When you were a kid, what was THE Christmas gift that you absolutely had to have?
A blond haired blue eyed Cabbage Patch Kid the first year they came out. They were immensely hard to find, but my Aunt and Uncle found one for my parents to give to me. I still have her, and was just completely ecstatic. Her name is Suzette.
Ghosted by Ryane @ 11/17/2009 12:29 AM EST
Yes, DEFINITELY the CPK. Mine had curly dark brown hair and violet eyes and her name was Paige and I can still remember the way she smelled. Too bad my husband “accidentally” threw her out a few years ago. And her sisters. Hm.
Funny story- I went for the free Lego Santa keychain at TRU this weekend (thank you to whoever it was that posted it!). I didn’t see any signs or ads for it in the store or the ad, so when I finally came to the cashier with my Peanuts Christmas Charlie Brown figure, I was defeated. DH said I should ask anyways and the manager said yes, they were at customer service! And the cashier went over to get me one.
She comes back with one (we were supposed to get one per person?) and opens the booklet up, scans something. And now the computer stops and won’t let her go on. “It’s saying something about Lego $5 off $20!” Stands there like a moron. Reads the ad a couple times looking for info. I told her it was just a freebie as far as I knew but she wasn’t letting it go. Calls the manager over. Manager has no clue what’s wrong. Cashier now asks me if I don’t want the keychain and I said YES, it’s why I came in here! The line is now growing and she’s still hemming and hawing over it. Finally the line got so big while the cashier just stood there staring at the register with DH and I saying “WHAT is going on?” and getting no reply, the manager comes over angrily and pounds the keypad. The clerk shrugs and says the total of the sale..which is 50% less than it should be.
Now that there’s 6 or 7 families in line getting visibly and audibly angry, we say nothing and hightail it out of the store. This is when we realize that she thought she had to scan SOMETHING for the freebie and she scanned the coupon on the inside for $5 off a $20 Lego purchase!!!! Now we knew why the register wasn’t letting the sale go through! So we got the Charlie Brown figurine with his pathetic tree for $4.99. Thanks, Lego Santa! I used to be a retail cashier so this whole thing amused the hell out of me.
BTW, Christmas Dots now at Target! And they’re yummy and festive!
Ghosted by a2stylee @ 11/17/2009 12:50 AM EST
The Christmas present with the most staying power was the original Nintendo. I still am a retrogamer.
“The Red Ryder BB Gun” present was a Hulk Hogan Wrestling Buddy that I still have put away in storage
The biggest suprise was getting Tommie Frazier’s(Former Nebraska Quarterback, in a way the foreshadowing of Tebow)Autobiography, and then seeing that my parents somehow got Tommie to sign it.
Wait, a2stylee, I’m glad it worked out for you, but why do you find it funny if you’ve been in the same position before?
Ghosted by Tutsuro @ 11/17/2009 1:31 AM EST
In regards to the AC…
I think it’s time to do a wipe. The story got too big for its britches, to borrow a phrase. I think we need a simple return to form this year. I personally preferred the old X-E Christmas countdowns, where the AC stuff was there, but not an overbearing thing. It can’t really hold up on its own, in my eyes. I liked when we first saw Mista Snowman and he was just chilling in the bottom-right of an article filled with holiday commercials and there was a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
While the last few years have been objectively interesting and all, it just hasn’t had any soul to it for awhile. All opinions on my part, of course. I’m just saying that I personally would love smaller, simpler triple articles like that. Heck, vary it up a little.
Day 1: Here’s your baby deer in the regular AC and some random manhole in the Lego AC (this is, naturally, assuming a Lego AC is in the pipes. Why do they have nothing to do with Christmas? Lemme put together a sleigh and gimme Santa’s House in four or five parts!).
Day 2: Baby deer gets a mama deer, the manhole gets a CHUD to poke out of it. Also, here’s where Captain Crunch has been hiding.
Day 13: The barnyard gets a moose for some reason, and the Village People are trying to kill the CHUD. Also, here’s a Christmas Mood Table!
