Christmas presents when you were young

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!

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✨✨

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!!!

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.

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!

We had the pillow case of presents too.Also one of the Grandads made a dolls house, the usual brick wallpaper and little electric lights, but sadly we had no interest in it.
I really liked any painting sets, especially painting by numbers, also dot-to-dot books.
usually got the paper dolls with cut out dresses, which I enjoyed swapping around, dresses with little flowers on them, rather fancy.Little metal pots and pans for a spot of pretend cooking were always well received.As was any selection box!

One year I was desperate for a pair of those high heeled 'glass' (plastic!) shoes that would make me feel like a princess. I can't remember whether I ever got them, so I can't have wanted them that much!

I loved Bayko too, and again, particularly the bay windows. I've always wanted a house with bay windows (never got one ), and I see now that Bayko probably put that idea in my head!

I seem to remember a friend having a toy typewriter where there was a wheel to move around to get your letters onto the paper. It's a bit vague as to how that worked.

I've just seen your post about the methylated spirit stove, Jalima! I wonder if it was the same as mine? I've google it in vain, and never heard of anyone else having one (perhaps they all came to a nasty early end ).

And I've still got what I think is a Rosebud doll, resplendent in hand-knitted blue dress, sitting on a shelf in my cellar. Annie, her name is. My girls used to think she had a spooky stare, but I loved her

I am sure that Bayko gave me delusions of grandeur Maggiemaybe. We lived in a terraced house and the Bayko houses (they came with garages too as I recall) were an almost unattainable dream! I haven't managed the house with bay windows either, but who knows, maybe one day! Wigeon3, your post almost had me in tears! I remember seeing a live production of Pinnochio by a travelling theatre group, and the father's heartbroken grief when Pinnochio rejected all his efforts and sacrifices nearly made me cry when I saw it. Perhaps I need to grow up!

Jalima my sister and I shared a methylation spirit stove one Christmas. I remember cooking rice in one of the little saucepan. It stuck and burned. The house smelled awful all Boxing Day

I was beginning to wonder if I dreamt it BBevan and Maggiemaybe, I'm sure the metal of the stove went all black and it didn't last very long!

Yes, I had a typewriter one year. Before that I had a John Bull printing set.

Nothing to do with Christmas presents, but wondering if the methylated spirit stove was an old Primus, used for camping.
My parents had one, and you had to use methylated spirit
to get it going.

No, it was a proper toy stove, very small, looked like a proper little cooker.
I'll see if I can find one on the internet.

We had a Primus years ago which we used to take camping.

It was something like thyis but I think mine had a back

www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewAuctionLots.aspx?AuctionId=337&DayNo=3&Section=296&Start=40

It probably got thrown out before I set the house on fire!

Sorry - Lot 3244

I also had a Bayko Building Set and grew up to marry an architect, who also had a Bayko!! When we downsized 14 years ago to a bungalow we sold the two small sets in the local antique market and got nearly £40!

When I was about 7 my Dad made me a sewing box from an ex army gas mask box. They were strong wooden boxes and he painted it blue. Unfortunately he didn't hide it very well and I could see it under the bed in the spare room drying!! When I was given it, Mom had lined it with pink taffeta and it was lovely. I never let on that I had seen it.

KatyK I had one of those typewriters I had pleaded for a petite typewriter so had to hide my disappointment on Christmas morning when I received this metal one with the letters painted on you turned a wheel to the correct letter and pressed down and a lever shot out against the ribbon. Mum couldn't see the point of spending money on something I wanted if she could find a cheaper alternative. She has kept this up this year she has given my hubby an experience day I got an envelope with a hand written invitation to go along and watch him!!

GrammaH I had the Britain's garden too and I eventually got the greenhouse! Sadly, my little plastic gardens were a lot neater than the jungle I'm looking at at the moment.

The dolls house my dad made me. I made some of the furniture using empty matchboxes and fabric or wallpaper. It got given away when we moved house. I was so angry as nobody had asked me if I still wanted it. ?
He kept the plans and made an identical one for my daughter. I still have it and don't intend to part with it!

It's nice to see reading through these posts how many posters remember the gifts that their dad or other relatives actually made for them

Not a Christmas present, but when DM was expecting me my Dad got issued some new thick seaboot socks (cream wool) which Mum unravelled and knitted into a baby blanket for me.