Advent Calendar Day 6: DIY Christmas Gifts

As we move on from programmes showing parents what to buy their children for Christmas, today we offer you some advice on DIY toy-making. After all, declares this 1958 listing, "an original and sturdily constructed toy, made by one or other of its parents, often gives a child the greatest and most lasting pleasure."

This helpful diagram on the Radio Times listing will help you build the multi-purpose toy. "In its upright position", the caption explains, "it can also be used as a shop with an open front (a kiosk). As a glove puppet theatre, with the backcloth in the high position, the operators sit on the floor. The other way up, with curtains reversed and the backcloth in the low position, it can be used as a marionette theatre, and the operators stand behind."

Sadly, we couldn't find any more toy-making instructions, and we suspect it's now too late to knit our own presents or make our own soft toys. We're also not sure if the gift of "an embroidered picture of our summer holiday" will go down well. Guess we will have to rely on whatever comes from a cavern in Lapland...