X-Entertainment | The Christmas Present Survey.

The Christmas Present Survey.

The Advent and Advert Calendars have been updated. Look for a post on here tomorrow about Christmas trees. And participate. In a survey: what's the best Christmas/holiday present you've ever received? I know we've done this one before, but the crop of posters around now are probably a lot different from last year's. That, and I can't think of anything else.

Posted by Matt on 12/13/2004. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 51 comments

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Hmm It appears the christmas music doesnt wish to work for me…=(

Chestnuts roasted by LordSorrow @ 12/14/2004 7:20 AM

To me, no Christmas present was ever as important as the SNES. The hype I put myself will never be matched by any product ever. I continually read back issues of Nintendo Power like it was the bible. And strangely, for some reason, I already had the Super Mario World official strategy guide. I must have read that from cover to cover at least three times.

Second place goes to the time when I received the ability to decide who lives and who dies.

Chestnuts roasted by Gavok @ 12/14/2004 8:18 AM

I remember one year way back in the eighties when G.I. Joe was still new and i got the Sky Stryker(the tomcat), and my brother(a year and a half older than me) got the big green helicopter. My grandparents were still alive then and were over at our house for x-mas dinner. I vividly remember "mickey" playing on MTV while we ate dinner.

Chestnuts roasted by KillaHill @ 12/14/2004 8:30 AM

LordSorrow: Works fine for me. Just right click on the "listen" and ‘copy shortcut’. Then just open up winamp and click on "add"–>’url’ and paste. Viola! instant Xmassy, Matt and crew style.

Chestnuts roasted by KillaHill @ 12/14/2004 8:34 AM

They may be bit players, but at least they’re not 8 bit players.

There has got to some good guys hiding in the bush that will save the day at the last minute. I mean, Santa has a bomb strapped to his back, Random Jim has been kidnapped, Claire has a magic wand and Waiterbot has legs. There’s no way to beat the Axis of Evil, even w/ an entire library of spell books. With Kuse and Knacks realizing that they’re bit players, they may want the 15 seconds on limelight it will take for them to change sides, furthering the odds in the Evil One’s favor. Let’s see, what Dues ex Machina can we use this time – Joe’s? Gremlins? Trolls? Maybe there’s a Chia Pet growing silently behind the calender, ready to turn the tables as soon as the first thin, wavy stalk appears?

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 12/14/2004 8:46 AM

I may be a little older than everyone else that’s posted about NES because one of my best X-mas presents ever was the Atari 2600 game system. It came with the Combat game and my parents also purchased Pac-Man for us. It was a present for us three kids so we had to share, but it was still great. My mom loved playing Frogger.

My next best present was Luke’s landspeeder. It was my first Star Wars vehicle. And I also got Luke, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Darth Vader figures.

Good times. Remembering this stuff reminds me of how much I love my parents – they always tried to make Xmas very special.

God, I’m so mushy.

Chestnuts roasted by Traynor @ 12/14/2004 8:48 AM

Lincoln Logs when I was 9. I was not sure what they were when I requested them but damn when that box came to me, it was almost magical.

Chestnuts roasted by rimmie @ 12/14/2004 9:11 AM

Best present ever: Easy. When I was a kid my brother and I received the NES system complete with the gun and the power pad. Everybody wanted one and we were one of the lucky kids to get one.

Mom, I know you’ll never read this because you don’t know about this site, but THANKS for making a kid feel like the luckiest kid in the world. I know how hard it is now to get your own kids what they want since I have my own two, and I hope I’ll be half the parent that you were to us. I love you Mom!

Thanks Matt for once again bringing back the best of memories in one’s life and confirming what I said when I first found this site almost 3 years ago, THIS IS THE BEST WEBSITE IN THE WORLD. You make all the holidays that much more entertaining and I can’t repay you for all the nostalgia that this site has sparked. Matt, my friend, you truly are the MAN!

