At Christmas time your thoughts do turn to toys, we’ve just bought a lot and cleared a lot out. Buying toys for your own child is difficult, you try to coerce them into enjoying the traditional toys you used to love or classic wooden toys you think they should love. Usually however, you end up buying some plastic things that light up and make noises. With this in mind we took Baby to the Brighton Toy and Model Museum this week so he could get a peek of what children from history had to play with. Inspired by this visit I am also including a top ten of toys – not bestselling toys you understand, just toys I like!

We’ve had our eye on the Toy Museum for some time now, it looks incredibly inviting, a little curio hidden under the station. Its intimate, welcoming and like a messy child’s bedroom full of working delights. Husband got more out of watching the antiquated model train displays than Baby or I but there is something to catch anyone’s eye in the little chain of rooms.

There are over 10,000 exhibits including early teddy bears, period dolls, die-cast toys, puppets and tin soldiers. Its easy to walk past the glass fronted cabinets to just view the flashy model railways that chunter around beautifully laid out landscapes, but each is crammed with sometimes tiny examples of childhood through the ages. The museum is well worth a visit for the old-fashioned shop alone. It sells plenty of toys you’ll remember including some really cheap little wind-ups that are still fun today!

Top Ten Toys: Some particular favourites of mine for many reasons. In no particular order: ONE: GIRLS WORLD: That scary head that girls used to practice their cosmetic skills on. I always remember being woken up by my mother screaming one morning as she had walked into the kitchen to find this disembodied head on the windowsill where I had left it to dry after a hairwash!

TWO: PLAYDOUGH BARBERS SHOP: You could press buttons and make hairdos out of play-dough. What’s not to like? I wanted one every year, still do, did anyone get one? Were they any good? Have I fretted and cried every Christmas for no reason?

THREE: LEGO: Of course. Girls play with Lego too, admittedly we make houses not robots. Ah the search for the elusive long flat bit or clear window bit… Baby already has a bucket of big bits and will obviously graduate to proper Lego soon. So pleased there is a dedicated shop in Brighton!

FOUR: TRIVIAL PURSUIT: A toy? Maybe not, but definitely worth mentioning. The stalwart of student houses and dinner parties. You can really flirt with people over a game of Triv!

FIVE: CLASSIC GAMES: More games sorry – but who can resist a round of Kerplunk, Operation, Guess Who?, Monopoly, Buckeroo, Cluedo or (you sunk my) Battleships. Newer games such as Hungry Hippos will become classics in time.

SIX: DOLLS: The perennial favourite! My Holly Hobbie soon became Sindy then soon became Barbie. Then soon became involved in things she shouldn’t with Action Man and I realised I was too grown up for dolls.

SEVEN: SLINKY: It slinked down the stairs – once – before it got tangled up never to be used again. I loved them!

EIGHT: PADDLEBALL: Husband loves it, he can keep it going for ages. Dog goes crazy and the elastic breaks regularly, I am then despatched to CH Fabrics in Churchill Square where they sell it by the metre.

NINE: MOUSETRAP: Yes another board game! This one was all in the set-up. Spending time carefully constructing the elaborate traps and cranks only to fall at the first hurdle and set it all unravelling as soon as you started play. Brilliant.

TEN: CHEMISTRY SET AND MICROSCOPE: I remember running as fast as I could to get to the shop with the money I had been given that allowed me to purchase these. It meant I could mix things up in tubes, make things warm and light up and buzz, and view liquids and small creatures in minute detail. And I did, for years and years. Money well spent!

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to introduce Baby to lots of these when he’s a bit older, until then he’ll keep playing with his noisy flashy things and the odd big teddy that he likes to cuddle.

Would love to hear your choices or toy memories!