What's your favourite gaming-related Christmas memory?

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When I was six years old, my mother got me and my two older brothers a Game Boy Color and corresponding copy of Pokémon each. My oldest brother got a red Game Boy and Pokémon Red, the next one got a blue one and Pokémon Blue, and I got a yellow console with Pokémon Yellow. I remember the little huddle we had away from the adults afterwards where my brother showed me how the game worked and explained how we could trade our monsters with each other. My eyes lit up as I not only fell in love with the cute little Pikachu that followed my every move on the screen, but as I realized that I’d be able to play this on my own when I wanted to, then connect to and play with my brothers when we were all able. I wish I could say it became a lifelong tradition and we all still play today, but even if it only lasted a little while it was a clever gift that made great use of gaming’s ability to not only bring people together, but to dynamically transform solo playtime into shared time together, and back again, so you can always feel connected to people, even when playing alone.

So, to celebrate the holiday season, we want to know: what are some of your favourite gaming-related Christmas stories from over the years? It could be anything, from something you gave or got, to a casual game helping break the ice during an awkward family dinner, or gaming providing a way to bond with a younger relative.

From all of us here at GBAtemp, we want to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
 
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To be fair, I have more Game-related Birthday memories than Christmas, but one does stand out from my childhood.

These were the years I grew up in Sydney - Australia and Christmas Down Under is a Summer affair; despite this, everyone seemed content to play it out as our European and American counterparts, so I would get the usual Australian Made™ Christmas wool jumpers and spent time with the local Church community, which were predominantly the kind folks from a nearby Elderly Home.

We spent one particular Christmas celebration at a couple's apartment and they happened to have the Nintendo NES, which just released at this time; my fondest memories is of seeing Super Mario play on that console, trying my best at it and never getting anywhere at that age and then playing Duck Hunt with the Light Gun.

Glorious.

It's one thing to look back at vintage hardware and to appreciate it as a piece of another Generation's nostalgia but it's another thing to be of said Generation and seeing it as the cutting edge of technology of that time. I was the latter and, to this day, the sights, sounds and smells of that moment in time is stuck in my mind and cemented my affinity for all things Nintendo Gaming.
 

seseiSeki

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I had to think pretty hard and the only gaming-related Christmas thing that happened to me was... receiving a Wii in 2006. We played a bit of Wii sports with the family, it was fun but that's it. Nothing really "big" or anything ^^'
 

IceyyColdSnipez

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Mine is when i got my first Nintendo Wii. I was a HUGE Super Mario fan back when i was 8 years old (I'm still a HUGE fan btw) i got a red Super Mario 25th Aniversary with Wii Sports (Matt i Will defeat you someday), New Super Mario Bros Wii. and Donkey Kong: Original Edition (NES VC Pre-Installed) and my mother also got me Super Mario All-Stars (The Wii Disk Version) and i still have it to this day (10 years.... Time flys by when you have fun) oh yeah i remember that i was to the market with my Older Sister and i‘m came back and saw that giant box wrapped in festive paper on the kitchen table and i sayed this isnt a rc track is it.??? No It was a Wii. :)
 

Goku1992A

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They are just fake holidays invented by political and a long in Egyptians around 3,000 B.C.E for birthday. Xmas celebrated was actually dates all the way back to the Roman Empire in 336. Those are part of politics.

I am not part of those false things. To your questions, I got a gift from my money and sometime from anybody from any months, and spend time with family, true friends and relatives every months as much as I can to cherish our lives. I watched and noticed those those people don't get together very much until birthday, xmas, and other false holidays. Disgusting and sadness.

I mean when you have children most of the times the holidays are more for them
 

spotanjo3

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Yeah, but I spend my time with my kids more often than I spent time with gossiping friends, drinking at the bars/clubs, They are irresponsible and left kids to running around in the playground and have mothers take cares of them more. Many men are not supposed to have children. They will spend time with kids for the holidays which is hypocrisy and fake. I am sorry but to be honest, I am uncle, father, and grandfather. I understand the children better than many parents are. The children need father more than mothers in the world. Many fathers don't changed diapers, feed them, bath them. I said "Many". Not everyone. and I said "some" mothers are terrible too but I noticed "Many fathers" don't do those things. They just want to go to bars, clubs, to be around men and mind their business and gossiping. I was there and I watched and I listen. I understand children lacking. Holidays for children ? I disagreed. Children needs more than just holidays, really.

Sorry about my English but you understand my point of view about holidays and parenthood. Big difference. The world sucks. Most Parents should be ashamed. Smh.
 