Chestnuts roasted by J-Dog @ 12/14/2004 10:06 AM

Traynor, I got an Atari 2600 one year too. But I was like three and had no idea what it was. I think it was more an excuse for my Dad to get the Atari. As soon as I opened it Dad set it up and played SeaQuest all day long.

Chestnuts roasted by Law Girl @ 12/14/2004 11:01 AM

I don’t remember if I got my NES for Christmas or not…. So I won’t include it.

Best present:
Teen years: Probably my Trumpet. They made me go on a scavenger hunt to find the thing. No other gift has given me such joy as that that.

Kid Years: Hard to say, but one gift stick out in my mind…The GI Joe Space Shuttle thing. The box was HUGE–took up the whole area next to the tree.

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 12/14/2004 11:54 AM

SHOGUN WARRIORS MAZINGA!!!!!!!

That answer will never change.

Buck up, Knacks and Kuse. Think of the couple from the Science Fiction sketch from Monty Python. They were glossed over at the biginning, but showed up at the end to save the world from the Alien Blancmanges from Planet Skyron. We never knew their import until they showed up, spoons in hand. The fate of Xmas may rest in your inarticulate little hands.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash-Z, with the might to fight for right.... the right to par-tay! @ 12/14/2004 12:14 PM

This needs a bit of backstory. First, my older sister and I were pretty spoiled, and second, I’m a bit of a dork.

The Christmas before this happened, the big present for the year was a small TV, so she and I could watch what we wanted instead of what our parents were watching out in the living room. Great idea, but seperate bedrooms, two sisters, one TV. The "deal" was that we would trade it back and forth every week, but she being older and bigger meant it soon lived in her room and I could only watch what I wanted if it didn’t conflict with what she wanted, and if she felt like tolerating me in her room.

I never really thought much about what would be the big gift for the next year, but my mom has always been a great gift-giver, intuiting the perfect present from things we would say when we weren’t even thinking about gifts. Apparently that year, I had been pretty into Night Court, specifically, I loved the character of Bull (the tall bald bailiff). There was a particular episode where Bull had a puppet that looked like a charicature of himself. I thought that was about the coolest thing ever. I don’t know if any of you realized it (I didn’t until I saw it), but a slightly scaled-down version of that puppet was sold. When I opened that box and saw what it was, I was floored, and as far as I was concerned, had gotten my big present. As I’m playing with Bull, dad goes back into their room, and slides out a big box. To my great surprise, he brought it to me. I actually squealed, "the only way you can top Bull is if that’s a TV!" It was a TV, and it was cooler than the one the year before, so my TV was cooler than my sister’s which made up for her stealing "our" TV.

At the time, the TV was the best present, but when I think back on it, Bull really was the coolest gift.

Chestnuts roasted by magenta lizard @ 12/14/2004 2:38 PM

My best present would probably be my first Game Boy. I couldn’t wait to play Tetris!

I got a N64 one year because I really wanted it. My parents were surprized that I didn’t want a PSX instead, but Mario 64 was the reason that I wanted a N64.

Chestnuts roasted by JG (with the "!") @ 12/14/2004 2:49 PM

I’d have to say my first computer which I got 3 days after Christmas in 1998. I had wanted a computer since 1994 when I first saw a commercial for American Online, and to wait four years was hard, but it was a great day when my dad came to my house with it. Unforurtnaley it got stolen less than a year later, but I got a new computer 2 weeks afterwards which I still have to this day. Still, my the first computer I got is my best Christmas present ever, which not concidentally, happened after the best Christmas I’ve had so far.

Chestnuts roasted by Steven @ 12/14/2004 3:10 PM

A Texas Instruments keyboard thingie that you hooked up to your tv and you could make programs and play games. Sorta like mixing an Apple and a Atari together. I never could get the programs to work (I was all of 6). I wish i still had it, my kids would love it.

