The FastDay Forum

Any fifties kids like me remember getting little round tins of toffees in their stockings?
One main prezzy..i recall the joy getting a dolls pram one year then getting a dolls cot the next year..we also went to my dads work christmas party and santa called in with some really decent pressies! I do think in general many children get too much now and i wonder if its as magical for them these days?

Oh yes @CandiceMarie, were they Bluebird toffees? I agree that today's children generally get far too much and don't appreciate the presents lavished on them but then it's the parents' faults really, maybe trying to compensate for other things?

Oh yes @CandiceMarie, were they Bluebird toffees? I agree that today's children generally get far too much and don't appreciate the presents lavished on them but then it's the parents' faults really, maybe trying to compensate for other things?

Thanks Cally..yes Bluebird! I just couldnt remember the name.
Totally agree with you re pressies for children and parents
Just think its really sad that childhood is different today..been listening to a series on Radio4 extra recently about childhood thru the ages and as we know,children dont get the freedom we were given to" play out" with balls,bats,skates,skipping ropes..play hide and seek and make up games,all day long,out in the fresh air.
Theres such fear now re children going missing or getting knocked over by a car that most children are kept in and yet,this programme said more children were killed by cars in 1922 than now! X

Yes, so no wonder we were all skinny then! Not sat at home with little physical exercise but always out playing in all weathers! Very few overweight or obese children then.

Selection box and a BOYS annual. Usually the Commando Annual or the 2000AD annual, no girlie books for me. I was very much a tom boy. My memory is totally shot, so apart from that I can't remember what the main presents were. I tripped and fell one year, once the concussion had cleared up I found that massive chunks of memory just weren't there any more.

I too was out doors from waking till it went dark. Climbing tree's, playing in the woods and best of all climbing and playing on the walls of a ruined Monastery. That plus being very sporty and being in school and county teams for everything. I had a very athletic build.

I got a pillow case with all presents in it Santas and Aunt and Uncles. Usually second hand things from cousins I was told Santa collected them and the Elves did them up for me. One year I got an ex District nurses black bike, tied to the handle of the wardrobe door, because Santa didn't have time to get the front wheel for it . I was over the moon it was the bet present I ever got and the front wheel was left at the back door a week later. I must have cycled miles on that old bike, it was the only bike I ever owned

All I can remember is a pillow case and one year, a big teddy sticking out. I was NEVER into dolls I liked Mecanno

Unfortunately my mum died when I was 13, and I have blanked anything prior to this age out, so I have no recollection of xmas's or childhood. I have a few pictures which trigger a distant memory, but these were not of my stocking !

Anyone had Plasticraft as a kid ? Wow, the smell of that stuff was lethal

Yes, so no wonder we were all skinny then! Not sat at home with little physical exercise but always out playing in all weathers! Very few overweight or obese children then.

Thats true@callyanna
No fat kids tho my best friend WAS very plump..none of us had any idea of body image so none of us noticed she was fat and we were skinny...her mum used to give her ryvitas and i was mystified by them..also after we'd all been indoors for tea and out playing again,she'd ask me to come to the chippy with her and she'd have a bag of chips telling me,Don't tell my Mum,which also mystified me! Sometimes these days i creep off to the chippy myself hehehe!

Our family tradition these days is that the kids bring hubby and myself breakfast in bed with one present each from under the tree. There is no knowing whether its the main present or a little 'extra' present. So, we sit up in bed, there's a pot of tea,grapefruit and toast with marmalade, the kids, cats and wrapping paper all over our big bed. For a few years it was 3 kids, 3 cats and a large German Shepard dog as well.
Then we all traipse downstairs and take our time unwrapping. It is the job of the youngest person there (if they can read) to hunt for presents for each person in turn and that person only unwraps their present, then it goes around in a circle, one present at a time. It ensures its not a bun fight, with papers flying everywhere and people not knowing who has given what present.

Some brilliant memories here
Yes@Minigill I'd forgotten that one I had a pack of plastisine ever year long ribbed strips each one a different colour so the pack looked like a rainbow

We were always out all day same as you @Julieathome
Climbing trees jumping brooks,
making tree houses and dens.
Love everyone's memories Sue

Yes plasticine. Lego. Pencils, crayons, paints - later on proper grown- up art stuff. tracing books. Those funny things you could draw on, then twist a knob and make the drawing disappear. Books - when younger some lovely Odhams Pop Up Fairytale books. Enid Blytons, Noel Streatfelds, the Bobbsey twins. Also dolls, old fashioned ones with eyes that opened and shut (can anyone remember the smell of a new doll?) and also one year a doll's pram. My dad also made us a doll's house, and they bought doll's furniture for it. Also roller skates - remember those lethal ones you tied round your shoes - no elf and sfety in those days! Later on Sindy doll, games - snakes and ladders, monopoly, Frustration, a Spirograph. My sister got mini cowboys and indians and a ranch. Also a 3 wheeler bike, with a box at the back.

Yes etch a sketch @Silverdarling.
Oohhh the rollerskates now what would today's children make of those "antique" type compared to all the inline brightly coloured variety today. Sue

Ahhh! Spirograph, that was fun. One year I got a tape cassette recorder. I must have been a teen because I used to record the Top 20 every Sunday, quaking in my boots because I thought I was doing something illegal.

Noel streatfield @SilverDarling Loved her books..Ballet Shoes was my fave..and yeah BobseyTwins! Nancy Drew,Sue Barton..did you ever read the Wells books by Lorna Hill? And the Mallory Towers books..i always wanted to be Darrel Rivers..think of her each time i see our Juliana Rivers name x

Never read the Wells books ,but Mallory Towers and St Clares, oh yes! Also the Magic Faraway Tree series, which were my favourites Also Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons series