The year Santa read my mind

Joseph O'Connor Playwright and author of The Salesman

The autumn I was six, my mother was largely pregnant, and I remember making a pact with Jesus that if he sent me a baby brother, I need not get a visit from Santa that year. So my brother John was my favourite Christmas present ever. As a baby, he had all the qualities one would want in a toy - he was endlessly fascinating, vividly coloured and self-wetting. He also emitted a variety of interesting noises - as indeed he still does sometimes.

Barbara Dawson Director of the Hugh Lane Gallery

I was pony-mad at the age of eight and would go round gazing at other people's ponies and trying to ingratiate myself with them. One Christmas, I was asked to carry all the parcels down to the tree and there were three parcels all wrapped in brown paper and twine for me. I unwrapped the hat first, then the boots and then the jodphurs - they were all strung together like baubles on an earring. I was in seventh heaven because it meant the pony would be the next to arrive [which it did, eventually].

The Carter Twins Currently singing in Mother Goose at the Gaiety

Stephen: I was always mad into snooker tables, so they were great Christmas toys - I started off with a really small one and kept getting bigger ones. Tom and I didn't usually have to share presents - I wouldn't let him play with mine!

Tom: My best present was the computer I got when I was 12 from Santa - I still believe in him to this day. We always got the same presents so we wouldn't fight, and we still don't fight now, so it worked.

Melanie Morris Editor of D-Side

I remember the year I got the Miss World game for Christmas. I'd wanted it for ages so my grandmother bribed me to wear a smocked Liberty dress for Christmas Day in return for the game. You got four dolls to move around the board with instructions like: "your rival rips your ballgown, move back four spaces" and there were always fights because nobody wanted to be the black doll or the redhead. Everyone always wanted the blonde doll - blondes always won the Miss World.

Martyn Turner Cartoonist

What I really remember about Christmas toys was the smell - the leather of a new football or the linseed oil of a cricket bat - not both at once, I might add. There was also the year I got a new bike but my parents couldn't afford the rubber tyres. I cycled on the bare rims for three months until the neighbours could stand the noise no longer and bought me the tyres.

Melissa Nolan Owner of The Doll's Hospital

My best present was a doll, would you believe. I was seven and it was a Crolly doll, one of the handmade, original dolls from Ireland. She's called Mary and I still have her. She's in mint condition so that's not what got me into mending other people's dolls - that was because there was a huge demand. Although I do like dolls, I was never all that into them.

John Rocha Fashion designer

My favourite Christmas toy was a simple fishing reel which I got when I was an eight-year-old boy in Hong Kong. I'm still an avid fisher but I've graduated from the simple reel by now.

Niall Sweeney Artistic director of Arthouse

Other than the wrapping paper, which was always very popular, my favourite Christmas presents were Maurice Sendak's books like Where The Wild Things Are. I still have them all and read them regularly - they've had an enormous influence on me. The other thing I always asked for is Lego, which I enjoyed for the same reason kids always like cardboard boxes: because of the potential.

Ken Doherty World snooker champion

Ken was away competing in Germany while we were compiling this piece but his mother confided that all he ever asked for at Christmas time was the newest Manchester United club kit.

Martin Drury Director of the Children's Cultural Centre, The Ark

I remember. I remember a wonderful Pelham puppet, a set of Bako, a golliwog, but in truth, the best toys were always those we improvised. Long after the Christmas presents had lost their lustre, I recall hot August afternoons in the back garden which saw my six siblings and I running endless RDS-inspired horse shows. Three bamboos and two clothes pegs became a Puissance wall; the green metal box of the lawn mower became a grassy bank and a flattened cardboard box became a water jump. Though we loved to roll our tongues around exotic names like Gratiano Manicelli and Hans Hunter Winkler, we were really true patriots hoping to draw the magic names of Tommy Wade and Dundrum and be inspired to another "Clear round".

Dervla Kirwan Actress, currently filming Meteor

My mother always believed in giving her three daughters very practical presents. Thank God that has changed but I do remember one year when obviously my father was sent out to do the Santa Claus thing and came back with a tomato-shaped radio! I was utterly delighted - I still have it at home in my old bedroom. "Oh! Rosebud, Rosebud!," etc. (For all you heathens out there go and see Citizen Kane and you'll understand the reference). Needless to say it broke, not due to misuse but overuse.

Alice Maher Artist

I always wanted those little miniature farm animals and people - we lived on a farm and we used to create entire cities outside in the ditches. I can also remember really wanting one of those Crolly dolls that were the big thing at the time, but I never got one.

I'll always remember the year I got my dream present though - I can still smell it. One Christmas when I was 15, I was going out with my childhood sweetheart and he gave me a bottle of French Almond perfume - I nearly died with the excitement. My sister still remembers it because it seemed so romantic and grown-up to us.

Maurice Manning Senator and author

My favourite Christmas toy was a lovely, handmade lorry that I got when I was six. It had the registration plate IC 1947, it was painted the Carlow colours - green, yellow and red - and it was a complete surprise.

In those days, in Bagnalstown where I lived, there weren't too many cars so I could ride it all the way down the main street, pedalling and steering myself. It lasted for a good five years, it was so well made.