Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

[stuckinthe80's]

When I was at infant school in the mid 70's i can remember having to sell 'sunny smiles'. It was abook of pictures of kids from third world countries (i think) and you had to sell them!
Can anyone else remember these books of pictures?

[Heather74]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

We sold these for our local Sunday school. (I thought they were called Sunday smiles for a long time)
Most pictures were of really cute babies. They were to raise money for the national children's home (NCH)
We would go from door to door with my nan, everyone always seemed to go for the baby pictures rather than the big boys and girls photo's.
I remember you had to fill in the stub bit a bit like raffle tickets with the name and address of each buyer of the photos.
We were also warned never to enter peoples homes and alway to wait on the door steps while they filled it in or went to fetch money.

[Wend]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I don't know what made me think of them today but I put sunny smiles into my search engine & came up with this website! We always sold them from infant school.

[The Low Country]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

Hey! I was talking to my Auntie a couple of weeks ago about Sunny Smiles. I used to sell them in the 1960s. I think they were either from primary school or sunday school. My Auntie 'still has one she bought that she carries in her purse.' All the cutest ones always sold first.

[HG]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I remember these, I used to think you were actually buying the child in the photograph, and used to say to my mother I don't one, don't buy one or something along those lines

[Danny]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I thought the same thing, that you actually got a kid!

This was down to the nuns who taught at my junior school - they stood at the front "Right children, who wants to buy a little poor baby?"

They then gave you a strip of the stickers and you were told that once they were all sold you got one of the kids on the picture, a schoolmate came in next day and he'd sold all his right away but he never got one handed to him!

We assumed you had to wait until all class was done so the kids who had to wait for Dad's wages or the Giro were bullied by the rest of us, finally the day came when we were all sold up but no kids were handed out - the nuns said they would stay in India /Africa etc but they would now belong to us.

How disappointing, I'd even tidied out my Dad's shed and put my old sleeping bag in there for this kid with some crisps and a bottle of Tizer

[scotchmist]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I'd totally forgotten about this hideous form of pathos and infant exploitation!! I can remember having to sell them at school around 1975. At that young age I couldn't understand why anyone would want to part with their hard-earned cash for a vile picture of a smiling sprogg!

[shilton dipper]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

yep.......i remember 'sunny smiles'........small booklet of black n white pics.....you gave some money and tore the pic out so you could tell everyone " i have bought this baby!"

[battyrat]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

Primary school for me,Early -mid 70's.Can remember the booklets clearly.Had to go around all my relatives,and neighbours to try to sell them.Can't quite remember if they were fixed price or just a small donation per picture.

[arnold1]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

yep.......i remember 'sunny smiles'........small booklet of black n white pics.....you gave some money and tore the pic out so you could tell everyone " i have bought this baby!"

yes thought they were disabled kids for some reson

[Tortie]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

Yes, I remember Sunny Smiles; I must admit, I didn't really like them, to be honest...
It used to get a bit competitive at our school; there was always one girl in our class who had to have the best of everything, and just had to boast about how many she had sold (she was a boastful so-and-so anyway), and I was always upset because I never sold as many as she did. She had a big family though, and lots of friends, and her parents had lots of friends, which is why she always sold loads. My mum would never let me knock on doors - it had to be people we knew, and because we lived quite a sheltered, isolated existence, I hardly sold any.

[Andrew of the Green Wood]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I was just looking this up for a story I'm writing. I remember them in the Sixties, and like arnold1 I have the impression they were of disabled children, probably Down syndrome. The booklets were very small and monochome. I thought them rather creepy. I was not used to people being categorised like that, and I still don't care for it. I could not see why anyone would want to buy them.

[Kez]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

I was just looking this up for a story I'm writing. I remember them in the Sixties, and like arnold1 I have the impression they were of disabled children, probably Down syndrome. The booklets were very small and monochome. I thought them rather creepy. I was not used to people being categorised like that, and I still don't care for it. I could not see why anyone would want to buy them.

The kiddies weren't all disabled as my uncle was one of the children featured and he was in full health

[Johny]

Re: Can anyone remember 'Sunny Smiles'??

Sunny Smiles were sold to raise funds for 'National Children's Homes' - a Methodist Church charity and I sold them as a child with my grandma through our Methodist Church in the 1950's. The charity stills operates but in a different format (Imagine selling photos to strangers of children today!). It is now known as 'Action for Children' (visit their web site) and 23 July 2017 is 'Action for Children' Sunday and now as a Methodist preacher I will be delivering an 'Action for Children' service at a local Methodist Church raising funds for the charity