Author Topic: What was you favourite ever Christmas present? (Read 3430 times)

gordon taylor · « **on:** 23 December, 2009, 07:35:22 am »

I'll start.

Santa brought me a Black and Decker electric drill when I was ( I think) eleven. I was a woodworking nutter at that age and remember spending most of Christmas day drilling holes in things.

Thanks Santa.

mike · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 December, 2009, 07:43:53 am »

when I was 8 my present was a set of multi-storey guinea pig cages and six little pigs. I spent the next 4 years expanding my herd and selling the surplus to local pet shops. I had 50 at one point when supply > demand and had worked out which sows and boars to put together to get 'cute' ones which would sell for more

. For four years I wasnt allowed my breakfast until the pigs had had theirs, and wasnt allowed to watch tiswas til I'd cleaned out all the cages.

thanks Santa! (although my evil twin sister had already told me the rumour about santa by then)

MercuryKev · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 December, 2009, 07:47:12 am »

When I was 10 I got an X-wing. What made it great was the fact that they had sold out everywhere, so I really didn't think I was getting one.

Basil · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 December, 2009, 08:05:09 am »

A steam engine for my meccano set.

My mother would constantly complain that my bedroom stank of methylated spirits.

FatBloke · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 December, 2009, 08:12:00 am »

Quote from: Basil on 23 December, 2009, 08:05:09 am

My mother would constantly complain that my bedroom stank of methylated spirits.

Does it still?

Basil · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 December, 2009, 08:20:21 am »

Quote from: FatBloke on 23 December, 2009, 08:12:00 am

Quote from: Basil on 23 December, 2009, 08:05:09 am
My mother would constantly complain that my bedroom stank of methylated spirits.
Does it still?

No, I've progressed to shoe polish and glue.

Aidan · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 December, 2009, 08:24:07 am »

vouchers for 10 guitar lessons

Jaded · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 December, 2009, 09:11:03 am »

A model of the top of a Saturn 5, with detailed Lunar Module - the legs folded up to fit in the roecket etc. etc.

TheLurker · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 December, 2009, 09:24:38 am »

It's a close call between Meccano and a (Triang) train set. I think the train set probably has the edge - I can still remember unwrapping it.

LEE · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 December, 2009, 09:35:52 am »

My Raleigh Olympus (circa. 1973)

It had short, chrome "Racer" mudguards !! (although I think they were there to circumvent a legal requirement)

urban_biker · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 December, 2009, 09:42:48 am »

Mine was a BBC model B - bought for me and my brother.

Probably the most expensive but best value christmas present I've ever had. It lasted us for years and I learned so much from it.

nicknack · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 December, 2009, 11:22:25 am »

Oh dear, I suspect that would be the Dawes Blue Feather? (not sure about the name - not even sure it was Dawes - but it was a Blue something or other) I got when I was about 13 (1966). Drops, 5 speed Huret Svelto derailleur - it was brilliant. I rode it until I was about 21. Considering all I'd had up to then was a selection of black BSA gas pipe clunkers, it was a revelation.

clarion · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 December, 2009, 11:46:46 am »

Sad reflection that, of all the many many Christmas presents I received as a kid, there's barely one I really recall. I expect I was made up when I received my Action Man. But it doesn't stir me now. And Subbuteo must have been astonishing at the time.

But, for all that, my favourite Christmas presents were always book tokens, and I remember my favourite day of the holidays was not Christmas Day itself, but the day Clulows re-opened so I could immerse myself in a world of books, choosing my literary route for the coming months. I remember being deeply disappointed when a relative bought me an actual present 'so I had something to unwrap', rather than the pleaded-for book token. God, I was a brat.

OT slightly, another highlight of the year was when we went into Clulows again in summer, with a budget to buy our holiday reading. Better than any day of the holidays.

токамак · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 December, 2009, 12:04:12 pm »

Buck Rogers helmet and gun, with arm band and badge, I was about 8.

BUCK ROGERS IN 25TH CENTURY HELMET & GUN BOXED SET RARE on eBay (end time 01-Jan-10 18:30:11 GMT)

[edit] I won't be bidding - it's shit!

oncemore · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 December, 2009, 12:09:28 pm »

Appositely enough, I think it actually WAS a bike! My first. Xmas 1959. It was a 4 speed Sturmey Rudge. Hand me on from a cousin, it travelled from Newcastle-on Tyne to Manchester in, I assume, the luggage van.

It was my only bike til it expired in the late '60s (my dad threw it away when I left home). And I didn't own another for many many years...

