Top Christmas Presents of the Eighties from the Viewpoint of a Girl. Who remembers Christmas morning with one of these amazing gifts?
1. A Secret Keyper. These were magical animals with a secret hideyhole for your treasures. Mine was a purple unicorn and I loved it.
2. A Petite 990. Or the baby sister of it-Petite 660. We all imagined typing our future novels and correspondence forever on one of these fun products. The advert too- Working 9-5 Dolly Parton style time. Top class! Mine worked for about ten minutes though. Bit of a disappointment.
3. A Casio Keyboard. We all went bonkers for one of these at some point. Hours of Morning Has Broken or When the Saints Come Marching in with those fun backing track keys were a joy to our parents.
4. A Care Bear. They lived on clouds and loved you forever.
5. My Little Pony. Tiny colourful clothes wearing horsies. Mine had leg warmers!
6. Atari. The coolest thing imaginable….Until. ..
7. Commodore C-64. Oh wow. The world of Dizzy. Paperboy. BubbleBobble. Hours of brain burning staring. Levels. Tape loading. Joysticks.
8. Perfection. The game with all the shapes that popped up in your face and gave you a little fright. The small pieces abundant, therefore more dangerous, predecessor of Buckaroo.
9. Go For Broke. The board game where you worked hard to lose all your money. Probably a bad lesson to learn!
10. Tiny Tears. I never got one but I knew all about her. A most coveted baby doll.
11. Teddy Ruxpin. He TALKED to you. For real.
12. Lego. The big ship. Most people didn’t get that one. Big cost. Therefore the castle with soldiers and pirates was just as amazing.
The Surprise: An annual. Bunty, Mandy, Judy, Beano, Dandy or Beezer. The best of literature. No joke.
Curly Wurly from the selection box and you were away with it.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Ah we had a Casio keyboard with all the backing tracks! So cringe!! And also plenty and plenty of Lego…in fact we still have the Lego!! Thanks so much for linking up with #DreamTeam and Happy New Year!
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Enjoyed the linky, thank you! Yes those backing tracks were the best…😨 #DreamTeam
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Ha! I was 70s/80s girl so I remember these! The annuals were brilliant! Blue Peter and Jackie in our house…And Smash Hits!
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Absolutely!
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Clearly, a child from the 80’s. Oh how I wanted a game system…but sadly, never got one. Luckily, everyone else I knew did, so I was still able to spend hours upon hours staring at the awesome 80’s graphics!
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And they took hours upon hours to load🤣
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Did you see that vintage news report last week about the year Cabbage Patch released? It’s on FB somewhere. I was born in ’81 and thought Teddy Ruxpin was the bee’s knees. Also Lite Brite. And Speak n Spell. Between this and Hayley’s music post, time-warp.
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I never got a Teddy Ruxpin and it broke my heart but he is back🐒🐶🐒
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I must find that report🐙
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My Little Pony! I had so many plus the castle. Have given them all to my daughter now so that I can relive my 80s childhood.
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I love these retro posts. I go back even further than the 80s but I remember my nieces getting some of these as presents, especially the Care Bear and My Little Pony. They also had the Sylvanian family stuff too. 🙂
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I loved those little guys. They are as popular as ever!
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Great list Orla! Dizzy was my absolute favourite, I spent many a frustrating hour on my Amstrad – and that was just waiting for the bloody things to load! You forgot the holy grail of Christmas presents though…the Mr Frosty 🙂
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I never really wanted him you see…⛄ sacrilege!!
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I remember so many of these! The Keyboard, Care Bears! I had forgotten about Perfection, but now you mention it I remember the POP! And how it scared us every time.
Love it.
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The pop freaked me out!!such a funny game. I Loved It though 🐒
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Wow this really took me back. I had Care Bear wallpaper as a child!
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Wow that was The best wallpaper !
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my daughter has loads of care bears and a care bear duvet, she would love care bear wall paper (until she starts drawing on it)..
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There must be some out There!!
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This brings back some memories – particularly of my Petite typewriter!! Shared this link on Monday Magic – Inspiring “Christmas” Blogs on PainPalsBlog today, Claire x
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How nice! Thank you Claire xx
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I remember receiving care bears in the early 90’s, and playing on my brother’s Commodore, how nostalgic this made me feel! Love it.
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We lived similar lives! Glad I added nice nostalgic Feels to your world☺
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i never got a teddy ruxpin either.,,now tempted to look at amazon.. i had my little pony, was not allowed a care bear, but have them now.. (my daughter now has care bears and my little pony) frustration was good.. we had an atari and a spectrum – bomb jack and paper boy were my favourites.. great post.. so many memories.
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Bomb Jack Yes! And Rampage. Teddy Ruxpin has been relaunched you know.
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Happy days! I’ve just looked on Amazon, he is very expensive.. if he was cheaper I would be tempted to buy him.
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Same! I have passed by several times in the toy shop and given his head a little pat.
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What a bast from the past!!
What about polly pocket. Did you have any of those? I blooming loved mine…Oh! and Slyvanian Families…
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I had no Polly Pocket but my little ones LOVE them and I have to buy used ones on eBay as they are hard get here now. I loved Sylvania families. So cute
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You are so good to get them on ebay! I wonder what happened to mine. I guess my mum probably gave them away to charity shops. Maybe they found their way to your daughters!
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You never know. How mad would that be! They have an obsession with magic clip dolls too which I can only get online. They do not sell them here!
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I love that your My Little Pony had leg warmers! I miss getting the annual for me it was Beano or Dandy!
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The annual was the best!
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I had a Tiny Tears — in the 50s. This was really fun to read. I remember those toys though, of course, I was pretty much over toys by then. 😉 My niece had My Little Ponies and I think she thought they were real. What a sweet post.
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Thank you! What a lovely world if my little ponies were real! My eldest keeps talking about the real donkey she wants. 😣
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OMG! Hours upon hours of Paperboy. I forgot about that game until you mentioned it!
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It got so hard as the days went on!
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I was a 60’s -70’s child, though if I had been an 80’s one that little pony would have been well dressed as I made all my own dolls clothes until I was older enough to make my clothes for myself!! I loved designing new outfits. Fun post, Orla! Have a good one 🙂
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Wow talented you! I always tried to make them myself and it sometimes worked. Happy Christmas Suzanne x
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Loved this. So many classic gifts from a simpler time, right?
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Definitely! There were so many to write about too .
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I was a stroppy teenager in the 80’s Orla so I don’t remember most of these toys. However I did have Tiny Tears. My parents searched everywhere for her and couldn’t get her. No on-line shopping back then. You shopped as far as you could travel. Mam got it on the 28th Dec in the end, so they gave it to me for my birthday on the 29th. I loved her! (the doll and my mam) Such lovely memories.
I think we had perfection. (or maybe it was a friend) My Little Miss Seven has My Little Ponies.They’ll go on FOREVER!! Lovely post Orla.
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That was a nice Tiny Tears memory! Those ponies are so cute. I am not sure about the angrier modern ones on tv shows but I still love the toys. The girls do too.
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