Your most memorable Christmas toys

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I was a tomboy, and one of the most memorable toys I got for Christmas was a Class A racing set, the one with the cars powered by mainsprings that you wound up with a "Pitstop" winder.

Another was a set of rollerskates, the kind with metal wheels that you strapped on to your shoes. Dad told me to watch out with them, they'd go like greased lightening.

I was the only girl I knew who never requested or received anything Barbie.

What great toys do you remember getting for Christmas?
 
A big wheel and wagon that looked like the Flintstones!
 
An American Flyer train set. This had a two-rail track, not the "fake" three-rail track that all the Lionel train sets had. The coal car on the steam locomotive was so realistic-looking that at first I thought it was real coal.

Another one was a "pop gun" that was popular at the time, mid to late '50's. It was a lever-action and "shot" a loud puff of air. It took about ten seconds for anyone who had one to figure out that if you jammed it into damp ground it would then shoot a plug of dirt along with the air. That made it much more enjoyable!
 
BB Gun. We set up a range in the basement and it was great fun. At least until I thought it would be brilliant to see if a BB would go through the block glass window.

Not my fault my parents didn't think I needed supervision while using a gun, right?
 
Etch A Sketch. And also my Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots. The best.

Edited to add: Lincoln Logs and an erector set.
 
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Walt34 said:
Another one was a "pop gun" that was popular at the time, mid to late '50's. It was a lever-action and "shot" a loud puff of air. It took about ten seconds for anyone who had one to figure out that if you jammed it into damp ground it would then shoot a plug of dirt along with the air. That made it much more enjoyable!
Click to expand...

Oh, the Wham-O Air Blaster—my brother got one of those. It came with a target that was a gorilla's face printed on a fringed sheet that would blow apart when you shot it. Can't believe he never did the dirt plug thing. DH was just talking about that toy, he used to put a tennis ball in it and shoot it up in the air. All fun until someone gets hurt, then hilarious!

That thing was more useful than I realized:

 
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Oh, another favorite one that comes to mind was a "tick tock clock" that was a spring-wound pendulum clock that had a plastic gear train that you could take apart and put back together. I guess I was about 9, give or take a year. If you spent the time playing with the pendulum length it could be made to be very accurate. I learned a lot about gear ratios and such with it.
 
Mine was a dart rifle with a mirror so you could shoot around a corner using the mirror to target my older brothers. This was important because I needed a head start running once I fired the dart!!! They couldn't be sure where it came from and thus the head start.
 
I don't remember any toys.

We just went into the woods and had rock fights.
 
Tudor Electric Football is at the top of my list. My younger brother and I kept that set going for probably 7-8 years. After the first year we would get additional teams. We never got the prepainted teams - the plain ones were cheaper. We would paint them ourselves.

It was among the first electrical repair I recall performing. It stopped working, and we would tap it with our fingers to keep it going. I think I was 12 when I learned enough to open up the switch component and find the problem - broken wire. Fixing that and getting it working again was one of the childhood "milestones" for me.
 
A stuffed koala bear. I still remember how excited I was when I picked up the wrapped gift and knew what it was.

Believe it or not, I still have it!
 
My grandson still plays with the Tonka dump truck and loader I got so many years ago...

But the most memorable Christmas gift I ever got; I WASN'T given... I still get emotional thinking about it.

I was 13, and we gotten the Ward's Christmas catalog. On the back cover was a blue denim 10 speed bicycle, $150. Us 3 boys got to mark everything we wanted, and just see what Santa brought... The ONLY thing I marked was that bike. On Christmas morning, my anticipated joy turned to heart break as there was no bike.
Several weeks later my Stepfather asked me if I had really wanted that bike... I said Yes... Then he said he would help me get it.... I was amazed....Then he hands me a piece of paper with 2 phone numbers... Jobs to shovel snow... That got me other shoveling jobs. He would drive me around to them. By the end of April as my birthday approached, I was $20 short of having enough money for the bike. Him and Ma took me to the Wards catalos store, and chipped in the other $20 as my Birthday gift, And then made me assemble the bike.....
As much as I loved that bike, It was the lesson of working to get what you want was the best gift I have ever received.
 
A kids-sized guitar. I was probably in 4th or 5th grade. Went out in the middle of the night to check the stuff under the tree and it wasn't there. It's not something that could be hidden under the tree. I was so bummed I couldn't get back to sleep.

But I guess I did. Got up in the morning and it was there! Sneaky parents!!
 
Does a video game console count as a toy? I remember receiving an Atari 2600 with some games. Had to share with my brother and sister. I think the games we got were Pong, Asteroids, maybe Pac-man, and some sort of adventure game. We used that for years!
 
VanWinkle said:
Mine was a dart rifle with a mirror so you could shoot around a corner using the mirror to target my older brothers. This was important because I needed a head start running once I fired the dart!!! They couldn't be sure where it came from and thus the head start.
Click to expand...


Heh, heh, did you learn the trick of removing the rubber suction cup from the dart? It flies better and hits harder - not that I would know about such things from personal experience.:cool:
 
Nash said:
I don't remember any toys.

We just went into the woods and had rock fights.
Click to expand...


We always used English Walnuts and dad's garden tomatoes. What a time to be alive! What memories!
 
A little play fort. I liked it because it had horses. There were no battles at my fort, everyone went on picnics and rode around on their horses.
 
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