Christmas presents when you were young

It was wartime and the family income was £2.00 weekly. My father had saved up £10 (wartime profiteering) to buy me a large doll. I have no memories of this at the age of nearly 3. My mother tells me I threw it down the stairs, shattering it, shouting ' You know I hate dolls' I suppose that this is where any of my own children got their lack of graciousness from!

I remember Bayko,but dont often find anyone else who has heard of it Antonia. Used to love making houses,especially with the bay windows. I too recently saw it in a museum and showed my DH,but he had never seen it before.
My aunt used to knit me jumpers,and I can remember a baby doll in a little plastic carry cot with carrying handles.

My Mother's parents passed away before I was born and my Father's parents always gave me savings certificates for Christmas, which I didn't appreciate at the time, but I did later on when my Dad gave me the money to buy my first car! It had mounted up to the princely sum of £300, so you can tell it was a long time ago!
I also had a Bayko building set which I adored and played with all the time and of course, lots and lots of books!
My uncle was a woodwork teacher and one year he made me a dolls' house and we had some friends who had a brush factory which also made wooden toys, so they used to give me nice gifts as well. I remember a lovely set of skittles like soldiers and a set of a doll sized table and two chairs. One year I had a train set which was a bit of a disappointment as it only went round in circles.
One friend of my parents always gave me very grown-up presents. I remember in particular a proper green fake snake handbag, which was my pride and joy and a bottle of perfume with a golden galleon as a stopper. I was about 8 at the time. She also gave me a silver embroidered purse for parties. One of my aunties always gave me a Rupert book. One year I got the first set of Whimsies. hang on to your Whimsies, as some of them are quite valuable!
Nothing will ever beat the feeling of waking up on Christmas morning to feel a pillow case full of exciting presents on your feet!!!

Oh lots of memories flooding back reading these posts! Miniature sewing machine.post office set.compendium of games.bunty annual secret seven books❤ beautiful double fronted dolls house with furniture.mini people&even lights...best ever.1962 got beautiful new riding hat and hacking jacket...thanks mum&dad be thinkingvof you on Christmas day✨✨

Loving this thread & the reminder of the long forgotten Pretty Peach - it was wonderful. The Brittains Floral Garden gave me hours of entertainment and mine was added to every Christmas and birthday. I remember the excitement when I got my greenhouse! I've never found anyone else who had one. One year, I got a chemistry set & promptly ruined the kitchen sink by pouring something noxious down it!

A dolly I called Jane. When I turned her on her front she said ma-ma. I still have her 68 years on but she looks a bit poorly now. Also loved to receive the 'Girl' annual each year. My sister used to get 'Schoolfriend' annual so we shared them.

Grandma60 I remember Avon Pretty Peach as well, I got some one Christmas & loved it. I once received underwear from an old Auntie - not quite what a teenage girl should wear more an adult set!!! Mum did see the funny side. Loved Sindy doll & also had a watch with a china Sindy one Christmas.Always a Tangerine in my stocking & a brand new (old) penny. Paint set or crayons, fuzzy felt when I was little. Colouring books including "magic colouring book".

I was inundated with diaries: schoolgirl diary, Guide diary - likewise annuals.

Wade Whimseys came in crackers - I had some as presents too, and had a large collection which I have handed on to the DGC but I'm not sure that they will treasure them as much as I did.

Dad made me a doll's house covered in brick paper and I still have the plastic furniture upstairs somewhere; unfortunately my DN played with the house and got the better of it in the end.
A big walkie-talkie doll which I named Caroline.

I had a stove one year which lit with methylated spirits underneath!
And a robot and a chemistry set (not all girlie toys).

And I too had a set of Wades Whimseys - China animals , when I was older and wish they hadnt been thrown away.

I used to have ALL my presents at once in a pillow case, brought by father christmas. Some said love from Auntie Doris etc but I was told people had sent presents to F C for him to deliver. Unlabelled ones were from him.
I always got an annual which I looked forward to - either Rupert or 'Fudge the Elf ' -does anyone remember him? He had a friend called Speck.
Some things I remember were: a magic painting book (you used water - much better than today's ones), knitted angora boleros (always worn for birthday parties) Secret seven and other Enid Blyton books, dolls, paper doll dressing books. My grandmother made me a golliwog which was my favourite toy - much disapproved of these days. My father made me a dolls house out of an old radio case, open at the front with just four rooms, all papered and carpeted, which I loved. I do remember one year coming downstairs and finding a dolls pram - amazing!! I was told F C couldnt fit it in th pillow case!