It was also my first fixed - the hub exploded on the A6 one day and the only replacement I could afford was a fixed hub and sprocket!

Wascally Weasel · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 December, 2009, 12:14:04 pm »

Lego Space Cruiser. I'm thinking of buying one again from ebay.

jogler · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 December, 2009, 12:23:48 pm »

A new bike,circa 1962, is amongst my most memorable because it was my first brand new one.A Raleigh,blue frame,no mudgaurds,drop bars with white bar tape,down tube gear change for rear mech,a double wire bottle cage mounted on the handlebars a la TdF, & SEVEN gears.It were brill.
Relegated to a dark dusty corner of the garage 7 years later when I got a provisional driving licence

L CC · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 December, 2009, 12:24:40 pm »

A mate of the parents made a puppet theatre. To play with these. I think I was 6.

It always riled that big sister got the Mother Dragon and I only got the Baby.

bobb · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 December, 2009, 01:51:25 pm »

Under 10 it would have been a Hornby model railway set. (My dad obviously loved it just as much!)

Teens it would be a Falcon Rapier 5 speed in metallic green. I loved that bike.

In adulthood it would be my Maton acoustic guitar which my then girlfriend bought for me at great expense. We split up not long afterwards and I still have the guitar to this day, which I think I'll now play for a bit as it's an absolute beauty

Pancho · « **Reply #19 on:** 23 December, 2009, 02:02:51 pm »

A ZX81.

For a SF fan and general techie like me, it was nothing short of miraculous. A real computer - just like in the books.

Malandro · « **Reply #20 on:** 23 December, 2009, 02:08:36 pm »

c.1972 - a space shuttle type thing which ran on rails up the wall and even across the ceiling and had its own little turntable at either end of the track so that it would turn round and come back. I played with it all day. Then my brother purposefully jumped on the turntable on Boxing Day, broke it beyond repair and I got blamed for breaking it.

My Action Man from the following year lasted a bit longer. He fought his final battle against an unexploded (firecracker) bomb on Guy Fawkes day several years later.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #21 on:** 23 December, 2009, 06:07:13 pm »

I would have been 3 or 4, no older, and my dad made me a dolls' house. It had 2 storeys and at least 7 or 8 rooms, and he made furniture for it, and bought a tiny toy telly, with one of those pictures on the front that moves when you tilt it. It was of a Native American little boy paddling a canoe. And he put little light fittings with bulbs in all the rooms and wired them up to a battery pack so the lights could be turned on and off. It must have taken him hours. It's only as an adult I've really been able to appreciate how much work it must have been. The same Christmas I also got a pedal go-kart which my little brother wanted. My mum says she was driven demented - my brother wanted to play with my go-kart, I objected, I'd push him off it, he'd go and turn the lights on and off on the dolls' house so I'd go over to make him stop, and he'd get in the go-kart again and so it would go...

toekneep · « **Reply #22 on:** 23 December, 2009, 06:41:37 pm »

Quote from: Kirst on 23 December, 2009, 06:07:13 pm

I would have been 3 or 4, no older, and my dad made me a dolls' house. It had 2 storeys and at least 7 or 8 rooms, and he made furniture for it, and bought a tiny toy telly, with one of those pictures on the front that moves when you tilt it. It was of a Native American little boy paddling a canoe. And he put little light fittings with bulbs in all the rooms and wired them up to a battery pack so the lights could be turned on and off. It must have taken him hours. It's only as an adult I've really been able to appreciate how much work it must have been. The same Christmas I also got a pedal go-kart which my little brother wanted. My mum says she was driven demented - my brother wanted to play with my go-kart, I objected, I'd push him off it, he'd go and turn the lights on and off on the dolls' house so I'd go over to make him stop, and he'd get in the go-kart again and so it would go...

Kirst, you are my long lost sister! That is a perfect description of the dolls house that now resides in my sister's loft. (It was made for her, not me, of course)

Back OT, it has to be the bike. I can't remember a make either but I remember the gold and pale blue colours and the white bar tape just like it was yesterday. First new bike for me too, very special.

Palinurus · « **Reply #23 on:** 23 December, 2009, 06:57:56 pm »

teethgrinder · « **Reply #24 on:** 23 December, 2009, 08:54:46 pm »

The bike I got in 1986 when I was 12.
My mum can't ride a bike, so my mum and dad walked 5 miles wheeling it home with my brother's bike.
I did my first 100 miles in a day on that bike and rode it every weekend. It got a lot of use in the school holidays too.

Author Topic: What was you favourite ever Christmas present? (Read 3430 times)

gordon taylor

LEE