BS: Christmas Toys you remember

Subject: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 11:13 AM

I remember the NASA rocketbase pkay set and the plastic model of the Capitol building with all the presidents. Later I graduated to marbles.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 12:50 PM

My first proper electric guitar - a Futurama II !!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 02:11 PM

The Golden Book of Astronomy and later, an alto recorder.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 06:17 PM

A small bicycle when I was in 2nd grade, and a Lionel train set when I was in 3rd grade... both were used, because it was just after WWII, but both were wonderful. I didn't even notice they weren't new.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mo the caller
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 07:48 AM

A wind-up plastic stocking-filler dancing doll, with a long skirt. I was thrilled with it but dropped it and broke it almost as soon as I had it, and hid it in shame.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: DMcG
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 08:01 AM

Working with my father one Christmas morning to build a Meccano model of Tower Bridge, which was only about a foot less tall than I was.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 05:17 PM

Toys I remember giving - my daughter was three when she finally got a Fisher Price stove set of her own. That was I think her best gift ever and the kids got many years of play out of it. With my son I have photos of him ignoring the toy and sitting in the box. :)

To keep the kids busy on xmas morning they were told they could unpack their stockings when they got up as long as everything else was left alone. To keep them busy there were puzzles or a small Legos kit. My son was the real Legos fan and that gift evolved into a family tradition of finding another and progressively older age rated new Lego kit for him to assemble on xmas morning. I learned recently from his girlfriend and their roommate that he still insists on Legos on xmas morning and buys them for himself. (He's 28.)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 05:48 PM

First birthday: Lionel electric train, which I still have (1945).

Otherwise: Chemistry setS, cap guns, sled, NEW underwear.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 04:15 AM

Not really toys, but I remember many a Christmas when I came downstairs to a little pile of embroidered hankies and bath salts from well-meaning aunts and great-aunts.
At least we got sugar mice in our stockings.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mo the caller
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 05:35 AM

Oh yes the 'smellies. (usually regifted). And feeling the parcels before the Day to guess what the aunties had sent this year. Somehow they came in batches. The year of the smellies, the glove year etc. The mystery parcel I remember that puzzled us all was obviously face shaped. Was it an ugly brooch? No it was a puzzle - remove the ball bearing nose without lifting the plastic face.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 05:41 AM

My birthday being close to Chritmas... For my fourth birthday, in 1957, a 12mm gauge 3mm scale K's kit of a 97xx class Great western Railway 0-6-0T pannier tank loco on a Triang "Jinty" chassis.
For Christmas a Triang Castle class to accompany it. Both still run nicely.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 05:58 AM

The mystery parcel I remember that puzzled us all

We had a family tradition that we followed until the children went to their own homes, and still do occasionally. We all write a 'clue' on each present, but the objective is that it should be of almost no help in guessing the contents, but be obvious once the present has been opened.

But as for a particularly baffling present: My sister gave my something electronic in a standard rectangular box, but took the plug out and attached that to the outside of the box, then padded it so there was an odd shaped lump to the parcel. She then instructed me to keep it in the fridge...

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 07:07 AM

I forgot the little bottles of 'Devon violets' perfume (also from aunts).
I was the kind of child who spent half my time out of school climbing trees and running round the garden jumping over things, pretending to be a horse. The perfume remained unopened.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 08:07 AM

I remember finding some things in a cupboard. I guess it must have been just before Christmas but I don't really remember. There was a gun, a doll and ball of string. The doll must have been for my sister so I decided the gun must be mine and the ball of string my little brother's

As it turned out the gun was his and mine was a kite :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 10:49 AM

I have an uncle my age so I was dissapointed when a ship model under the tree was for him. I remember it was the USS Maine.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 11:34 AM

I remember very little from childhood xmas gift episodes, but then, no one ever gave me a model train. There were art supplies, some I still have (beautifully colored chalk, crayons, pencils, etc.). Sealing wax from my cousins, the post office probably hates that stuff. When I was a teen there was one year that Mom was really strapped for cash so the four of us were presented with the choice - the usual bigger meal for xmas, and token gifts, or nothing fancy for dinner and a larger gift. We all chose the fancy dinner, and that year my gift was a shiny big Capricorn necklace (not my sign, but whatever) in a gold-colored metal. That thing hung around in a music box, never worn, until I told the story to my daughter a couple of years ago and asked if she could use it as part of her various costumes? She happily added it to her stash.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 08:03 PM

Forts and garages, made of tinplate. In the pillow case there would be (select from) a torch, a Cadbury's selection box, some sort of snakes-and-laddersish game, Happy Families, a chemistry set (I wonder whether that old house we left 60 years ago still has those potassium permanganate stains on the walls...), a book (probably the Eagle Annual, starring Dan Dare, pilot of the future), a tinplate spinning top...

