Your Favorite Christmas or Kid Toy

[SoonerDave]

What's amazing is how expensive things were back then when you adjust for inflation.

That $70 bike in 1968 would be $470 in today's dollars.

Of course, we tended to get far less back then; as in one big gift and maybe a few smaller ones.

I was thinking the same thing!!! No doubt this is one issue where the contemporary trumps the past

Some of those prices were pretty startling for FORTY years ago!

As I look back, I realize now that my mom was pretty creative in making it seem like several smaller things were LOTS of things; blocks, tinkertoys, matchbox cars, ...

Man, I'm having serious nostalgia phase here.....(sniff)...

Christmas is a special time for a kid. I mean, I was about a generation off "A Christmas Story," but the way "Ralphie" lived through the season as a kid rang awfully authentic for me. Loved it, and still do.

[Pete]

(Hate to tell you that was forty FIVE years ago. )


I have very strong sentiments about Christmas too, and still put a lot of effort into the holidays.

As kids, we received very little except for at Christmas, so that made it even a bigger deal. I had four other siblings and my parents would make the whole thing into a big production.


And even though I frequently bring up over-romanticizing the past, the one thing that was better then was that kids had a tremendous capacity for appreciation (simply due to scarcity) and that now they all get so much all the time that Christmas often isn't such a big deal.

[Roger S]

With a fumble on every play! Did you ever complete a pass?

No, my team always ran the QB option.... He had the option to vibrate right, vibrate left, or vibrate straight up the middle.

And on 4th down I was freaking deadly at about a 90 yard field goal!

[LuccaBrasi]

Christmas Catalogs

Thanks Prunepicker! Great link, opened it up and see several toys Santa brought me after I saw them on these pages. Nice memories. I've told my son in years past about this cool motorized parking garage I had as a kid, and there it is in 1968. I can't wait to now show him........

[Prunepicker]

... And on 4th down I was freaking deadly at about a 90 yard field goal!

Come to think of it, we spent more time trying to make field goals than
playing the game.

[Prunepicker]

Does anyone remember Vac-U-Form?

[LuccaBrasi]

You can find almost all the vintage Christmas catalogs on Flickr. I'm mesmerized scrolling down memory lane......

[Prunepicker]

How about Incredible Edibles? Pete? mmm? My youngest brother got
that gift in the early 70's. Sis got the Easy Bake Oven in the 60's.

[Prunepicker]

Goodness. I just remembered my most favorite Christmas gift of all time.
It was a replica Colt .45 Peacemaker with genuine artificial pearl handles.
This was about 1958. There's some family film footage of me doing some
fancy pistol twirling. I wore that gift in a holster everyday for several
years.

[Mel]

I remember getting that G.I. Joe Mercury capsule. Except mine, of course, was capable of interplanetary and interstellar flight. Where ever I took it was a new planet.

[Just the facts]

Christmas 1979 (Age 10): Super Bowl XII Electronic Football Games. I accidentally found it a few days before Christmas and started to open it when my older sister stopped me and told me to put it back. After I said no she told it was for Christmas so I had to wait 3 day before I could play it. Talk about not being able to sleep.

[jmpokc1957]

I remember getting that G.I. Joe Mercury capsule. Except mine, of course, was capable of interplanetary and interstellar flight. Where ever I took it was a new planet.

Ha! I had a G.I. Joe Mercury capsule! Pretty detailed, as I recall. G.I. Joe was dressed in his space suit and made many orbits around the house!
Every time there was a space launch I would follow it on TV and the capsule would make another orbit around the house. I would also set a globe in the middle of the living room encircled with model railroad track. I would put a model of a space capsule on a railroad car and it would circle the globe as it followed the animation on TV.

The Sears Christmas catalog was the most anticipated event of the season! My mother says I learned to read from the Sears catalog! Kids today don't know what they're missing.

[Prunepicker]

Christmas 1979 (Age 10):

Dang! You're young!

[mugofbeer]

HO scale electric slot cars by Aurora. Used to buy separate slot cars at Gibsons Factory Distributed store downtown

[Prunepicker]

Ha! I had a G.I. Joe Mercury capsule!

My youngest brother, who is considerably older than jtf, had a collection
of astronauts. One was names Mike. Does this ring a bell?

[Prunepicker]

HO scale electric slot cars by Aurora. Used to buy separate slot cars at
Gibsons Factory Distributed store downtown

On Hudson! Yeah, Aurora was the watershed of slot cars. You don't know
how much I wanted an Aurora slot car set. I had a Tyco HO train.

One year I got a Stromberg slot card set. 1966? I swear it was a million
feet of track and took up the entire and extremely small one car garage
because the track was on an 8x4 sheet of plywood.

[kswright29]

My youngest brother, who is considerably older than jtf, had a collection
of astronauts. One was names Mike. Does this ring a bell?

Are you talking about the Major Matt Mason line of astronaut toys, would have been early 70's maybe?

My favorite Christmas toy ever was the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and scramble van. I played with that forever. My parents still have it and it works like a charm. Evel is a little worn, but he still hangs onto the bike. My kids love playing with this too and think it's super cool.

[Prunepicker]

Are you talking about the Major Matt Mason line of astronaut toys, would
have been early 70's maybe?

I believe you're right and the early 70's is the era.

Hmmm, Major Matt Mason... mmm... Is he a moderator on OKC Talk?

[Roger S]

I bought one of these with my birthday money. I still have it somewhere at my mom's house but unfortunately it no longer works.

[Dubya61]

I really liked the hot-wheels-type cars that you could power up. I think they were called Sizzlers. They ran on the Hot Wheels tracks (which I would also get beat with by my brothers).

[Roger S]

I really liked the hot-wheels-type cars that you could power up. I think they were called Sizzlers. They ran on the Hot Wheels tracks (which I would also get beat with by my brothers).

I had some of those. If I remember right you charged them up with a charger that looked like a gas pump.

I had more hotwheels track than I knew what to do with. After my cars quit working we would build tracks and race marbles on them.