Day 25: AC Santa and Lego AC Santa team up and pitch a buddy comedy to CBS. It’s the new NEW Odd Couple. And over here is trying to find everything just slightly creepy and off about Charlie Brown’s Christmas. And here’s the cookies we got to put out for Saint Nicholas.
Y’know, cool little feel-good articles. :3 If I’m feeling kinda shitty, I’ll go back and read those old Xmas things once in a blue moon. Especially if I’m sick at some point in winter. If it’s cold out and the Xmas jukebox is in full effect, I like perusing the old stuff.
I dunno, maybe I’m being crotchety here. Maybe I just wanted to use the word ‘crotchety’ online.
Merry Crotchety.
Ghosted by Chibi Soma @ 11/17/2009 2:30 AM EST
I loved Good Omens. I was drawn in by the tag line “Whats so funny about the apocolypse? Everything” Made me get into Neil Gaimen especially after I realized he has also done Mirror Mask.
The only game sytem I ever have and will own is a Nintendo 64. I love when people come over and they are like seein a blast from the past that excites them. Mario kart yo!
When I was 10 I had to have a Crimp and Curl Cabbage Patch doll and MJ’s Dangerous albumn. I got them both and a kicken WALKMAN!! Whoo!
The greatest Christmas ever was the one in which I got the TMNT sewer playset. I have never wanted anything else so bad in my life.
Ghosted by drew do @ 11/17/2009 7:40 AM EST
Oh man, I think the best Christmas I ever had is when my brother and I got both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System with a good number of games. I don’t know how they pulled that off cause my family never had lots of money. Pops must have held up a liquor store or something. I still remember unwrapping those presents. Happy happy joy joy!
The next best Christmas was when I got Voltron with all of the lions. That toy was a beast. Very cool.
DJ D-Asid efor a few levels in world 8,Super Mario Bros. 3 really isn’t that hard.Or maybe I just played that game so much that it’s not challenging to me.Present I had to have?The original Gameboy!I remember my brither and I opened a few presents and like 2 of them were gameboy games.We were like but we don’t have a gameboy(Oops!).Both of us got our own gameboys.It was pretty sweet.Considering it was the hottest toy of 1989.
Back to the gaming discussion…I own a 360 and every console Nintendo put ou(except the Wii ).And truth be told,my NES get’s more play than anything else,with the PS2 and Gamecube in a close second.
Hey all. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Ken Ober died today.
What the hell is happening to the 80’s??
Ghosted by Darth Galvatron @ 11/17/2009 12:24 PM EST
They’re fading away boss. Just means we’re getting older…
Ghosted by drew do @ 11/17/2009 12:37 PM EST
I know, but that still sucks.
Ghosted by Darth Galvatron @ 11/17/2009 12:52 PM EST
Who’s Ken Ober?
Ghosted by ericnrosesmom @ 11/17/2009 1:23 PM EST
I loved Remote Control!
Ghosted by Ryane @ 11/17/2009 1:32 PM EST
Now that I have started my Christmas shopping I tink I can take part in a Christmas thread.
My most wanted gift was of course the USS Flag. I know it has been beaten to death on here but I still can not think about Christmas without thoughts of how I will be the envy of the neighborhood when I drop the ace at the lunch table in January, that I was the owner of the USS Flag. *sigh*
If I had it today I would use it as a coffee table and use the intercom to muster anyone in the kitchen and demand a beer.
Honestly my Christmas memories are pretty fuzzy these days. I mostly just remember the old feelings, not so much the specifics. Actually, most of the really cool shit was given to me on my birthdays rather than Christmas, like my NES and my Teddy Ruxpin. But I did get a CD player from my dad and a giant pile of CDs from my mom one Christmas, and that was pretty awesome.
Wow, Jimmy! You’ve got a pretty awesome setup and I’m kind of jealous. I used to have a ton of NES games, even had a top-loading NES…I have NO idea what happened to it all…grr…
DJ D, Super Mario Brothers 3 was easier to me than the FIRST Super Mario Brothers! I never did finish that first one, I don’t think.
