Before the war, the kind of prosperity we enjoy these days could only be dreamed of by most families who had to scrape by on comparatively meagre incomes. Father Christmas had a smaller budget too, so children would be lucky to find more than one or two expensive toys in their stockings. Simple pleasures were the order of the day, with families in the pre-TV, pre-computer games era making their own fun. So our Set of The Month for December, Things to Make, would have provided an enjoyable diversion, showing how to create all manner of interesting objects using ordinary household articles – a doll’s cradle from matchboxes, a paper Chinese lantern, an ice-cream barrow from pill boxes and matchsticks, a bed from a shoe box, a spinning top from a cotton reel and cardboard disc, a wheelbarrow, horse, steamer, peg-wrestler, peanut mouse, telephone, windmill and a host of other intriguing little easy-to-make items. Why not have a go yourself using these cards!

This set of 50 Things to Make issued by Millhoff “De Reszke Cigarettes” in 1935 in very good condition is catalogued at £30.00