That’s what my mom got...food. War-time England was when she grew up. The closest thing she got to a toy was paper dolls. Fruit, nuts, hankies, and paper dolls. The only dolls she ever got, not at Christmas, were hand me downs from a more privileged cousin. She used to use her cats as dolls...dress them up and put them in a pram. Poor mom. Poor cats.
My mom too - in the U.S. She was the last of nine so she got the hand-me-down shoes from her siblings, said they never fit right but she didn’t have a choice - she had to have surgery on her feet later because they were deformed from ill-fitting shoes.
She made sure “us” kids had proper shoes when we were young - our feet were measured every single time we bought shoes and we were asked repeatedly if they fit. We didn’t have a lot of money but this was a very important issue to her.