by Owen Jones


What do people give for Christmas and are those presents any different from thirty or forty years ago? Obviously, there are games around now that did not even exist thirty or forty years ago. In this piece, I would like to take a look at some of the most well-liked Christmaspresents of all time. They are not in any particular order, merely as they occur to me

Number 1: the number one desirable Christmas present for sons and fathers for almost a hundred years is the train set. There have been toy train sets for over a hundred years, but they were too costly for working class households until about the 1950's. There are still more boys and fathers wanting train sets than mothers and daughters. A decent train set will last decades and rise in value.

Number 2: a rocking horse. All children like rocking horses. Boys and girls; girls seem to retain their fascination with horses longer than boys do, in Europe anyway. This gift has staying power lasting for a number of years even if it is used by numerous siblings. A good rocking horse can be passed down generations.

Number 3: doll's houses and toy forts. All kids like to play with either a dolls' house and dolls or a fort and soldiers. A Wendy House and a tree house are in this bracket as well. You can see children all over the world building make-believe houses and imitating their parents' life.

Number 4: dolls; both sexes like to play with dolls of one form or another: teddy bears, rag dolls, action men, Barbie and Ken and toy soldiers are all dolls

Number 5: a doll's pram is still a big favourite with young girls - imitating mum transporting her baby about. Likewise toy pedal cars, which are well-liked with young boys and young girls alike.

Number 6: bikes and tricycles are also popular with boys and girls of all ages. We appear to all have an early desire to travel at a speed faster than walking pace.

Number 7: board games have been popular for thousands of years. Roman soldiers used to play a game similar to ludo and chess has been around for roughly as long as that as well. Nowadays, there are hundreds of other board games as well, some of which have become classics already. Some of the board games that have been popular since they were invented are: Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Risk and there are many more besides that too.

Number 8: cards. The original games of cards were nearly all gambling games or could be gambled on, but for decades there have been children's decks of cards meant to create some children's card games like Snap and Happy Families more simple and more fun.

Number 9: shoot-'em-ups. Boys have always liked shooting. At the outset cork guns or toy bows and arrows or toy crossbows; then air guns, then paint ball and then genuine guns.

Number 10: costumes; Children like to dress up, whether girls dress in mum's clothing and boys dress as Batman; girls dress as nurses or boys dress as Superman, all kids dress up at some time or other in their lives.

To this list of more traditional toys, you can add the contemporary number ones like computers and gaming machines, but then they have been around for thirty or forty years already as well.


About the Author:

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Rocking Horses for sale.