WinOrWin

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I was probably about 10 or so, maybe a wee bit younger, when Nintendo had a platinum-colored Gamecube and Mario Kart Double Dash bundle out. Thought it was fantastic. Mom and dad got my brother and I Metroid Prime (for me) as well as Need For Speed Underground (for him.) I really wanted Metroid Prime to be my own actual copy, as I had no interest in playing his game for a while. We had no memory cards either, as I'm not sure they knew we needed them since every previous console we had didn't require them.

Actually got my wish because while we were playing Double Dash that morning, the thing quit on us. Merry Christmas, right? So we packaged it up, brought it back to Toys R Us the next day and got a regular purple-one bundled with, guess what? Metroid Prime. It was the bundle that contained not just Metroid Prime but the demo disc for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Pretty sure they bought memory cards too.
 
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JuanMena

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Christmas 2004

My father got for us Tetris & Dr.Mario for the SNES

We would actually play the game on Mixed Match for literal hours. Sometimes we would "reach the morning" playing it trying to beat each other's scores.
Then after everyone went to sleep I'd play Street Fighter II The New Challengers or DKC or Super Mario All Stars.
 

Axido

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Christmas around 2000 was my favourite.

I wished for Super Mario Kart on the SNES and somehow my parents found out that my granny accidentally bought Mario Kart 64. So my mum, my older brother and I went and bought an N64 just for that game. We had the choice between a bundle with Super Mario 64 and one including DK 64. My brother wanted the latter, but in the end we got home with Super Mario 64. I always see that as a victory considering I always got to play with the "bad" controller. :D

When Christmas finally arrived I opened my present to find that the packaging of the game was empty. My granny bought the game from a store that took the cartridges out of the packaging in order to prevent the games from being stolen (I hate those stores tbh). Well, they were cooperative and I was able to choose another game, since they didn't have Mario Kart 64 in stock anymore. I went with Mario Party 1, which would later become the reason for a few great childhood memories and some painful palm blisters.
 
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Zonark

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I remember getting a Super Nintendo with Mario kart on Christmas, a friend had it before me and came over the next day we never had the internet (dial-up) so could never learn cheats without a book (didn’t have one of those either) and finding out that pressing abxy at the same time on character select shrunk your character. That’s were it all began
 

Lostbhoy

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HAS to by my SNES! Loved that thing from day one with Super Mario World and my favourite Zelda: Link to the past.

Gotta say also... Not gonna name names but some of the above posts..... Jeez man!! The thread wasn't titled how much do you hate Christmas and how much better are you than everyone else at it? Wow man.... Get a grip please! Keep your Scrooge attitude for other such forums. :wtf:
 
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They are just fake holidays invented by political and a long in Egyptians around 3,000 B.C.E for birthday. Xmas celebrated was actually dates all the way back to the Roman Empire in 336. Those are part of politics.

And I don't gave video games to my kids at all until they are older enough. Many kids I watched at someone's else had PSX, PS2, and etc when they were 7,8,9 and maybe 10 years old and they started to abandon it, damaged, dust on them, messed the controllers wires up. Those systems were very expensive. No.

I gave my kids who wants to play video games as gift when they are over 12 years old and teach them how to take care of them responsibility because it cost money. Many parents don't understand. Not kids's faults, its parents's responsible. Just like they got puppy for kids under 10 years old. Heck no! The puppies are not toys. The console are not toy. Same thing.

I am not part of those false things. To your questions, I got a gift from my money and sometime from anybody from any months, and spend time with family, true friends and relatives every months as much as I can to cherish our lives. I watched and noticed those those people don't get together very much until birthday, xmas, and other false holidays. Disgusting and sadness.

bro. this is thread is for people's favourite Christmas memory. not about your delusion.

i'm an atheist. but i know when to be happy and when to hate. Christmas is a tradition which brings people together. with Covid people need that more than ever. you are sad.
 

osaka35

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ignoring the scrooges...

oh! speaking of which, "a christmas carol" is one of my favorite narratives. fun fact, "bah humbug" can be accurately and directly translated in rudeness and meaning into "bull****". makes the story a little better.

for me, probably n64. we got nes and snes, but those were mainly for older brothers. n64 was mainly all mine. i was some young age, and it was a complete surprise. took a while for us to hook it up (video and mono sound through the vcr to convert it to coaxial), but then we were off to the races! i think we had a smaller tv back then, 10 or 15 inch tv, but that got upgraded to a massive 25 or 35 inch tv at some point (lol). mario and zelda, spent way too much time completing them 100%.
 
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