Ok - I will start then, here's my submission:
My most memorable Christmas.....
It was Christmas '85, and the "hot" toys of the year were Transformers, and Barbie. Transformers are robots that can change into vehicles and robots, and are out even today. Optimus Prime is the Leader of the good guys, and my personal hero at the time. What I wanted more than life itself was an Optimus Prime Transformer toy; complete with Cab.
Christmas day was here, and my little sister and I were up with the crack of dawn, like every other Christmas. We got up and rushed to the living room - finding Santa Clause had a few cookies, and his reindeer had nibbled a few of the carrots. More importantly, our stockings were full and there was a ton of presents under the tree.
As kids, we were allowed to dig into the stockings before our parents were up, but couldn't open up the presents. That said, under the guise of "sorting the presents", I was able to rifle
through the boxes, looking for an appropriately sized box. When shaken, sounded like an Optimus, it felt like an Optimus from a heft perspective, the box was shaped like an Optimus. Excitedly, I pile the box near my gifts. Now, I didn't want my Parents to know that I knew, I had to be discreet. So I put it at the bottom, so it was close to the last present I would open.
My Parents came down years later (time does stretch on Christmas day when you're a kid), and we got to the business of opening presents. I got the obligatory socks, the dreaded sweater from a Grandmother that looked like a couch and was 3 sizes too big, and other boring adult like necessity items. The pile is dwindling down to THE present. With a ton of excitement, I grab at this box, and slowly open the paper - savoring the excitement. As a touch of the paper fell away, I could see the Hasboro symbol all good signs!! Pulling a little more off, and WOOHOO a transformer symbol!! Rushing now, a little more and I see the Decepticon icon??? (The symbol for the bad guys.) I remove the remainder of the paper, and it's StarScream?!?!? StarScream was a bad guy, the second in command and super whiney.
Welling up in tears from the horrid wrongness of it all, my Parents admonished that Santa could only make so many Optimus for people. They said that I should be happy as there are people in the world that couldn't even afford to have 1 present compared to the "haul" I got. Suitably chastened and muted, we finished the rest of the presents. Afterwards, my sister and I cleaned up the trash and folded up the boxes to be
thrown out (before recycling). We then set out to play with our new toys, as my Parents get started making breakfast and prepping for Christmas dinner. My dad calls me into the kitchen, and asks me to go into his closet to get him a sweater to wear.
I go upstairs and into his closet, and there's a wrapped box in his closet. Looking at it, I notice a tag that says "From: Santa, To: Mathew", sweater forgotten, I bound downstairs and show my dad and mom. My dad says that Santa must have gotten confused and left it in his closet, and indicates that I should open it up. No delicate opening, it's milliseconds of shredding paper. Underneath all that tape and paper.... Is Optimus Prime!!!! I slept with Optimus that night
I had him for years - Lost the little car that went into the cab first, followed by his gun. All the stickers wore off his trailer, and that went missing next. A very dented and beat up Optimus (along with all of my Transformers and GI Joe's) was given to a friend of the family's boy who lost all of his toys in an accidental fire.
