re: Favorite Childhood Christmas Presents You Remember

We were pretty poor, but when I was 7, I think, Mom was able to get a VCR from a pawn shop. Being able to rent movies in 87 was a big fricking deal and we got one at least every couple weekends after that.

Mom always made Christmas as absolutely special as she possibly could and it was always so amazing

Pacific Blue Tang. Long before Dori was even a thing this was a fish I wanted badly for my aquarium. Dad snuck it into my tank the night before. Said nothing. I was eating breakfast Christmas morning and totally freaked out when I first saw it.

Loved that fish and enjoyed it being the centerpiece of my tank for many years. (lived at least until I went off to college some 7-8 years later)

As a kid I got bikes and wagons and lots of assorted cool toys and junk. But the one gift I got from my parents at age 5 in 1954 was a shiny red and chrome Paper Mate ball point pen. Realize a really good ball point ink pen in 1954 was almost considered a hi-tech item. Because it was a parent gift I got to open it on Christmas Eve, before Santa got to my house. I felt so grown up.

This bad boy right here.

This one was a lot of fun as a kid.



I also logged a lot of hours with my Stompers.




But the best Christmas present I ever got was a 99 piece Craftsman socket set. It's got 1/4" and 1/2" ratchets with regular and deepwell sockets...including some metric sizes. It also has the most common wrenches, nut drivers, and Allen wrenches. I've been using these tools since the 90's and they've held up. I had to take a ratchet in to Sears about a decade ago because it was slipping and they rebuilt it in store. Of course, my wife grabbed the bag of allen wrenches out a few years ago and then promptly lost them. I'm still a little pissed about that.

N64 with Goldeneye, Wings, and Wayne Gretsky 3d hockey was the greatest Christmas ever.

Nothing will ever top getting that big ole black PS2 and NCAA 2007.

Evel Knievel stunt cycle

Vertibird

Ready Rangers mobile field pack

Maskatron

and of course Daisy Buffalo Bill Scout air rifle. I had it over my shoulder walking the neighborhhod a couple of days after Christmas, and a cop stopped me because he thought it was a 30-30. He then just laughed and told me not to shoot robins (busted).