That was my most memorable Christmas. 1985. NES. With the light zapper. With the lame robot. I was thrilled.
I got my NES in 1985 as well! I had Rob the robot and Gyromite. However I never got it to work. I did love Duck Hunt and always tried to shoot that damn dog.
I spent many hours on Super Mario Bros. I have it down packed. Every time I go to a mall and Super Mario Bros. Is being sold at a kiosk, I pick up the controller and start playing. I usually beat the game in 10 minutes and then leave with the actual princess on the screen. Always fun to do.
NES is still the most fun for me to play of all the gaming consoles if only for the nostalgia.
Ghosted by drew do @ 11/17/2009 3:52 PM EST
Thanks Teddy Ray! Having them all hooked together via daisy-chained switchboxes is a childhood dream come true. If you wanna see something more awesome, scavenge the internet for AVGN-James Rolfe’s set up. It’s on several of his videos, I’m sorry I don’t have the link.
I dunno, I think I’ll have to change mine. You guys are right. The NES was the be-all and end-all of Christmas gifts, and the only one that I still play with to this day. So yeah, that’s the top.
Some close contenders would have to be Voltron with all the lions, and USS Flag. But, since I never got those, I’ll give a big “EFF YOU” to those of you that did.
My Christmas grapes are sour.
Teddy Ray: I finally beat the first Super Mario Brothers when my best friend at the time, Brenn, and I would call each other and both play it at the same time and walk each other through the hard parts. Even though we weren’t technically playing the same game, they were synched up, so it was kind of like the first co-op. I’ll always think of him as my best Nintendo buddy when I was about 10 or 11 because the both of us discovered The Konami Code at the same time. I think some kid’s big brother at school knew about it and wrote it down for us, so Brenn begged his mom to buy Contra for us and we stayed up all night playing it once we figured how to put the code in.
DJ D that is a funny story about talking on the phone while playing games. I used to watch movies with friends on the phone and we would try to start them at the same time to watch together. Poor kids today will never know that since they don’t even talk on the phone, they just text. My youngest brother and sister have never even used a phone with a cord!!
Ghosted by drew do @ 11/17/2009 11:30 PM EST
I got an NES not for Christmas, but for my fifth birthday. I DID, however, get an N64 one year and completely did not expect it. It was even given to me in a “Surprise Present From The Closet” fashion a la Buzz Lightyear.
My reaction was similar to the Nintendo 64 kid…but a little more subdued and thankfully not recorded.
I will never forget getting Megatron and accidentally breaking off one of his legs, or pistol grips (depending on what he is at the time)on Christmas Day. I completely discarded warnings of not to force it. But, I got over it pretty quickly. I had Laser Tag to distract my anguish. God, the 80’s had the best toys.
drew do: I know, right! It’s a damn shame what kids are missing these days. I’ve actually been kicking around the idea of getting a land line here at the house since I get such a good discount on them at work. If so, I’ll give the number out to only an elite few. Cell phones are great but it would be nice to have one that didn’t require me to have to constantly recharge it every 5 minutes. I kind of miss the days when you could pick up a phone (with a cord!) and talk for hours and never have to worry about going over your minutes or the battery running out. Old tech does have its advantages sometimes.
Bill: Laser Tag! Yes! That was another one I always wanted but never got. My cousin had it though (he was spoiled and had everything) and I would go over to his house to play it. Megatron, Optimus, and Soundwave were the Top 3 Transformers that I’ve always wanted but never got. I don’t know what my excuse is nowadays though. I mean we live in the age of E-Bay for crying out loud. I should just bite the bullet and do it already and stop whining about it.
The convoluted nature of the advent calendar is what makes it awesome. Please please please keep it going.
I miss Mare, Knacks and Kuse. And Mista Snowman. Though isn’t he dead?
Ghosted by Terror Claws @ 11/18/2009 12:56 AM EST
You know what? I’m in the small minority that doesn’t like the Advent Calendar. Remember back in 04, and 05 when Matt did the Advert Calendar? Now THAT is what I want to see.
