What is the BEST Christmas present you've ever received?

[ArblemarchTFruitbat]

Inspired by the 'worst' present thread, would anyone like to share their happier present-unwrapping moments?

Mine would have to be the train set I received when I was four. Not electric but it was a really elaborate one with tracks that you could put together in an infinite number of ways, and came with little trains to push around. I loved trains (still do) and I was over the moon!

There's a picture of me playing with it wearing my 70s long party dress (which always made me feel like a princess even though I was a very plain child) and a silver paper crown and it sums up the joy of childhood Christmases for me.

@N0RKS

What is so wonderful about this thread is that the BEST presents are not expensive or showy or designer nonsense, but things that mean something, or are made with love.

Yes - you're spot on, N0RKS. These are gifts that show, above all else, thought and effort. A little thought is worth more than any amount of £££ when it comes to choosing a gift.

@Pumpkinsonparade

I had Tiny Tears And Teen Tiny Tears And even Teeny Weeny Tiny Tears!! I bloody loved them!!

Slightly off topic but I had a tiny tears (and I would have loved the tiny tiny tears)

Anyway back in the day RC priests would go out to visit the parishioners, they basically turned up for a cup of tea and to hear the latest gossip.

So I'm about 4 and Father X turns up for a cup of tea, my mum makes him tea and I show him my tiny tears, my mum comes in to the room and explains to Father that if you squeeze the doll it cries.

So he queezes the doll and she spits in his face.

I think that was step one on my road to atheism.

When I was about 9 I got the Homepride man baking set. 40 years on I still use his hat as a colander.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

When I was about 9 I got the Homepride man baking set. 40 years on I still use his hat as a colander.

Wow! I'm a similar age and still have some of my childhood presents for sentimental reasons but I don't think I still use any of them

I was about 9 and got 13 hardbacked Enid Blyton Famous Five books. I was thrilled! I hadn't really read books for pleasure until the head mistress took our class one day, took us to the school library and said she'd be checking what we read the following week. She never did but it scared me into reading and by great good fortune it was a Famous Five. So exciting! I devoured it, went back for more and so my lifelong passion for reading - and writing - was born. It changed my life, even affected by career choices. And then the Christmas present to end all presents!

When I was a kid - an electronic secret diary.

As an adult - a pair of new rock boots.

When my kids were 4 and 5 they gave me "half an hour's peace and quiet ", it was the only thing I ever asked for and has become a tradition. After lunch, when the dishes are done and we are all a bit full and a bit tired, DH takes them and his mum and the dog on a long walk, leaving me to sit with no noise, drink my fizz and relax.

It is lovely.(the girls are now 19 and 21, and they still do it)

@BeyondMyWits

When my kids were 4 and 5 they gave me "half an hour's peace and quiet ", it was the only thing I ever asked for and has become a tradition. After lunch, when the dishes are done and we are all a bit full and a bit tired, DH takes them and his mum and the dog on a long walk, leaving me to sit with no noise, drink my fizz and relax.

It is lovely.(the girls are now 19 and 21, and they still do it)

My dad once asked for “A Day of Peace”. He was a massive reader and DM spent ages going round bookshops looking for it, no one had ever heard of it (it was the early 80s, no internet!). It took a while for her to realise that he just wanted us (I’m one of 4 children) to be still and quiet!!

It became tradition that he went out and pottered around museums for a day by himself around his birthday (we lived in London, lots of museums).

An Uncle Bulgaria when I was about 9. I cried I was so happy with it

I'd have loved an Uncle Bulgaria!

I must have been coming up for 4, early 1950s, and when I left my bedroom there was a beautiful pram and doll on the landing but I fell over it and my mother always said she remembered hearing me say That's a stupid place for Father Christmas to leave it!
Reading some of these favouriote presents it's noticeable how much simpler they are than some of the lists we've seen on this thread recently, even taking into consideration the advance in technology.

@DeepDown12

A lovely long-haired doll I fell in love with months before Christmas when I was 5. My parents said it was too expensive but then it appeared magically under the Christmas tree.

Also Hawaii Barbie when I was 8. Still remember the excitement unpacking her!