I did get a mini-snooker table one year, and a cheapie X30 refracting telescope another time. That telescope, along with Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia (especially the Earth And Its Neighbours chapters) got me going on science. Dammit, I've never looked back.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 08:56 PM

65 years ago, I gave my younger brother an archery set. It had real arrows with points. I was not sure of how to manage a target, but my clever uncle, who lived only a block away said he'd go to a farm he knew and get some bales of hay. He kept two of the three 4ft. by about 2ft. in his truck, but late at night he brought the 3rd one in and put it in front of the tree with a ribbon around it and a tag saying "from Santa."

    Next morning, Steve found a bale of hay with his name on it. Jokes were made about Santa deciding my brother needing to go on a diet, etc..and it was an interesting 15 minutes until he opened my present.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 03:33 AM

I used to feel sorry for the children who boasted about their huge pillowcases, They never knew the magic of a full stocking - and we didn't have those big red fake "stockings" designed only for Christmas. Ours were real socks, my father's big wool socks designed to be worn on long country walks. They became like long lumpy snakes on the end of the bed and it was amazing how much Father Christmas (never 'Santa') managed to stuff into them.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 08:44 AM

Funny thing is, I don't remember a single Xmas present per se, but I can remember spending Xmas in hotels in Weston super Mare, Birmingham and with Aunt and Uncle when we all went to the Lygon Arms in Broadway for lunch one year, v posh. Another Xmas with Aunt & Uncle's friends.

So it is people and places that stuck in my mind. How odd!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 09:29 AM

On Christmas Eve 1964 me dad and I were out delivering presents. We arrived at my auntie and uncle's - to discover that dear old Uncle Fred (aged 45) had dropped dead in the street at 8.15 pm. Auntie spent Christmas with us and it was the most miserable time ever. One of my cherished presents was Beatles LP Beatles For Sale. Well I could hardly play it at all, given the gloom. The rather grim album cover photo of the Fab Four, which I had to content myself by staring at, hardly helped. Every time I hear that opening track (No Reply) it reminds me of Uncle Fred. Lovely feller he was.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mo the caller
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 02:53 PM

Arthur Mee's children's encyclopedia. Ah yes. I got my copy secondhand from a newspaper small ad. Remember going by bus with a parent to buy it. Must have been summer, not Christmas (birthday maybe) as the seller wrapped it in cloth to carry home (12 volumes so a big parcel). The cloth made a play-tent in the garden. I still have it, it was rather old fashioned even then.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 03:37 PM

Which do you still have, the tent or the encyclopaedia?
We had the Children's Encyclopaedia, and a subscription to the Children's Newspaper, I think that was also produced by Arthur Mee. (We weren't allowed comics.)
I can't remember reading any articles in the newspaper but on the back page there were small ads for stamp collectors. You sent for 'approvals' - a little packet of stamps - and then paid for the ones you kept and sent the others back. We were always scrupulously honest. I've no idea what would have happened if we hadn't played by the rules.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mo the caller
Date: 09 Jan 21 - 07:42 AM

Still have the encyclopedia. I also had the Childrens Newspaper, my parents thought it more educational than comics.I didn't read much of the news, there a jokes or puzzles page - that was more my line. I sent for the stamps approvals because they came with packets of free stamps. No need to buy anything you didn't want, but I usually did. My father got fed up with firms that kept sending approvals that we hadn't sent for. On one occasion he wrote back to them saying unless they collected them or sent postage within a certain time, we would keep them. So months later I was allowed to stick them in my album.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jan 21 - 08:45 PM

One Christmas we were given a plastic robot-like thing. It was called "Robby the Robot" and if you turned a crank the action was sent through at attached cable and the thing would "walk" and swing its arms. But the coolest thing of all (in the middle 1950s) was that if you pushed a button several times it would TALK! It would say, "I am Robby the Robot mechanical man. If I can't do it nobody can" or something like that.

