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the best things in life are free

7 amazing things you got for free as a kid

They filled you with happiness.

IT MAY NOT always be true that the best things in life are free, but when you’re a kid there are few thrills that can match a good freebie.

Whether it arrived via your cereal box or was just an add on to your favourite toy, any opportunity to get your hands on an extra belonging was exciting.

Here are some free things that probably filled you with happiness as a child.

Crowns at Burger King

Who didn’t want to be royalty when they were a kid?  Who still occasionally wants to be royalty at 3am on your way home from a night out?

These guys didn’t arrive in Ireland until 1981, but when they did, boy were we all over it.

Flickr/Creative Tools/Creative Commons

Toys with Cereal

Today's kids don't know what they're missing, for when we were young breakfast meant the potential for a free toy.

In some houses you were allowed to scrunch your hand down into the box to find it, in others you just had to wait til it popped out.  One way or the other, it was brilliant.

For example, Kelloggs World Cup Glory USA '94 Player Cards:

Or these 1996 Rice Krispies pencil toppers:

You often had to send off for the Weetabix stuff which took the shine off, and they were also usually books, but they were still free:

Via Amazon

Free crisps and sweets at the Blood Bank

Few things were worse than being dragged along to various boring locations with your parents, but when the destination was the blood bank you were in for a quality feed.

www.shutterstock.com

Happy Meal toys

Who knows if we'd even like McDonalds if it weren't for the toys?

www.etsy.com

www.etsy.com

Barbie cassettes

Barbie was a good girl but she occasionally had a rock and roll edge, and when she did you usually got a bonus cassette with your doll.

www.amazon.com

YouTube/chibiXtrash

Lump of sugar with your injection

Injection time was a scary one in primary school, but if it was a polio vaccination they'd sweeten the deal with a lump of sugar.  JACKPOT*.

www.shutterstock.com

*Unless of course you went home and your mother told you that eating lumps of sugar would give you worms, as happened to one of the DailyEdge.ie team.

Balloons at various events

Any boring event could be brightened up with the offering of a helium balloon.  Unless of course, the trauma of previous lost ballons/fear that you will lose said balloon tainted the whole scenario for you.

www.shutterstock.com

What other free treats got your adrenaline pumping as a youngster?

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