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Presents

Smudger

master brummie
What is the best present you ever received? For me, it was a 2 foot long shoe horn from my grandaughter. And the most useless present? A silver tea strainer from her mother. My wife & i only drink coffee (+whisky + Baileys) & a tea strainer is neither use nor ornament for any of those. Smudger.
 
One of the best presents I ever had was a dolls house which was made by my Dad. I've still got it!
I renovated it a few years ago, and made furniture to 1/12th scale. My fingers don't work too well any more so I'm glad I did it then. The grandchildren aren't allowed to play with it as it's a bit fragile now!
rosie.
 
how wonderful rosie...a present to treasure something you can not replace

lyn
 
As a child:
My first train set. It was about 1938, and I still remember going, with my mother, to a toy shop, in Birmingham, and watched the man in the store reach up, and take down the big red box that contained the toy train set. What a thrill.

As an adult:
Apart from our two beautiful daughters, my 21st Birthday gift from my parents. An HMV radiogram, which I still have. I have just handed it over to our eldest daughter, who is having it completely renovated. It is still complete with all instructions. However it does need some new rubber belts for the turntable. Believe it or not, the valves are all still working, and it still lights up for Radio Luxembourg! Not bad for well over 60 years later.

Like Smudger, we have also had some very sweet presents from our grandchildren, which we keep, and also like Smudger, we have had some absolute rubbish from adults!
 
My son and daughter know exactly what I like and it usually involves books. In recent years, at Christmas, I've had two copies of "1001 walks in Britain"; two copies of "The 20th century in cartoons"; and two copies of "The Michael Palin Diaries". I haven't the heart to tell either of them that I've already got it, so I have to go along to our local Waterstones and exchange one of the books for a voucher. Dave.
 
One Christmas present that delighted me as a young child was a Rupert Bear annual. I remember that Christmas day long ago sitting before an open fire lost in Rupert's adventures around Nutwood. The book had four pictures on each page, like a comic with two lines of verse under each picture, and when my reading got better there was a more detailed story at the bottom of each page. A few characters I remember were 'Bill Badger', 'Algy the Pug', 'Porky the Pig', 'Edward Trunk', 'Tiger Lily', and a 'Professor' with an helicopter.

The book seemed thicker than the childrens annuals I see today and the top right corners of the pages had little figures of Rupert which became animated when you flipped the page corners.
 
Two of the best Christmas presents I have ever had came a little earlier than Christmas Eve, Daisy in Dec 2009 and Sonny in Dec 2012, their mother must have been a lovely Christmas present for their other Gran she was born on December 25th.,
 
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My Dad used to annoy me about presents. He used to say that it would be good if I told him what I wanted, rather than him get something I didn't want.
An example of what I mean was when I wanted a particular set of cufflinks from Austen Reed. I told him that they had a green stone that matched a tie I had bought myself, mistletoe green. I told him the price and the exact location in the display cabinet (I think I could take your there now 56 years after this event!).
On the day I opened the Austen Reed box to find the Bamboo cufflinks he thought I would like better!
I don't know why I didn't take them to exchange them as there wouldn't have been a problem.
I actually wore them a lot and still have them though I no longer wear suits dress/business shirts.
At my age I wear what I like (with my wife's advice) and it is t shirts and jeans.
 
One of the few Christmas presents i can remember opening, was a small parcel containing an apple, orange & a thruppenny bit. I`m not sure how i reacted but it was probably the same as a child today opening their parcel on Christmas morning, & finding socks & hankies. I can feel a tantrum coming on!!
 
One of the few Christmas presents i can remember opening, was a small parcel containing an apple, orange & a thruppenny bit. I`m not sure how i reacted but it was probably the same as a child today opening their parcel on Christmas morning, & finding socks & hankies. I can feel a tantrum coming on!!

Smudger:

This coming Christmas, I will be delighted to see any present. It will mean that I am still alive!!

Eddie
 
Smudger:

This coming Christmas, I will be delighted to see any present. It will mean that I am still alive!!

Eddie
Eddie,
Eddie,

You have forgotten to mention the most cherished gifts. Your music, your Wife + children. Don`t worry about waking up on Christmas day, only the good die young so you`ve still got plenty of sunrise`s to see. :-} Smudger.
 
When I was about 7, I got a large silver German pen knife, with loads of tools, I thought this the greatest present ever, and at that age found ingenious things to do with it when out and about , after about a year I lost it, I was heartbroken. Paul
 
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