Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 (edited) I know Christmas is approaching with frigtening speed but for the next week it's birthday presents in our house! I have been wondered what special or favourite present did you receive as a child and would to go on a trip down memory lane and receive again? Last year we spent alot of time trying to decide what to do present wise for my eldest sons 30th birthday. Being the first son to reach this milestone we were setting a precedent for future birthdays of the other 3. All my sons are independent financially (phew!!!) and really don't 'need' anything so we decided to have a bit of fun and think back to their childhood and favourite gifts they received. For my eldest son we knew it had to be a transformer and if possible Optimus Prime - it had to be an original and boxed in mint condition. We scoured ebay for ages and eventually got one that looked as though it had never been opened let alone played with - it now sits in pride of place in my sons home. We also resurrected long forgotten teddy from the loft and he had a bit of surgery on one paw, a new eye and a smart birthday ribbon around his neck. My son was thrilled and the whole day was a real success Tomorrow is my second sons 30th birthday and we have been on the present hunt again. It was easy to chooose, in the 80's my son begged for a megadrive and sonic the hedgehog and in a moment of madness we bought him the megadrive 2 version and he was speechless. Tomorrow he will be opening a megadrive 2 with two controllers and a variety of games (including sonic of course). He never had a teddy but had a toy monkey he was given when he was born - he too has been smartened up and wrapped ready for tomorrow. The birthday boy popped in tonight and saw his presents wrapped and said he knew me so well he bet I had tried to get a megadrive and I would be upset that it was impossible to find one - he says he will be delighted with whatever we have got and knows we can't do for him what we did for his brother last year - how wrong is he and we are all trying not to give the game away tonight (no pun intended!!) So after all that prattle/explanation I started wondering what I would choose to have again if I could and without doubt for me it would be the lovely green and white silver cross dolls pram I got for my 7th birthday but a petite typewriter comes a close second! OK your turn, what would you have again if you could and why?!!!! Edited December 9, 2009 by Geraldine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 oh what lovely parents you are!! I shall have a think and report back about my present choice! x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 oh wha you are doing for your sons birthday is so lovely and thoughtful!! My favourite present from when i was younger would have to have been a type writer and post office set! i would spend hours typing letters to myself and my family and then posting them using the fake stamps from my popst office set - i could never understand why they never received them!!!! ha ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 oh what lovely parents you are!! I shall have a think and report back about my present choice! x It all came about last year from us saying things like 'where has the time gone...' 'I can't believe he is going to be 30 and that kind of led on to the 'do you remember when ...' and we just decided to have a bit of fun and go back in time. The added bonus is the conversations the presents resulted in - oh! how we laughed and I am sure tomorrow nights meal will be full of 'funnies'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Dolls were always on my wish list and I guess my lack of daughters is the only reason I dont have a houseful now! I always wished for a Petite typewriter too but it was never deemed suitable, until at 14 I received the real thing which I cant bear to part with but which really wasnt used, I wanted the petite version! Besides, my word processing PC is far better now. I was 7 or 8 when I was given a knitting machine by my aunt on Christmas Day, which I saved to use another day but which my dad decided in his wisdom to take apart to find out how it worked. Well it never did work after that. Money was such that it wasnt replaced either so although that remains a bone of contention, Im not sure I would really want another now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 oh wha you are doing for your sons birthday is so lovely and thoughtful!! My favourite present from when i was younger would have to have been a type writer and post office set! i would spend hours typing letters to myself and my family and then posting them using the fake stamps from my popst office set - i could never understand why they never received them!!!! ha ha ha OH I remember those post office sets - I loved the little coloured stamps and you have reminded me that I once had a John Bull printing set - how grown up did I feel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 I always wished for a Petite typewriter too but it was never deemed suitable, out how it worked. Oh Susan, I longed and longed for a Sindy doll or a Tressy (because her hair grew!!) but it was never deemed suitable either The little girl next door but one had a sindy AND her dad made her a little wooden wardrobe complete with hangers for all the clothes - me envious too right I was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Hmmm bit of a theme developing here - I too remember my first Petite Typewriter and was overjoyed. I also used to beg for a post office set from santa year after year in my letter to him - mum always misunderstood and got a stationery set instead! I had a twin dolls pram which absolutely gobsmacked me one year and I remember having a battery operated sewing machine when I was about 7 and spent the whole of christmas day and Boxing Day making little presents for everyone. Geraldine - what great presents for your boys - i have 3 boys eldest 25 at the moment, I may well store up your idea for him. I'm sure we still have the sega megadrive in the loft! Must make mental note not to let OH chuck it, and try to track down some Thundercats and Ghostbusters, or 'gobutters' as he called them. Sorry, went all misty eyed then - and drifted off for a mo!