Christmas Present

[Moemg]

This is my second favorite Christmas toy . I really wanted to be a telephone operator when I was little .

 

[Idnar7]

A tabletop hockey game. Slots were cut so your player could "skate" and then you turned the spindle to make them "shoot". Got it back when there were only the six original teams. Hundreds of hours spent playing this. Had it for probably close to 50 years before giving it to neighbor kids in Texas. They had no idea what it was, but once they learned they loved it.

 

[Mulligan]

A tabletop hockey game. Slots were cut so your player could "skate" and then you turned the spindle to make them "shoot". Got it back when there were only the six original teams. Hundreds of hours spent playing this. Had it for probably close to 50 years before giving it to neighbor kids in Texas. They had no idea what it was, but once they learned they loved it.

That was a great game! I enjoyed mine too growing.. Electric football was always frustrating to me as they never did much but go in circles, though occasionally one would be a straight line streaker. Super Jock was another one I enjoyed. You banged his head and his leg would kick a football toward a miniature goal post. The harder you smacked his head, the further the ball would be kicked. My hand still hurts from banging that head for "50 yard" field goals.

 

[ocdokie]

Ah, memories! My little sister always got the best Christmas gifts, but she let me play with hers. My favorites were Spirograph and Lite-Brite. I just Googled both of those, and to my amazement, they still exist. (Although it appears that Lite-Brite has gone digital, since it's available as an app. That can't possibly compare with the satisfaction I got making designs with the little plastic colored pegs.)

 

[Moemg]

Since I picked the wrong toy for Rewahoo I thought I would try again
For NW-Bound

 

[chilkoot]

Lots of votes here for electric football and tabletop hockey.
For real violence though, nothing could beat the Rock-em Sock-em robots game. Two players each controlled one of a pair of boxing robots, with the object of knocking the other one's head off.
Good times.

 

[Dawg52]

A tabletop hockey game. Slots were cut so your player could "skate" and then you turned the spindle to make them "shoot". Got it back when there were only the six original teams. Hundreds of hours spent playing this. Had it for probably close to 50 years before giving it to neighbor kids in Texas. They had no idea what it was, but once they learned they loved it.

That was a good one. I forgot about getting one of those. Problem is......I can't remember when I received some of the presents. My first set of golf clubs would have to be my best present ever since I still play the game today, but I know I got that on my birthday. Others like the hockey game or a bicycle may have been b'day gifts.

When I think back on all the nice presents I received, I can't believe how fortunate I was because we were barely a lower-middle class family. Dad just didn't make a lot of money. Of course some of the gifts were from my grandparents and a close aunt.

 

[Dawg52]

For real violence though, nothing could beat the Rock-em Sock-em robots game. Two players each controlled one of a pair of boxing robots, with the object of knocking the other one's head off.
Good times.

That was a fun one too. Only thing, I wasn't a kid when I played with that. I actually gave one of these to my nephews for a b'day gift. They were born a week a part so I killed two birds with one stone with this one.

 

[zedd]

A brick and an 8 color box of crayons.

Kids today are too soft

 

[MRG]

Dad gave me mercury to play with about '65. Greatest Christmas ever. We'd sit for hours rolling it around our hands.
MRG

 

[WhoDaresWins]

A brown-haired, brown-eyed Ginny doll that my mother special ordered for me dressed in a cowgirl outfit. I loved Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and when I was 4 or 5 I wore a cowgirl outfit quite a bit. Most of the dolls were blue-eyed blondes and my mother wanted me to have a doll that looked more like me in coloring. I still have it.

My maternal grandmother used to give the grandkids one of the old silver dollars on our birthdays and for Christmas. I saved all of mine and still have them, too.

 

[harley]

Probably my all time favorite was my Cub Scout uniform when I was 8. But the Estes Big Bertha rocket kit when I was 10 when a close competitor. I suspect they wanted me to become an astronaut, but it was actually the start of a lifetime of blowing things up.

 

[tryan]

First set of new skis (no more hand-me-downs!).

Rock'em Sock'em Robots a close second

 

[aja8888]

Dad gave me mercury to play with about '65. Greatest Christmas ever. We'd sit for hours rolling it around our hands.
MRG

My sisters and I had mercury too, and Dad added a kit that used molten lead to make fishing sinkers and toys with. Neat stuff!

Then I got a pump rifle that shot round corks about 5/16" in diameter. My younger sisters hated that gun as I used them for target practice.

Anybody know the maker of that cork rifle?

 

[eytonxav]

That tabletop hockey was also one of my favs, but am surprized about all the mentions of an electric football game if it was the same game that I had. Mine vibrated to move the players and many of them just went in circles; very disappointing.

 

[Redbugdave]

I guess for me it was getting a "Creepy Crawler" set. It had several molds and I made all sorts of rubber things with it.
Creepy Crawlers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Moemg]

A brown-haired, brown-eyed Ginny doll that my mother special ordered for me dressed in a cowgirl outfit.

I also had a Ginny Doll but mine was dressed in ice skating attire . I also had a Bonnie Braids doll that came with a little toothbrush .

 

[RE2Boys]

--Lionel train set

--Erector set

--a stereo portable radio, way before boom-boxes were the fad.

 

[golfnut]

That tabletop hockey was also one of my favs, but am surprized about all the mentions of an electric football game if it was the same game that I had. Mine vibrated to move the players and many of them just went in circles; very disappointing.

+1 . Once we played that football game a handful of times, we just got bored with it. But I do recall how excited I was when I opened up as a xmas gift!

 

[panacea]

Johnny West action figures... "the best in the west"!

They are one of the few things I kept thinking my kids would love them. Somehow they just didn't appreciate them like I did.

 

[KM]

Every Xmas my Nana would buy me an "activity box" that she could order from the Sears catalog. It was a box full of crossword puzzles, paint by numbers, coloring puzzles, other little games, etc, etc. It was a pretty big box that kept me entertained for months. I looked forward to it every year.

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

--Lionel train set

--Erector set

--a stereo portable radio, way before boom-boxes were the fad.

Some good memories have been mentioned--takes me back. Think I could have use for that 'Erector set' now!!

 

[youbet]

I grew up in pretty tough economic circumstances. As a kid, I actually appreciated getting socks, underwear and maybe a shirt or pair of jeans for Christmas.

 

[harley]

That tabletop hockey was also one of my favs, but am surprized about all the mentions of an electric football game if it was the same game that I had. Mine vibrated to move the players and many of them just went in circles; very disappointing.

Didn't all of y'all electric football players ever discover that you could go under the players and bend the little plastic tabs into different configurations to change the directions they would run? I'm not saying you could control it well or make them go really straight, but you could definitely influence their movements. Of course, after a while the tabs would break off and they'd just sit there and jiggle. But it was fun.

 

[RitaR551]

Betsy Wetsy Doll. I still have her. She has a wig now and a different dress. Too many mud puddle "baths" I guess.