TOYS at Christmas Time

[Dave-O2]

Hey folks 

I'm posting this on behalf of @RunrigForever who has kindly created TOYS at Christmas Time.

I hope you all enjoy 😊 🎅🌲

I remember when me and my younger sister Caroline got similar dolls for Christmas ..... about 10" tall with moveable arms and legs ... & ... short, curly rooted hair ..... my sister's doll she named Linda had dark hair ..... my doll named Rosa had platinum blonde hair ... ... ... quite sometime in my doll's life I asked my mum Olwen, if I could wash Rosa's hair & mum said yes, however mum dried it in front of the 1 bar electric fire and singed it - I really didn't mind.

Each year we would have a compendium of games in a long box. Tiddlywinks was in there with counters in bright colours ... a dice was hexagonal cardboard with a matchstick through the centre. Us daughters would set it up and play happily together on the half moon hearth rug in front of the coal fire in the dining room. In later years when the front room was furnished and called the lounge we would have Christmas in that room, but the Christmas tree was always in the same corner in the dining room.

Each year we would go looking for our presents & one year we found the 'stash' behind the chest of drawers in my mum & dad's bedroom. The furniture was angled at 45 degrees across one corner of their bedroom. No ... we just kept schtum ha ha ha !

My favourite toy was the Spirograph as shown on Blue Peter childrens tv ..... this is still in my posession in the top cupboards in the spare bedroom. With my son Alex, it was Duplo when he was about 9 months old, going through to include Lego Technic as the Christmases went by, all too quick it seems now. When the toy to have was a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle, my mum sourced on from Leeds. No internet & Amazon then ... ... ... Thunderbirds Tracey Island, again mum managed to find one, which again is in a much used condition in its box in the top cupboards in the spare bedroom. The year my lad had Scalectrix, which we all enjoyed, especially my dad Roy, enjoying being with his only grandson.

Above is just a snapshot of what I remember.

The Gift of Christmas, for me, is about being with much loved Family and Friends ..... my family is a small one, however I am in touch with a cousin in the West Midlands, where my mum comes from. Dad is true Yorkshire & always called a spade a shuvvel. I do miss them most in the Festive Season, but they are together now in the sky shining stars in the Heavens above.

Thanks mum & dad xx xx 

Thanks again @RunrigForever 

[Cleoriff]

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@TallTrees wrote:

Well spoilt brat used to be a thought in those days. So another big prezzy  was a general kind of gift  and as it happened well worth it. Great to be able to play your own record.  I am absolutely sure you were never a spoilt brat🙄

@Cleoriff 

😁

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No, I wasn't @TallTrees.

Although in fairness to my Mum, who was a Geordie and came from a family of 12 children, she had learnt at a very early age to be extremely careful with money.

As she said 'You never know when your circumstances could change'.

It was her, not Dad, who taught me the value of money.

When I started work as a nursing cadet (age 15) I earned £2 and 13 shillings a month 😂

Mum insisted I paid board and lodgings and took half of it. My dad was appalled. However, I grew up knowing the cost of living and paid 'board' every month until I left home.

[TallTrees]

I think that does indeed show you the value @Cleoriff

Then when you leave home it doesn't come as a shock when you need to pay for accommodation etc.