Christmas is a time for reflection. Like a prism it beams the fairy lights of Childhood into view. For 15 years I enjoyed truly wonderful family Chistmassses during the 1960's and early 1970's. My parents were very loving and kind and treated all their children to a great festive season full of tradition, feasting and presents. I can see now my Mum wrapping countless gifts for Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, nephews, Cousins and freinds. All got beautiful paper finsihed with christmas sticky tape and glittered labels. These gifts were delivered by my Mum and Dad during Advent as they motored round Lancashire like breathless chickens.
As for me, well I was the youngest of five and inevitably this status confered on me special priveleges at Christmas. Principally this meant more prezzies than any of my sibs! These gifts were the stuff of my childhood and are now the bright tinsel of memory. I often muse if I were to assemble every present I ever recieved would my parents magically appear to complete the scene! I'm staring at a twinkling Xmas tree so you must forgive me for becoming nostalgic.
Like my pals, I got the must-haves of the time: Rock 'em Sock 'Em Robots, Raleigh Chopper, Moulton Mini, Johnny Seven OMA, Action Man, HotWheels, Superfast, Airfix Flight Deck, Fossil Hunting Kit, Thomas Salter Adventure Set and so on and on and on until our last family Xmas in 1976 when we lost Mum far too soon and Christmas changed forever.
Like many readers of this blog, I loved all my toys and remember nearly all of them. Some were especially cherished at the time and taken into my primary school on presents day, where we 'showed off' our gifts in early January. My top five toys are pictured above. Friends all. We are now re-united.
What would your top five prezzies be?
Hard to pick a favourite, but it was a great pleasure to see once again, and find out more about the space toys I had when young. Also enjoyed the ventures into nostalgia wih advertising, eg, thunderbirds, ice creams etc.
ReplyDeleteSorry, this comment was an answer to feature below -not quite on the ball today.
ReplyDeleteLike you I get a nostalgia hit at this time of year, strangely I would go with the small things, not the 'Big Presents'; mice marker-pens with rope tails, 3-inch wind-up walking robots; stinky, bubble-blowing, orange 'glue' in a blue tube; egg-shaped racers with 'cryptonic' wheels...all from the stocking we'd find at about 4AM!!!
ReplyDeleteFor the fifth; A big present, a Lott's microscope, which I had until a few years ago when one of the kids I was looking after learnt to climb through my window while I attended some (probably engineered!) crisis with one of the other residents.
He took it and my hexagonal-cut cane fishing rod and probably flogged them for an ounce of weed!!!
I think I've tracked down all the small scale figures I had as a kid, and a pontoon Assault Set! But still have to track-down some of the larger ones.
Fave.Toy...spectrum persuite vehicle, but I'm not sure it was a Crimbo-prezzy, might have been a birthday thang!
4am? Good Grief. What did your parents say?
ReplyDeleteI thought about the question. I had some lovely pressies in my time. But the ones which actually stick in my mind looking back, are the totally unexpected ones.
When I was very young, my parents lived in a house converted into three homes. (We were in the basement). One very early Christmas they took my hands and said, "you have to come upstairs to see your present." And I'm like, "Oh my goddess, it's finally happened. They are selling me to slavers or something." So I was led upstairs, puzzled, a little nervous and wondering why a present had to be kept upstairs ... and they proudly showed me the most amazing bike they'd got me! It took me completely by surprise as you can imagine. And not a slaver anywhere in sight. Got a lot of use out of that pressie!
And the others which i remember distinctly were the annuals. I never cottoned on to the fact there would always be annuals at Chrissie,, so they were another surprise and have consequently stuck in my mind. (And oddly, were the ones which I returned to most often over the years).
So although it makes total sense to let people know what you want, I really am not a fan of giving out lists of "what I want this year" ...
Dinky toys such as Ed Straker's car, Shado Mobile and UFO Interceptor. I think Dinky must have been quite expensive as I only seemed to get them at Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThough I've had Playstations, X-Boxes etc it's still the small pressies that I seem to love the most. Or maybe it's just nostalgia. ;D