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I had a Tressy and her little sister, Toots, and I remember mum taking me to buy those as dad wasnt at all keen but I wasnt allowed to buy the clothes although my grandma knitted me some and those are in a box somewhere too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I loved the post office sets too, seem to remember getting them quite frequently. We weren't terribly well off but Mum and Dad would go to town at Christmas. We always had a huge sack (a vegetable sack with holes) stuffed full of presents and it was always at the bottom of our bed when we woke up on Christmas morning. Then we would go downstairs and there would be more presents. One year it was a tiny tears doll AND a pram, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Then after lunch there would be a couple of smaller presents under the tree. Magical times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 (edited) Hmmm bit of a theme developing here - I too remember my first Petite Typewriter and was overjoyed. I also used to beg for a post office set from santa year after year in my letter to him - mum always misunderstood and got a stationery set instead! I had a twin dolls pram which absolutely gobsmacked me one year and I remember having a battery operated sewing machine when I was about 7 and spent the whole of christmas day and Boxing Day making little presents for everyone. Geraldine - what great presents for your boys - i have 3 boys eldest 25 at the moment, I may well store up your idea for him. I'm sure we still have the sega megadrive in the loft! Must make mental note not to let OH chuck it, and try to track down some Thundercats and Ghostbusters, or 'gobutters' as he called them. Sorry, went all misty eyed then - and drifted off for a mo!!! It's really quite emotive isn't it - I nearly didn't start this thread but am glad I did as already I have had so many 'ohhh yessss' thoughts. Your mention of the sewing machine is one I think mine was a make called Vulcan and I seem to remember it had a clamp of some sort to attach it to the table. Edited December 9, 2009 by Geraldine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 ohh yes i had a post office - loved it - then my mum bought me some scales and glass jars full of sweeties to go with it. Also loved my cindy and tiny tears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 Little cardboard basket shape with about 6 tiny balls of wool and a pair of knitting needles anyone??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam2368 Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 (edited) What a lovely thread. Makes me all teary! Also makes me think how lucky we were growing up - tiny tears, fabulous bright yellow pram my dog used to ride around in, girls world, brides outfit, typewriter, loved jigsaws, especially the 3,000 we'd do together...my boys just want electronic things. how times change! Edited December 9, 2009 by sam2368 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 oh my god Hali you've just reminded me i too add the jars of sweets and scales and little scoops for the sweets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Little cardboard basket shape with about 6 tiny balls of wool and a pair of knitting needles anyone??? Oh yes! i remember - the wool was soooooo thin! My mum spent ages teaching me to knit - I would go so far, then drop a stitch, she would have to pick it up, then i would split a stitch or the tension would be so tight I could barely move the stitches along, sweaty hands didn't help either. I was fascinated the way my mum could knit and watch tv at the same time, she was like a little machine. years later she was fascinated by the way i learnt to type without looking at the keys! By the way, still useless at knitting, although I did complete the odd garment in the 80's with the help of a weekly publication called Golden Hands I think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Beginning to think I was a spoiled little princess (to be fair I was the only girly in the family in my generation and I am only now great aunt to the first girl born to the family since 1956). I too had a Tressy (two infact, blonde and brunette) my mum would knit lots of bits for them for christmas pressies and my oldest brother made me a wardrobe to keep them in. Still have Tressy brunette, strangely no clothes!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Well mine would definitely be the dolls house that my Daddy made for my sister and me. I was talking about this today, actually! It was a bungalow with real electric lights, wallpaper, parquet floors, carpet, beds and all the furniture etc. Mum had made all the soft furnishings. It was beautiful, all the more so because it was made with so much love. Sadly we never played with it really, because it seemed too precious. Instead we made our own houses out of shoeboxes and stuff - which with the lens of adulthood I can now see must have been upsetting for Mum and Dad, really after they'd spent all that time! I'd love to see it again now, and really appreciate it properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I was the only child in the house and what I really wanted and didn't get was board games-Cluedo, Monopoly, Mousetrap so my girls got them all. I would like again a small portable record player in a red plastic case and I got one single with it 'Let me in' by the Osmonds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 Oh yes! i remember - the wool was soooooo thin! You are sooo right it was really, really thin! Now you have got me thinking, I did learn to knit but can't remember actually mastering it! I knitted for years and when the boys were little I always had a jumper on the go. I haven't knitted in recent years and I think the last lot I did was