Best Christmas present ever?

leeCal

just thinking apart from this year when I received an early Christmas present ...a granddaughter I think the best present I ever had was a massage chair, very comfortable and reclined as well.

How about you?

Tori_Scope

Hmm, that's a good question @leecal! I'd have to think about that one, as I'm bad at remembering what occasion presents were for, and my birthday isn't too long after Christmas.

I think my mum's getting my partner and I a trip to have afternoon tea at a cat cafe this year, which I'm really looking forward to  

I got a massager last year, and it's so nice.

durhamjaide2001

iPhone 

Sandy_123

I think all gifts have been good. I'm easy going to buy for, I don't expect the latest anything. I usually get art stuff and perfumes. Had a designer coat last yeah, which has been very useful in cold weather as its rain proof as well as thermal

leeCal

When I was young I always wanted an electric train set...but I was given a clockwork one which went around in a circle ☹️

Then my big sister bought me ...a plastic train 🚂 ☹️

never mind, when I was thirty I bought the children an electric train set and we had a lot of fun with it. I still have an engine which cost £17 then! I reckon it’s worth around forty pounds now. 

janer1967

My 6 foot high bronze dolphin lamp with Tiffany glass shades 

leeCal

Wow! That was quite something, imagine how many others went in for that competition @woodbine. 

I cant remember what company did it but do you remember the light up animals, ie luminous, which came in the cereal packet? I think that was Kellogg’s too.

Steve_in_The_City

@leeCal I always wanted an electric train set, too. My parents bought me a small circular track with a plastic train that I had to push around. I'd have given anything for a clockwork one!

leeCal

Any grand children you could buy a train set for @Steve_in_The_City ?

Grinchy

mine was Star Wars related unsurprisingly  
All Terrain Armoured Transport or AT-AT, as big as a dog, i had been praying for one for months, and my parents got me one, around £35 in the eighties so not cheap
Heres one


that was a great christmas

Hannah_Alumni

I've had some really lovely Christmas gifts over the years. But when I was a baby, I was given a blue rabbit teddy and I still have it today. It went everywhere with me. I have so many childhood photos of this rabbit in the stroller with me, on the beach, in the garden... I love gifts that create memories  

Steve_in_The_City

@leeCal No I don't have family so no grand kids. It is a nice thought though, and I would definitely have bought them a train set. Or a scalexric, another thing I really wanted....

@Grinchy That machine looks quite frightening! I think I would prefer a dog with a bit of fur, to be honest!

@Hannah_Scope Gifts that create memories are the best, and they can be simple. I once had a little teddy bear. I took him everywhere. He was moth eaten, but I didn't care. I can't recall if he was a Xmas present or not, it was so long ago. Then I got a real live rabbit. I don't think he was a Xmas present, but he should have been. He thought he was a dog, I thought he was a dog, we couldn't be separated and I wouldn't go to school unless I could take the bally rabbit with me. When he died I was heart broken!

Grinchy

Cheers @Steve_in_The_City,if your not familiar with it in the Empire strikes back it was a machine that was supposed to be in the film around a 100 ft tall, scaled down here to fit the small star wars figures, i really did love it, and have bought a replacement for my collection, cheers
Glad you had a furry friend who helped through hard times 

Hannah_Alumni

Awww have you still got the teddy bear? What did you name the rabbit? How did the school feel about the rabbit coming with you?

leeCal

@Steve_in_The_City I also wanted a scalextric set and an action man ☹️ 
The one thing I did get was an annual very year for a while but...can’t play with a book! The Beano was funny though.

Steve_in_The_City

@Grinchy I saw the fist Star Wars movie when I 20 or 21, but did not see any more movies in the series. I know it has a big following.

@Hannah_Scope I can barely remember the bear. I was very young. I am struggling to recall his name and have no idea what happened to him. But I do  remember being very attached to him.

The rabbit was a beautiful Albino called Pinky. I got him when I was about 9. He lived in a large hutch in a garden shed at night, but spent most of his time in the house. At school we did have small caged animals like hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils. But I took Pinky in a box and would let him out. When we moved to Norfolk they wouldn't let me take him to school. I don't think there were any pets at school. Anyway, I left him alone in the garden for a good few hours one day and he ate something that made his stomach swell and he died. He was 3 or 4 years old.

@leeCal I used to get annuals at Xmas, Sparky and I think Beano. We had a very steep hill locally and I would put the annual on a roller skate, sit on the annual and whoosh down the hill at breakneck speed (or so it seemed), It's a wonder I didn't break my neck.

Luchia

This year my partner got me the new max spec MacBook Air(although he gave me it earlier so I get another Xmas present hehehe) 

Hannah_Alumni

I bet the bear will be in a picture somewhere

Awww poor Pinky can I ask, was the name inspired by Pinky and The Brain? Well, your Norfolk school were Grinches, haha. It is such a shame that small animals aren't in classrooms as often anymore. You hear of a few, but I suppose it becomes an extra responsibility to already under pressure teachers. 

leeCal

When my children were young the only small animals in the class were nits!

We had a lot of trouble getting rid of them until I introduced them to Vodka, the nits I mean...not the children.

Steve_in_The_City

I have never heard of Pinky and The Brain. I Googled it and it started on American kids tv in 1995. Pinky went to the Great Rabbit Hutch In The Sky circa 1968! I named him Pinky because he had a lot of pink about him. I used to leave him downstairs in the house. I would go upstairs and hide. Then I would call his name and he would come up the stairs to find me. Then he would sit upright and beg for food like a dog, and I would give him a piece of chocolate. I didn't know it was wrong to teach animals to beg or to give them chocolate, so please don't be cross with me!

I don't have any childhood pictures, so no picture of the teddy!

The school I went to in London was the best. https://www.swaffield.wandsworth.sch.uk/index.asp

I visited the school in about 2003 and it was such a happy experience. I spoke with the headmistress who was a schoolgirl there at the same time I was a schoolboy. I was a bit of a "troubled" boy, so maybe that is why they turned a blind eye to Pinky.

When we moved to Norfolk I thought how dismal can school be, so didn't bother attending too much. But after Pinky died I got a dog I called Pip, who was the soppiest Labrador you could ever meet. He was meant to be a guard dog for our business, he couldn't have guarded a can of sardines. Quite what this has got to with Xmas presents, I don't know - so I guess I had better go...

Hannah_Alumni

@leeCal I suspect Vodka was introduced to the parents after having to deal with nits!