Anne Kelleher
Advertising manager, The Southern Star
Bobo the bear was a present given to me by my late father Joe in 1965.
Joe was in the merchant navy and brought Bobo home to Glandore from Italy as a present.
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Bobo is made of mohair fur, has glass eyes, rexine (faux leather) paw pads, a stitched nose and mouth and is fully jointed.
After quite a few years as my favourite toy, he became worse for wear with his arm becoming detached from his body, and he also had a torn ear which resulted in the bell falling out.
As a result he ended up banished to a cupboard.
However, in the mid 80s, I packaged him in tissue paper, placed him in a shoe box and posted him to the Doll’s Hospital in Dublin where he underwent surgery and was returned weeks later as good as new.
Now at the age of 60, Bobo enjoys pride of place at his home in Rosscarbery.
Eoghan Daly
Graphic designer, The Southern Star
For me the choice of best Christmas present ever is very easy – Action Man.
Not giving my age away but I was a young boy in the early 1980s.
People didn’t have a lot back then but the best toy ever created was available.
I don’t know the fascination really – did I dream of being a soldier perhaps?
One way or another I was hooked.
Action man had many different uniforms, guns, jeeps etc, and for me he was the ultimate toy that a boy could have.
I used to try on his different uniforms and show him off to my grandmother and other relatives.
Action Man went everywhere with me as a boy and I would love to go back and relive the fun and mischief of those wonderful days!
Emma Ryan
Graphic designer, The Southern Star
For Christmas 2004, I received a Pink Volkswagen Beetle Barbie car and about 20 years later had to come to the hard realisation that Volkswagen didn’t make Beetles anymore, let alone bright Barbie pink ones and the hopes for my dream car were dashed.
A convertible with a built in working radio fit for 2 and a half Barbies, perhaps 3 Brats dolls without their clunky platforms, was the hot ticket for any girls my age at the time.
While as a 7 yr old, I didn’t understand the nuances for tuning a radio or what the FM/AM even meant under the hood, it was my first foray into the inner workings of a car and curating my own music taste at that age.
Thankfully for my mother, the built in speakers weren’t loud enough to be too annoying so long as I left it in tune.
The perfect vehicle to get my Barbies to their Winter Ski Lodge in style.
Niall O'Driscoll
Manager, Southern Star Creative
Two Christmases in succession (in the early-mid 1980s) I was lucky enough to receive Technic Lego kits from Santa.
The first one was a jeep with steering and suspension, that could also be assembled as a drag racer.
The second year however, he brought me a very cool Arctic Rescue Unit that came with two ‘men’, complete with skis and a mini snow mobile.
I was absolutely fascinated with it, the clever mechanics of the kit, how it worked and I got hours and hours of play from it.
However, tragedy struck one day when I noticed a split which couldn’t be repaired in the arm of one of the figures. As a child who liked to keep his toys carefully, I was heartbroken, but I decided to write a letter to Santa to see if he could do anything to help.
A few weeks later a mysterious padded envelope addressed to me appeared in the post, with yes, you’ve guessed it, a brand new replacement figure!
I was absolutely thrilled.
I’m glad to report that 40+ years later, I still have those Lego kits, fully intact.
I even have the instruction manuals!
Tony O'Shaughnessy
Digital Manager, The Southern Star
My favourite present from Santa was in Christmas of 2003.
I was only five years old and Santa got me a grey Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP.
I don’t remember a whole pile from my childhood but getting that Nintendo GameBoy from Santa was a core memory for me.
The Nintendo came packed with Super Mario Advance 4 and the mother had to rip it out of my hands to get me to eat my Christmas dinner.
That GameBoy was my life and I’d spend hours helping Mario run around the Mushroom Kingdom.
That little GameBoy went everywhere with me, especially on the long car drives to Limerick City for our big family days out.
Little did Santa know at the time but this kicked off a lifelong love for video games which I still play today when I need to unwind after a hard days work.