Chestnuts roasted by Brett @ 12/14/2004 3:25 PM

I will never forget the Christmas morning I woke up, went down in the living room, and there was this massive Garfield tent with a giant, inflatable head. My sister and I were super excited. But SNES was probably my favorite.

Chestnuts roasted by jjgoreha @ 12/14/2004 5:25 PM

TVs are always a great present. I still have my Sony Watchman My Pops got me waayy back in junior high. Still works and everything.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/14/2004 5:59 PM

My N64. Got the first day it came out, but it was a christmas present. Me and my mom waited in line outside Toys R Us for two hours to get it. I got SM64 and Pilotwings64 at the same time. I got home and played SM64 for about a week straight without sleep. Second best would be when I got Zelda 64.

Chestnuts roasted by Erik @ 12/14/2004 6:30 PM

I think I was about 6… and I got a Strawberry Shortcake *bike* complete with basket, streamers and training wheels.

My folks were having a Christmas party and they knew I would stay in bed. I was hiding behind the doorway to the living room listening to the party through the air conditioning vent, when someone knocked on the front door. My mom came over to my hiding place and said I should go see who was at the door. I walked through the room (in my pjs of course) to get the door – as soon as I opened it, I saw the bike parked there and heard "ho ho ho!" and some sleighbells heading off down the street.

The. Best. Present. Ever.

Turns out my folks got my uncle to play the Santa effects. Totally, totally cool.

Chestnuts roasted by palopinto @ 12/14/2004 6:31 PM

My best gift was probably the Shera Castle…of course the Maple Town house was cool too. Awesome memories.

Chestnuts roasted by Jenner @ 12/15/2004 12:17 PM

This seems to be an ongoing trend but I’d say my N64. I was fairly old at the time (18 – not old, but old to be getting excited about Christmas gifts).

I completely ignored my family (this was my first Christmas with my now wife) collecting the first few stars while marvelling and Mario’s tree-climbing ability. Later that day I received Goldeneye. Nice.

Chestnuts roasted by Louis Tulley @ 12/15/2004 8:57 PM

My best gift had to be the Millenium Falcon around the Empire Strikes Back time… 81 or 82. I was so pumped about that thing and the noises it made, the storage compartments and the little removable chess table, that for a couple years after I would sometimes wake up early in the morning on random days and run downstairs just to see if Santa had decided to leave another one. You have to be optomistic to think Santa will leave an identical Falcon in July.

Chestnuts roasted by HiFlex @ 12/16/2004 12:34 PM

Motherfricking ColecoVison in 1983. It rocked the house and made our Atari2600 owning friends insanely jealous that OUR Donkey Kong didn’t look like shit AND had the third level.

Chestnuts roasted by TimCo @ 12/16/2004 3:49 PM

*THIS* is a difficult question. We were just talking about it at work when we shoulda been working but weren’t yesterday.

Gotta be the PXL 2000 kid video camera. It was pretty sweet. It came with a mini TV (that really worked as a TV too muahah) that with about 8000 unlabeled cords let you play your video back, and therefore made me a TV superstar worthy of opposing *any* competitor on Star Search.

We used to take the Karaoke tapes that came with the Jem dolls and make rock videos by my pool, despite it being all locked down with the black cover for winter.

My poor dad. We made him be the camera man.

Chestnuts roasted by everglade @ 12/22/2004 8:35 AM

I remeber a Christmas loooong ago, in which my family and I received an ATARI from my aunt and uncle. We were always the proletarian cash-deprived of the larger familial body, and to receive such """"""high tech"""""" nology was like the Cratchet family getting a Cray XMP. The other big one I remember clearly was getting GameBoy, which my Dad ended up playing more than me (though I had many, many, muchos, beaucoup hours of playtime. My first CEVs were of Super Mario bumrushing through his Land. God bless Hallmark, Jesus, miscegenated cherry candy canes, and videonic gamery Teh Wirlde Over. Godbless you, Matt. Here’s some Kleenex.

Chestnuts roasted by Zen @ 12/24/2004 1:59 PM

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