I have a massive bag of Barbies in the garage, I recall going round all the shops to find the one whose hair could be done using a twisting gadget. I also have a couple of chewed Cabbage Patch dolls, chewed by local vermin rather than the girls, they don't want them but I'm not to throw them out!

@PoshWatchShitShoes

When I was 7, my parents were renovating our house. There was so much to do, so I had to share a small bedroom with my 1 year old sister. On Christmas morning, they asked me to open the door to one of the spare rooms...it had been transformed into a magical bedroom with a full size dressing table and mirror, beautiful bedding and curved blue velvet headboard and lovely bed skirt. And the best thing ever was the pretty drapes hanging down from a canopy over the headboard. Totally heavenly and I had no idea they'd been decorating my new room

My grandaughter was amazed at my house how 'the elves' were able to change her bedding for some lovely Christmassy bedding while she was in the bath. I'd done it earlier and put her regular stuff on top, it was a quick job to whip the other stuff off.

A hamper from Fortnum and Mason, from dh - lots of lovely treats in it, and I now use the hamper to store some of my yarn stash.

@brogan1972

when I was 7, I got a hardback "Wuthering Heights book" and a box of Dairy Box chocolates. I felt so grown up.

I recall giving our niece The Chronicles of Narnia when she was about 8, she sat down and started to read and had to be cajoled into opening her other presents.

• A voucher for a three night stay, full board and with treatments in a luxury spa
• A beautiful, large cashmere pashmina 🌹

Oops - some more:

• a luxury hamper of treats from Fortnum & Mason
• a case of mixed wines, tawny port, brandy and Sherry 🌹

A Sony Walkman. Long car journeys completely changed as I could listen to my choice of music instead of my dad's!

@Europilgrim

A Sony Walkman. Long car journeys completely changed as I could listen to my choice of music instead of my dad's!

I remember my first 'Walkman' though it wasn't a Sony - I think it was a 'RadioShack' one from Tandy. Mine was a birthday present, though, not Christmas. I hadn't asked for it so it was a lovely surprise.

[quote Gusthemouse]@cultkid I have the same one in my attic. I am sorting through bits and Bob's but had a little boy. Felt all nostalgic pulling it out and remembered the feeling on Christmas day opening it![/quote]
A boy can play with a pram. My son loved his doll and baby.

Actual gifts - my DH made me a Roman two-beam loom for re-enactment and I had the thing up and weaving within the hour, and that was me done for the day.
DH's best was a cookery book (Ottolenghi's "Jerusalem") and you've just made me think what I'm going to do this year: he wants the new Claudia Roden and I'm going to go through it and get the special ingredients for his stocking.
The Junior Engineer's best were either his cuddly toy raven Mortimer, or his Mamod steam engine....

When I was 12 (mid-80s) my parents unexpectedly bought me a sewing machine - an old fashioned (1910) crank-handle one that would only sew forwards. The theory being, I could sew unattended because only a complete idiot would keep turning the handle while my fingers were in the way! (My siblings were 6 and 3, so Mum hadn't much time for handholding around sewing). After Christmas we went shopping and bought a pattern and some brushed cotton and Mum helped me make a long nighty with a ruffle round the yoke, by making a smaller version for my sister alongside me. I was so proud to wear something I'd made myself, and felt so grown up using the machine. That machine was my only one until I was 29, and it's still my go-to machine for heavy fabrics or straight-line sewing. I love the gentle, contemplative clank of the handle going round. One of my GGMs was a draper's daughter and would have used the same thing.

As an adult, my very favourite presents were from the children, the year after we moved house. They were 5, 3 and 1 and we were mortgaged to the hilt and absolutely brassic. I had a list of books I was interested in and DH filled in a library request card for each book and got each child to draw me a picture / do a scribble and taped the card and 50p for the reservation fee to each picture. It was such a lovely thing to do. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, DS2 presented me with a lid from an old Golden Syrup jar "a mirror for your handbag, Mummy" . I still have it.

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly, what a gorgeous dh and dc you have.

It was so lovely @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads. DS2 will be having his first grown up Christmas away from us on Christmas morning this year, so it feels very poignant right now.

@ElizabethinherGermanGarden

Ooh, and the Crayola crayon carousel. That was ace.

Omg yes 😍