Giving Annuals and Yearbooks as gifts: a Christmas tradition

I remember as a child looking forward to receiving an annual book at Christmas. I think my favourites were from Twinkle closely followed by my beloved My Little Pony. I also loved reading my brother's annuals from the Beano and Dandy. Reading about Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan's exploits became an important part of my Christmas. I'm not sure if my brother was as keen on reading Twinkle...he might have had a sneaky peek when noone was looking.

I bought these Tiger Tim Annuals at a jumble sale a little while ago. One dates from 1924 and the other from 1954. It goes to show that giving Annuals as a gift at Christmas is nothing new.

It's amazing to think that over 90 years ago a child unwrapped the 1924 annual on Christmas Day morning. Because I purchased the two Annuals together at the jumble sale, they may have come from the same house. So there's a possibility the 1924 child grew up and maybe had a child of their own. In a bid to instill a love for Tiger Tim, they may have bought the 1954 Annual for their offspring. When you're a collector of vintage items, you often can't be sure of the back story, but I like to think this scenario could have been a possibility. After all, that's how most Christmas traditions are kept alive, by family members passing them down through the generations.

I think getting an Annual as a gift was seen as a special event for most children. You would see and read things in these books that didn't appear in the weekly comic. There was also something lovely about holding a hard backed version of your favourite comic too.

The 1924 Tiger Tim Annual is still bearing up pretty well, despite its age. I particularly like the colour illustrated plates dotted through the book. This endearing image of three children dressed as rabbits on their way to the Bunnies Ball in the snow is really lovely. I would love to have this as a framed print, but I would never tear a page out of this Annual!

Most of the characters who appear in the Tiger Tim Annual are way before my time. But I'm sure children of that era loved "Peter and Olliboo" and the "Brownie Boys" to name just a couple...I'm sure they were the Peppa Pig or Bob the Builder of their day.

The other thing I love about these vintage annuals is the adverts on the back and inside the book. There is one for Green's cake mix and Green's is still going strong today. There is also a Cadburys Car Race for children to play in the back of the Annual.

There is also an advert for the weekly "Playbox" and "Rainbow" comic books. The publisher obviously needed to engage young readers in Tiger Tim's adventures on a more regular basis.

Finally I love the little letter from Tiger Tim to his readers. I believe that Fleetway House on Farringdon Street in London has been a centre for book and magazine publishing for many decades.

Even in our technology saturated world, you can still buy annuals featuring today's generation of favourite characters. A quick search online reveals that most major retailers have Annuals in stock this year. I have seen Annuals for Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly, Match Football and even Strictly Come Dancing. It goes to show that some Christmas Traditions never go out of date...

This week I'm linking up with:

Share with Me over on www.letstalkmommy.com

Pick 'N' Mix over on mummyandmonkeys.com and www.acornishmum.com

On your bike!

The United Kingdom has been battered and blown about by gales and flooding for weeks now. As a Brit you get used to the damp and dreary weather, but every now and again the wet weather takes a day off and lets the sunshine have a turn. Saturday was absolutely glorious. Beautiful Winter sunshine, bright blue skies...a perfect day to take our daughter's new bike for a spin on the prom.

She proudly calls it her 'big girl bike', it's an upgrade on the trike she's been pootling around on for about two years. It's got stabilisers (thank goodness) and brakes she can't quite master, which makes for concerned looks from other prom-walkers...but so far we haven't collided with anyone or anything. She has to wear a helmet for the first time, one with Mickey Mouse ears to be precise.

I know the photos look sunny, but believe me it was freezing, so we had a pit stop outside the cafe on the seafront. Hot chocolates all round, we needed the calories!

Despite my daughter's cavalier attitude to braking, we had such a fab time. Once she mastered the steering and strength needed to make a bigger bike move forward, she was off like a rocket!

And, for the first time in ages, we all got some serious exercise. Walking with a toddler or pre-schooler can be a slow process, not just because their legs are little, but because the world is such a fascinating place we have to stop to look at everything, question why this that or the other does X, Y or Z and generally take in life at a (sometimes) slower pace. I like to walk fast, when my daughter was in her pram and then her pushchair, I power-walked everywhere. I didn't have a car, it was better (and cheaper) than gym membership and it was quite possibly the fittest I've been in my life. But once my daughter got too big for her pushchair, we've walked everywhere at her pace. Which is lovely in one way, to slow down to little-legs-speed, but it's not been great for my fitness levels!

So it was such a joy to put her on two wheels and chase about after her on the seafront. It opens up a whole new world to us as a family. We can go further with her on two wheels. Once she is confident and we don't have to walk along beside her making sure she doesn't flatten anyone, we can get on our bikes too. And then we're really off!