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3 The ghosts of Christmas presents past haunt most of us. Who else S remembers the signs in every toy shop windows in the altogetherbetter ! days of December 1964‘? ‘No James Bond Cars” was the universal shout. The Corgi replica - complete with ejector seat. car rammers and rear window shield — of Bonds Aston Martin DBS was the cult object of I its day. It won Corgi the Toy of'l‘he Year Award. but it could have been . a disaster for me. We trailed fruitlesst to every toyshop in town. Luckily our last resort of writing to Santa w orked. It probably extended our belief in Mr Claus by several years.
Think of all those other letters sent up the chimney It was ol'eourse the Victorians and Prince Albert who started it all —— but then they had children to deliver the notes personally. Patent Liver Salts. whips (and tops) and golliwogs. They have all been coveted in theirtime. With the advent ofTV advertising tastes have grown yet more refined. The Babycham fawn was a happy addition to the seasonal crib: now Christmas wouldn‘t be the same without it. Brut still vies with Old Spice ’ (whose classy music surely holds it back) to be the modern myrrh. Bttt
the most wonderful presents of'l'V‘s ('hristmas past are rendered : simply inexplicable by time. Remember the dental floss for grass—the Ronco Garden Trimmer? The Rubik (Tube? The pogo—stick? Or stranger still. the device that turned your empties into tumblers? On the following pages we suggest a few ideas for gifts that may or may not stand the test of time. together with a few reminders ofpresents past. But. we promise. there‘s not a K-Tel record in sight.
ON THE PAGES THAT FOLLOW: STYLE GIFTS page 62 SUPER HEROES! page 69 CARD IOEAS page
71
F000 GIFTS page 72
GAMES page 74
The List 9— 22 December 1988 61