kitting the boys out in arran jumpers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 We had very little money when growing up... I loved my twin pram with twin dolls... (only one was my sisters really), it was second hand and had been well used, but I loved it for years.. then came the French Knitting kit.. no fancy thing, a wooden cotton reel with 4 nails in the top with some wool... spent ages with it making items for my 'not sindy doll'.. it was a cheap alternative but all we could afford, and came naked in a plastic bag! I also had a clapping monkey with symbols.. you know the kind you wound up and it made so much noise.. I wore that one out.. Our post office kit was made by mum using papers, envelopes and she made stamps with gummed paper on the sewing machine... Jigsaw puzzles.. which filled a large dining table 5000 pieces usually.. a family thing all did pieces as we passed by.. or sat fro hours trying to complete it.. My 18th birthday was a sewing machine of my own.. which was repaired and repaired and only disposed of about 5 years ago when it could no longer be repaired.. I miss that.. There were so many things I remember enjoying , could not choose one item.. Now my son on the other hand... Knex -he had the Roller Coaster and another large structure but cannot remember what it is.. just it took up loads of room! he asked me recently if we still had it (he's 25) and where was it... In the loft as it turns out so I would not have to search hard to find his favourite toys.. we still have them! And his other favourites was his games.. Dizzy Dizzy dinosaur, Shark attack, Pay Day, Cluedo , a new one every Christmas which we all played for days.. and yes they are still in the loft.. Inge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Oh yes forgot the record player.. now I am going to sound really old here - it is a green box and you wind it up with a handle.. and I still have that one... Inge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 My brothers and I used to share a room, bunk beds and a double bed for oldest. Our stockings were put on the bed, did anyone have those net ones with the red crepe paper round the edges? Not much could really be fitted inside them, nuts and an orange at the bottom, then some bits wrapped others not and always a blow out whistle thing on top (so mum and dad knew when we had woken up). Waking up in the dark and feeling around at the bottom of the bed and finding a stuffed stocking - bliss. Then waiting to be told we could go downstairs where our main presents from the family were. Father christmas could only bring small things that would fit in the stocking. We used this ploy with our boys too, so no outrageous cries of Father Christmas can bring anything and everything we want, because he's Father Christmas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 ONe of my regrets is that I didn't keep all their toys in the loft Some are still up there and I can't really remember the 'getting rid of ' the toys! I can only recall giving a load of fisher price stuff away. I kept all their first outfits that they came home from hospital in, their first pair of shoes and their first set of school uniform for each new school. I framed the first picture that they brought home from preschool and primary school and they still hang in the hall but toys seemed to have really 'gone' not quite sure where!!! Oh and they each have a box in the loft with all their school work. projects, reports etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upsy Daisy Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 My Merrythought Teddy which was bought for me on the Queen Elizabeth as we travelled to America for a year when I was 6 weeks old. He remained my night time companion and confidante for the next 18 or so years. In the end he had been repaired and restuffed so many time there was probably less that 10% original teddy left. Other toys remember really using a lot were my succession of bikes on which I spent nearly every evening, weekend and school holiday riding round with friends who lived nearby. I do remember having fun with the post office set and my sister's Cindy doll ( I had a Daisy doll which I imagine was a cheaper version). I still have the three brightly coloured plastic trays full of lego from which my children and childminded children still gain a great deal of pleasure. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 The keeping of toys came from my parents.. things were so precious they were looked after.. and kept.. Our son had my monopoly set , Spirograph, and other games to play with... He found some of my sisters toys one day and adopted those too.. one was a toy mouse.. green and white , an odd thing, he loved it, picked it up and said it was Jim.. not a usual name for a toy but it was the same name my sister had given it years before... ans yes Jim is still with us.. We didn't keep all, just the most used /loved.. and the usual first items .. and all the school reports... Inge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Oh Inge when I was given my Spirograph, I made the different patterns as you do, but I would cut them out and stick them into a scrapbook and those I had created I would record which wheels I had used etc. and index it at the back!! Sad child. the scrapbooks are still in my loft, my mum gave each of us a box of our bits when we left home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I'd like to have the Kodak camera I was given when I was 9 and i'd like it to be full of all the photos of my lovely mum that I took and which were lost when we came back from living in Cyprus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 aw, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlettangel Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 I would like the little red bike I was bought, fell off and never ventured near again............. until I was too big for it! I think your thoughtfulness is wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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