Santa

[kags]

I'm feeling festive because Woolies is full of Advent calendars, so before we all get sick to death of the "C" word, what was the best present Santa brought you as a child? And what was the worst?

[kags]

here's mine - I desperately wanted a Stylophone (this must have been in about 1973), and on Christmas morning I came downstairs to find a Bontempi organ. It probably cost 3 times as much as the Stylophone but I was gutted. I never got that Stylophone, and, ungrateful brat that I was, I hated the Bontempi. As for the best, I'll answer as a parent, and say it was a Teletubby, Christmas 1997 when you had to queue all night to get one. I was extremely pregnant & couldn't face queueing, and my 18 month old son was Teletubby mad. One day I happened to be in Clintons when a delivery of Tubbies arrived - it was like a rugby scrum but I got a Dipsy and Christmas was saved.

[Bohne]

The most wonderful gift I remember was the game Galaxis, an electronic battleship, though they were space ships. My mother's cousin bought that for me and my sister, and until it broke some years later, I spent many many hours with it. None of my family are into games and this game had a single player mode. The worst where probably the underwear from an aunt.

[cheyenne]

mine was when i was about 12 years old,and i got a beatle jacket,with no collar.i think i slept in it xmas night.the worse one, many years later when my kids kept buying me socks.

[smudge]

I must share this with you. When our two daughters were little girls, the eldest said to the youngest, "I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas", the youngest repied, "Well I know what 'one' of your presents is, because I saw it in Mummy's shopping bag". The eldest replied "Oh, I can't wait to see what it is" the youngest replied "Well Mummy said I musn't tell you, but.... it begins with 'Hang' & ends with 'Man'. That was the end of one surprise!

[paulz]

My all time fave was a quarry, painted tin plate, it had cranes, conveyor belts, mini railway, roads & a canal [it was about 3 foot square] and you used sand to load & unload lorries, barges etc One day it got left overnight in the garden and by the morning it was rusted to buug-arry. Worst a bottle of Highlander aftershave. Big Brother dropped his on the pavement as he was loading the car up. Next day all the colour had come out of the slab, and it stunk!!

[jills]

best was probably when my brother and I got our much longed for Atari....tho we did hunt around the house and find it before Christmas. We were so pleased, it was all we could do to not let on we'd found it...had to act all surprised om the 25th! Worst...any item of clothing my dear old gran bought me. Or worse, KNITTED for me!!!

[rja211077]

i'm already sick of the C word. people are always calling me it. anyway, back to the question. best pressie was a ZX Spectrum with a bunch of games. Worst was a pogo stick. I'd sort of asked for it, if I recall correctly, but just never got into it.

[rinkytink]

Not sure about best present but worst present re-occurs every year. My Nan (god bless her), every year as a little extra present, gives me a miniature scotch whiskey with whiskey chocolate liqueurs. Problem being I hate Scotch whiskey. Despite telling her this every year for the last five years, the whiskey keeps on coming !

[galltin]

I'm old enough to remember getting a ball on a stick and string that was made of foil with sawdust inside. Does anyone else remember those? I remember getting a doll's pram when I was 4 that I loved to bits. Other highlights was a compendium of games and I loved annuals like bunty or judy. Worse was underwear from an auntie.

[kags]

galltin- I remember the games compendiums, there was always a chinese chequers game that we could never quite understand how to play. I suppose kids don't need compendiums nowadays when they've got Playstations and Gameboys.

[maggsy69]

when i was 3 or 4 i got a superman outfit! it was unbelievable, i've still got a photo of me wearing next to the xmas tree, i look so happy! worst was when, having got them for the whole of my life, my mum didn't buy me some flumps last year. gutted is an understatment!

[georgit79]

sssshhhh. It's still September. I am not even going to think of that word until December 1st- a rule I self-impose every year.

[woofgang]

a proper grown up bureau style desk that i still have 40 yrs later...never had a worst

[Numbers]

Worst for me was a red Raleigh RSW14 bicycle that was: a) too big for me b) a girl's bike c) I'd hitherto failed to learn to ride a bicycle, so the attraction was lost on me anyway Cue the usual Christmas afternoon temper tantrum from my **** of a father. Best one I can think of would have been my first radio (probably 1974). It was only a pocket sized medium wave one, but it was my very own!

[bluedolphin]

worst was NOT getting a12speed racing bike...cant remember what i got in its place...best was a train set "Hornby" with a Royal Mail carraige that picked up and threw out the mail bag at the station.... and of course the obligatory selection box and compendium of games Draughts anyone?...the big film isnt going to start for another half hour!!!!!

[kags]

thanks for the trip down memory lane everyone!

[enigma]

My best Christmas present was a tinny little record player with speakers which had flashing disco lights built in - red and blue on one speaker and green and yellow lights on the other. I thought that I was the bees knees because all my friends would come up to my room and bop about to our little mini disco with naff tunes such as Wham's last Christmas and Shakin' Stevens' Merry Christmas Everyone. I was about 10 at the time. The worst present I got was when I was about 13 and my elderly great aunt bought me some satin undies and camisole top and held them up in front of all my male relatives , declaring that she had bought me them because I was a woman now ! Everyone was laughing and being an over-sensitive teenager , I wanted to die of embarrassment. Another dreaded pressie which springs to mind was wonder woman pyjamas which I got when I was seven. My mum and dad still have the awful picture of me with my dodgy boyish looking hairdo and my front baby teeth missing. I still cringe when I see that.

[Kay]

A butterfly handlebar yellow bike back in 1960 when I was 12 years old.We had snowdrifts and icey roads but that was'nt gona stop me from getting on my bike on Xmas Day,ahh sweet memories.

[Del68]

Best presents from Santa - ever since I could hold a book and look at the pictures every year I used to get an "Our Willie" or "The Broons" annual. and I got them right up till I left home when i was 17. Miss them terribly now! Worse present was the Xmas ritual of binning the old slippers for your new ones from Granny!