I also hope that Matt does a Macy’s Parade article this year. He never did it last year.
Now all I wanna do is crack open a box of Christmas Crunch, and watch some old Christmas cartoons. You know, the kind that the local & cable networks use to air.
Ghosted by ThatGuyJoe @ 11/18/2009 4:32 AM EST
I wouldn’t hold your breath for the parade review.
Tutsuro, it’s because I knew enough not to let an angry mob of a dozen parents build up and then just STAND THERE, LOL. I worked at American Eagle for years and we’d have hordes of cranky, irritated parents buying tons of stuff for their kids on the weekends and they got in line already cheesed off at prices/kids’ attitudes/arguments about what to buy, so by the time they got to the counter to get rung up they were in an incendiary mood at best…God forbid the line move slow. If there were problems with coupons or returns it escalated to shouting quickly. The parents immediately behind us while this whole thing was going on started huffing and pacing and coughing. She just stood there looking at the register..then the ad..then the register..and so on, and wouldn’t reply to us when DH and I asked what was wrong or if we could do anything. When lines got that bad at AE I knew it was my job to act quick, not delay, and not hold things up even if it came down to running if I had to go get something. I had a DM that would encourage people to run and talk fast if lines were long; the running probably wasn’t too safe but it did keep the lines moving. I was 18/19 at the time so what did I care? Heh. You could either get mad or LOL, and because I knew what it felt like to be on that end of things I LOLed rather than become a wench towards her. I doubt the people behind us were quite as nice. In the scheme of things an extra 5 minutes at a register isn’t going to somehow ruin my day anyways.
I actually came in just to shop one holiday weekend at AE, and the line for the registers was so long I told my boyfriend to wait for me so I could clock in to help ring for an hour or so. The people at that point were so incredibly angry and the lone manager so overwhelmed that I knew I had to do something to change the mood. I greeted each customer with the most sincere, smily-est “GOOD AFTERNOON! Happy Holidays!” I could muster and you wouldn’t believe how fast the moods changed. I loved the customers there most of the time..it was the bosses that were terrible to deal with! I really didn’t mind working Black Friday or any of those days, it was all about your own attitude going into it and if you were positive towards the day and the customers, the time would fly. It helped to not go in dead tired though >_>
Ghosted by a2stylee @ 11/18/2009 10:41 AM EST
I really appreciate customer service people with your attitude. As a shopper I do tend to get pretty pissed sometimes but usually it is due to other shoppers being rude. When employees try to diffuse the situation it makes holiday stress that much easier to deal with.
I second that! and third… and forth… that. etc., etc..
Ghosted by Ryane @ 11/18/2009 3:02 PM EST
I’ll add to the hate for working retail. I worked at Kroger for seven years. And I realized one day, ever since I started working, every single day of my life was worse than the day before it. So that meant that every single day that you saw me, that was the worst day of my life.
I would also like to lament the fact that kids today don’t get to enjoy Saturday morning cartoons anymore like we used to.
Sure they do! They might not be mu cup of tea but Fox still airs a kid’s block on Saturdays! The old days are still better however as we got to choose our cartoons from all of the major networks. They do have cable however which means cartoons any time of the day…
Teddy Ray – I felt the same exact way while working at TRU. I finally had the opportunity to quit a little over a month ago. I’m glad I did cause there is no way I could deal with that place after all that’s happened in the last few weeks with my mom.
At TRU, I had the twin of the printer in Office Space. No lie.
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Posted by Matt. E-mail me!
Ghosted by 
).And truth be told,my NES get’s more play than anything else,with the PS2 and Gamecube in a close second.
When you were a kid, what was THE Christmas gift that you absolutely had to have?
A blond haired blue eyed Cabbage Patch Kid the first year they came out. They were immensely hard to find, but my Aunt and Uncle found one for my parents to give to me.
I still have her, and was just completely ecstatic. Her name is Suzette.