AND, you can find anything on the Internet! Here it is!

(My memory ain't too bad yet.)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: JHW
Date: 12 Jan 21 - 06:01 AM

Friction drive spaceship that sparked. A flint on the flywheel. Tinplate fastened with bent tags. Walking back from church over a mile away with my dad and looking forward to playing with the new toy. Remembered it walking that road last year.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Jan 21 - 12:17 PM

I remember a John Bull printing set (little rubber letters and an ink pad)
A set of liquorice pipes and cigarettes called Smokey Joe
A rather classy doll's pram with a celluloid doll in it called Rosemary.
(I hated the doll and the pram, but it must have cost a lot of money. I thought it was cissy)
A large pair of home-made wooden stilts and some steel-wheeled roller skates. (Very pleased with those! The skates made a hell of a noise on the pavements!)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 06:10 PM

My brothers and I didn't get what we REALLY wanted.

Dear Santa,

How are you? I am fine and I have been really good all year and so have my brothers, mostly. Please bring me about 50 yards of PETN detonated cord, some C-2 plastic explosives, and some detonators for these things. I promise not to do anything bad. My brothers would like a real Winchester rifle like Red Ryder uses and some bullets and the other one would like a real Bowie knife. I'll see that they don't do anything bad with them.

Thanks you.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 08:03 PM

I had one of those as well, JHW. Thanks for reminding me!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Mo the caller
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 08:56 AM

Yes, John Bull printing set in a small box. By the time my children were the same age the box had got a lot bigger though the contents were the same.
And the liquorice pipes, sweet cigarettes, sugar mice, chocolate creme watches and chocolate bells from the Christmas tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 09:15 AM

We always had a sugar mouse in our Christmas stockings, with a bit of string for the tail.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 09:21 AM

Sugar mice are not good for the teeth, of course, but it was only one mouse a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Murpholly
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 12:07 AM

John Bull printing set and iquorice smoking set I remember. I also got a wind up train set (no dolls for me) a book about three puppies called Woof, Snuff and Puff and a wonderful set called Bayko with which you could build houses using rods and bricks. Brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 04:22 AM

There are people who collect Bayko and one of them is a friend who lives in Lancaster.

I had something that was between Bayko and Lego, called BettaBuilder (not sure of spelling). It is still in the loft and the grandchildren have played with it.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 10:12 AM

ball

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 01:36 AM

I can’t remember what was Christmas and what was birthday.

Starting with the construction toys, Lego was a favourite of mine for a few years. I particularly enjoyed this motor and track.

Not one of my presents but on construction toys, I also liked a brother’s Fisherteknik a little later in time. I suppose I could think of it as a cross between Lego and Meccano. It had the ease of Lego to build but could make more complicated structures.

Another present I remember was a Mamod traction engine. I lost mine around 1978 with a house move but got another in later life. It’s just been sitting on a shelf for a few years but I fired it and a Wilesco model up today.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 08:40 AM

Murpholly has mentioned books too.
I was given one called 'Pooky', a dreadfully sad tale about a poor little rabbit which my father read to me at bedtime. I sobbed and howled, so that was closed and put away!
My aunt over in Ontario was a book-buyer for a large store, and every Christmas she sent me a volume from the Bobbsey Twins series. Very nice stories about two sets of twins, by Laura Lee hope.
One memorable Christmas I was given a super red and white tricycle. Just what I wanted! I stubbornly rode it facing backwards, sitting on the handlebars, while my tiny younger sister sat perched on the saddle.
Several neighbours' home-made soapbox/bogey carts were attached and we made a long train. We put babies and toddlers in the carts and I pedalled manfully along at rather a dangerous speed. Great fun!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas Toys you remember
From: JHW
Date: 22 Jan 21 - 06:10 AM

I suppose Christmas Stockings should be separate. Yes we had pillowcases sometimes but parents had real stockings. Coin, orange but also bog roll and bundle of sticks, lump of coal. ie we got the presents. Parents stockings had padding.