What was your fave toy you got for Christmas as a kid?

Had to do some thinkin' on that, but I reckon that the bestest toy that I got here in the back woods of western Kentucky, was back in 1962 when I was 7 years old. I asked Santa Claus for a puppy, but when I looked under the tree Christmas morning, I saw a skunk with a red ribbon around his neck. I found out later that my Pops had left the back door open a little when he got back home from cuttin' firewood and this little critter got inside the trailer house and when he was rootin' around in the trash pail, he got the Christmas gift wrapping ribbon stuck around his neck. Well, when I saw that cute little critter under the tree with the ribbon around his neck, I figured that my folks couldn't afford a puppy, so's they got me a pet skunk.

My folks was gonna boot him outside when they smelled him, but after we got to know each other and I had to scrub the rugs to get the smell out 5 times, he settled down some. I could pet him like a puppy and take him for walks on a leash like a puppy. A couple weeks after Christmas, the back door got left open again and he just walked back out into the woods behind the trailer house. That next summer I saw him back by the outhouse standin' there proud as could be with his lady skunk and two little ones. I guess it was just his way of sayin' hello again and he wanted to show me his family.

I learnt a lesson from all of that. All God's critters and all us humans can all get along iff'n we just put differences aside and respect each other.


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Via dolarossa said:
Hey peepies,
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lol!

My parents were very generous at Christmas time and back then everything cost much less. In 1967 my Dad was deployed to Vietnam so my late Mom took care of the shopping while we kids decorated inside and outside the house.

Back then we would attend Christmas Eve service and then gather with the whole family and relatives. Christmas Eve was a great present in itself.

That Christmas Mom gave me new record albums @ $3.99 each. I remember getting (several albums) by the Ventures (instrumental group,) The Doors (Debut album) and The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour. I don't remember other albums but for a 10 year old that was an awesome present.

Where we live now Hazel and I have a total of 12 family members and are considered the elderly senior Aunt and Uncle. So we are more blessed giving to the kids and their parents.

Merry Christmas.
 
A favourite Christmas present? I can"t remember. But I have been told that my favourite ever toy was a 'ghost' I don't remember having a ghost, but my family told me I carried it about with me everywhere I went.

My most favourite present ever was a real live black Labrador. Still my favourite breed of dog.

Via this is a brilliant thread.
 
My dad's company (he worked for the newspaper) had a Christmas were all the employees children were given gifts according to their age. I don't remember any toys but I do remember a board game called Holiday. Instead of going on an actual holiday you moved your pieces on the board and pretended you were on holiday (in Australia)

We never did go to Australia on a holiday as a family, but we eventually did go on one in NZ. It meant driving around a holiday town, looking for a motel vacancy because this was pre-internet lol

One year I received a Santa Bear which was a polar bear teddy dressed up as Santa. My sister received exact same one from Farmers. Every year they had them. To make mine different from hers, I pretended he wouldn't wear his santa hat and scarf and went au naturel. lol
 
btw Farmers is a big department store in NZ. It was originally owned by Robert Laidlaw, who was a christian.
Every year they have a Farmers Santa Parade down Queen St which is the main street in Auckland. The original flagship store had a free tram and parking in town, and up the top a playground for children, this was in the days before shopping malls. By the time I was born, it had expanded into many stores usually in malls. It sold everything except tractors, seeds and things farmers already had.

I think going there was an experience of seeing all goods you could ever want in your home, plus clothes, toys, fridges, bedding, furniture etc. It had everything.

This was before discount warehouses came along like..the Warehouse.
 
Cosia said:
A favourite Christmas present? I can"t remember. But I have been told that my favourite ever toy was a 'ghost' I don't remember having a ghost, but my family told me I carried it about with me everywhere I went.

My most favourite present ever was a real live black Labrador. Still my favourite breed of dog.

Via this is a brilliant thread.
Click to expand...
Hey Cosia that sounds fun.

I imagine he was a friendly ghost. Like Casper.
 
When I was a little guy, my parents were very generous, and I received some very nice things. I can remember toys like electric model cars and a gas powered plane that flew around me and was controlled by strings.

But the time I remember when I think back was when a teacher encouraged me to sit back and watch the others open their gifts. I saw the smiles on my brother and sister (as well as mom and dad) and enjoyed their pleasure.
 
If you have an attic why not just go up there for christmas where all the toys are stored and play with them again.

I'm trying to remember where I put that game or if I still have santa bear. I think he's at my brothers house in a closet somewhere and I don't know what happened to the board game. Usually give toys away to younger cousins once I finished with them, I haven't kept much. Most toys break after a while or you outgrow them, though I think soft toys/dolls have more value for children esp girls as we pretend they are real and love them like they are their own personalities. I don't know if it's really christian to do this though.

When giving to children its better to give things like art materials or maybe an instrument or a game they can play with others (but not a video game) to keep them amused, or books. Or experiences, like saying you'll have an outing with them and a treat like an ice-cream or yum cha.

Older children outgrow toys and want cash or vouchers so they can buy what they want (they've learned gifts are just bought at the mall) or so they can give to others. I was giving to others when I was in teens and would go shopping as soon as I got money and buy gifts to give to everyone in the family AND extended family. I didn't know you weren't supposed to do that because the parents got mad when I started giving their children gifts that they couldn't afford to do or have time to do themselves.

My sister would nag me to go christmas shopping I recall. Then we had to pretend that we didn't know what we were buying and hide the gifts from each other. We don't do that anymore but it was a bit of a farce lol
 
When I was younger there was a big Toy Warehouse shop that sold nothing but toys. In the school holidays we would go there just to look at all the toys. We didn't buy any it was just enough to look at them all. They were very expensive.

When I go into a toy shop now I'm still amazed at all the toys and how pricy some are.

I've heard the most popular toys at the moment are Squishmallows. Basically cuddly plush toys!

Mum made a lot of toys for us, she made ragdolls, and when I learned to sew and knit I made my own too. I think if I worked in a toy shop I would just never grow up lol.

I remember getting Grease Soundtrack on double cassette. That was my first tape. I think one year I did receive a walkman and it got a lot of use until the batteries ran out. Whenever I had an album I would play it over and over and memorised all the words. If playing on a walkman I could drown out the outside world for a while. When we couldn't afford new albums we'd just try to catch the songs on the radio and record them on tape. lol
The albums though had songs that they didn't play on the radio.
 
One of the local churches hosts a toy library. All the toys are in the church cupboards on rolling shelves and once a month they are brought out for parents to borrow for a few weeks. The parents have to volunteer in the library and they also pay an annual subscription, and then are allowed to borrow toys that they could not afford to buy.

Some of the toys are massive, like there are trikes and trucks or dollhouses and bouncy inflatables. There's also lots of wooden blocks and costumes etc I wanted puppets but they didn't really have any when I looked.

It's funny that its all in the church and then put away after they finished and then they hold services there. You wouldn't know that the toys are hidden away inside the church.
 
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