wonderful full length abigail party style nightie

The year my parents were really broke, we’d just moved into a brand new council house and mum wouldn’t do hp. I was told that Santa was only bringing surprises so no list. It was 1950 and I was 6.
My mum, grandma and aunties had sewed and knitted whole wardrobes for my two favourite dolls. Each doll had a ‘trunk’ made out of painted cardboard with leather straps and labels. It didn’t cost a penny and I have never ever forgotten it despite many more affluent Christmases.

that is lovely @thegreylady.

it is not about the expense really.

Sky dancers ❤️ used to love them. My parents used to find Christmas bit frustrating as I'd open a present and then play with it before opening more 😂

Fisher Price Melody Train the played 'records" . Probably showing my age.
Rockstar and Loveheart Barbies.

Tiny tears. I was 4 I think, and by Boxing Day had given her a truly tragic haircut thinking it would grow back. My lovely gran had to break the news to me that that wouldn’t happen. I was so upset. My sister laughed A LOT. My gran spent Boxing Day afternoon crocheting tiny tears a hat. It didn’t solve the problem but it’s one of my favourite childhood memories.

A child sized table and chairs for all 4 of us. (Mr Claus had hand made them in his workshop aka our garage).

A child sized blackboard. (Matched the table and chairs).

A hand knitted jumper for my Sindy. (Mrs Claus) It was moss green and in a stitch called "Moss Stitch", funnily enough.

A study desk from my DGF that the table lifted and it had a seat built into it.

And 2 different years from the same DGF were a clock radio and a study lamp (just as I finished primary and started secondary - the lamp died about 5 years ago, and the clock radio died about 2 years ago which was really really upsetting for me as that was the last thing I'd had off DGF that I know he chose and that had lasted (he died about 8 years ago, clock radio was roughly 30 years old....).

Oh, and an Esso oil tanker truck another year!! That was so well loved!!

Amazing things that I had yearned for:
Monopoly
Tiny Tears
Sindy
Emu - you could put your hand up its bottom like Rod Hull did & make him bite elderly relatives!
A Lyndsey Wagner Bionic Woman doll
A radio cassette player that weighed about as much as a small car does these days!

Less amazing that seemed to be endlessly repeated:
Notelets - every bloody year
Hand knitted jumpers with exceptionally tight head holes
Hankies - just why, who gives a child hankies!!!!!
Talcum powder in a tub with a puff - remember the smell so distinctly

Chuckles baby doll
Baby Alive
Family Treehouse
Bionic Woman doll
Bionic Woman styling head
ZX81 computer
ZX Spectrum computer
Exercise bench

Some amazing books which became (as a child) favourite books.