Compendium of Games? yes Katyk, was your doll a 'Rosebud' doll Charleygirl? I still have mind,hard plastic, they weren't exactly cuddly but I'd push mine around in a dolls pram, my Dad made me a dolls house one year, still have it, from a kit from a magazine (Woman's Weekly?). My birthday is in November so I often had a joint Christmas and birthday 'main' present, a second hand bike one year and a second hand portable typewriter another. Loved the plasticine strips and annuals too

I love these memory threads.We always used to get annuals, and I loved the Rupert Bear ones. Later, it was School Friend, Girls Chrystal and Girl. I'm repeating myself from another thread, but we had presents made by by Dad - desks, garages, dolls houses etc. We, too, loved the games compendiums.
One Christmas both my sister and I had chicken pox and we had popper beads. My gran quipped that you couldn't see where the popper beads ended and we began. We both felt ill but made and wore those popper bead necklaces.
My brother had a Mobo Pony one year. You pressed down on the pedals with your feet, its legs went back and forth and it moved along very slowly. He was beside himself with joy.
We used to get one present each from my parents and that was that - plus presents from relatives. It's changed a bit - children seem to get multiple presents now. It's gone a bit OTT.

Yes I too rememnber the Bayko building set which I loved. Also there was another construction set with tiny ceramic bricks which you stuck together with paste. When you'd built your building and got tired of it you put it in a bowl of water and the paste dissolved and you could re-use the bricks.

My best present ever, when I was a little boy of about 7, came from some friends of my Dad at the other end of the country. It was a stout cardboard box. Inside was a super collection of real tools. Clamps, saw, pliers, screwdriver, fretsaw, a hand-drill, drill bits, hammer,a little plane, screws and nails. It wasn't a kit but a well chosen set of tools for a boy who was already mad on woodwork. My Dad showed me how to use them, and supplied bits of wood. He warned me sternly "I don't want to find you drilling into the furniture." Sixty years later I have a wonderfully equipped hobby workshop but I still have some of those well chosen tools. What happiness I have had from them.

and Bijou

The Christmas when I was seven, 1930, I was given a full size bisque head baby doll. Billy Boy.I have always treasured it making new clothes for him but a few weeks ago I dropped it breaking the head into many pieces. I was quite upset so my 67 year old son came bringing the teddy bear I gave him for his first Christmas to console me.

I remember having a dolls house too. It wasn't new; my father saw an ad in the local paper. He bought some special brick paper to re-cover the outside, and some left over wallpaper went on the inside. I thought it was very special. I think the only Christmas present I was disappointed with was a walking talking doll, whose legs didn't articulate in a way that enabled her to sit. And she didn't fit in my doll's pram because she was quite big. Always an ungrateful child! One year my nephews had a Crow Shoot, which we all thought was great fun. The crows sat on a wire stand and you had to fire corks from a pop gun and try and knock them off! Another nightmare for 'elf and safety if they were around these days - the targets weren't always the crows! .

We were spoiled at Christmas because my sister and I were the only children in the family with Mum, Dad, 2 Grannies, 2 Aunties and 2 Uncles all buying for us. Best ever present however was the doll's house Mum and Dad made for us from an orangebox. It only had two rooms - one papered, carpeted and curtained to match our livingroom, the other an exact copy of our bedroom. It even had working ceiling lights with tiny switches on the wall.

How my parent's managed to construct and hide this masterpiece in a prefab without us suspecting anything is quite amazing but I know they had as much pleasure in the designing and making as we did playing with it.

Oh my! I do remember playing for hours with the Bayko set with rods and resin walls. I see they now appear in auctions. I also remember a vending machine that dispensed tiny chocolate bars, and a washing machine that washed dolls clothes, not sure if it had batteries or more likely a hand cranked propellor in it to swish the water

I've just remembered getting a Vulcan sewing machine -it was tiny and didn't work very well but I loved it. That must have been the start of my favourite hobby.

My parents did their best, we had the compendium of games and plasticine and dolls but one year, my sister and I received from an aunt and uncle, who had emigrated to Canada, pants and an under-slip in pink and white nylon. We felt like film stars, I think I was about 10 and my sister 6.........wow Canada seemed like a dream place.

I remember going into our shed and catching dad making something. He said it was a hen house. At Christmas I received a dolls cradle and it was what he'd been making! Mum made dolls clothes out of my outgrown clothes and I recognised them too.

A John Bull printing set (a joint present to my sister and I)

A film star annual
A 'heroines' annual (Edith Cavell, Amy Johnson, Joan of Arc, etc)

All age about 11
My dad must have had a win on the horses!!!!

Those books were read dozens of times .... But we had a weekly mobile library too

Printing sets that got you covered in ink and annuals. I also got a doll that you had coloured plastic records to insert so she would sing. I think she walked too.

One year when I was about 7 I got a sledge and that year it actually snowed on Christmas Morning, so I was able to get out and had an amazing morning!