Tales of Past Techy Christmas Gifts
Reliving the magic of gadgets under the tree
What would be a good topic to write about on this Christmas Eve? Maybe I could do a reinvention of the night before Christmas with Iterate-themed items? Re-hash my end of the year best products or recommendations? Sure, I could do those things. In fact, I may still do them early in the new year. But I thought it'd be more fun to take a trip down nostalgic memory lane to look back on some of my fondest memories of tech gifts over the years.
Always a Gaming Console
I'll do my best to remember all the details, but forgive me if I take some liberties. As a kid growing in the nineties, gaming consoles were regularly on my Christmas list. The first console I remember receiving as a gift was the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Yep, it was the original grandaddy of all video game systems. If you need convincing, I highly recommend watching the movie 8-bit Christmas (I wrote about it last year!) I think I was only about four or five years old when I received it as a gift. It was something that I definitely wanted, but I was still pretty young, I think my parents probably wanted to play it just as much as I did. And the NES lived up to the hype. It came with the bright orange barreled zapper gone to let me play Duck Hunt. The original cartridge with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt (how did they fit two games on one cartridge?!?!?!) was my most-played with item of that Christmas for sure.
Sega
Let's jump to a few Christmases later and I was again asking Santa for a new gaming console. No, I wasn't interested in upgrading from the NES to the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). I was jumping over to the renegade competitor...Sega. Yes, I wanted a new Sega Genesis system for Christmas very badly. My mom, even so sly with her gift-giving prowess, convinced me that I didn't need a Sega Genesis. "Christopher, you already have a Nintendo, you don't need another gaming system!" She was so convincing! I thought for sure that a Sega was not going to make it under my tree that year. Of course, lo and behold, there it was on Christmas morning. My mom demurely claiming that she couldn't believe that Santa still delivered this gift that she was convinced I didn't need.
The Genesis held me over for another two years or so. Then the mid-90s console wars really began to heat up. I'm pretty sure I asked Santa for a Sega Dreamcast. If you know about that doomed machine, it was expensive and hard to come by. The Dreamcast never materialized, but something else did. It was a Sega 32X system. Don't remember it? It was an add-on to your Sega Genesis that played a new set of games that featured 32-bit graphics! It was not as exciting as Dreamcast, but it still took up hours of my Christmas break. The games weren't super different from Genesis games, but they did feature improved graphics and noticeably better sound. Unfortunately the 32X was not a commercial success and they stopped making games for it. By the next Christmas, I was in need of something new.
Sony
Sony's Playstation was the new global phenomenon and I had to have one. The Playstation was basically the only thing on my Christmas list. Once again, my mom was pretty steadfast in her belief that more video games were not needed in my life. Playstation seemed like a whole new deal. It used compact discs and the games had far more realistic graphics. It wasn't a kids gaming system, it was a mature piece of tech.
And there it was on Christmas morning (or actually it may have been one of those rare Christmas Eve gifts that were allowed some years). My Mom passed it off as a gift from my Grandma rather than from herself. Sure Mom, you can just tell Grandma to get me the gifts you don't approve of. As long as I was receiving a Playstation, I didn't care whose name was next to "from" on the tag. The Playstation was fantastic and I played it non-stop for several years.
This brings us to perhaps the final gaming console Christmas gift that I ever received. After being a loyal Playstation fan for a few years, I was ready to upgrade to a Playstation 2 (PS2). And this time, Mom came through again. There was no blaming Santa or Grandma for this one. Maybe she knew that I was growing up and this would likely be the last big "toy" she could get me on Christmas. She was right.
A few years later I did end up buying a PS3 but it was with my own money. It's not nearly the same feeling when you just go to a store and buy a gaming console. Seeing that large, rectangular box under the tree was magical. Some years I feel like my parents intentionally bought a few gifts just because the boxes were the same size and shape of a Nintendo or Playstation. They always wanted to keep me off the scent. They would deny, deny, deny, up until the moment I was actually playing the machine they swore they weren't going to buy me.
Tech Gifts as an Adult
It's hard to recapture with feeling as an adult, even if you're still a gamer or tech nerd. Sure, there have been some really amazing techy gifts I've received as an older teen/adult. Amazon Kindles/tablets, several MP3 players in the early days of that technology, and a few smart watches come to mind. My Mom and wife still surprise me with some thoughtful gifts every year. But there is no doubt that they feel more “grown-up” and dare I say “sensible”? Sure, an electric toothbrush with Artificial Intelligence is a great gadget, but it’s still a toothbrush.
Conclusion
I'm writing this for a few reasons. First, just to appreciate how great my Mom was at keeping Christmas gifts a secret. I wasn't the type to snoop all around the house, but I really can't think of a time where I wasn't surprised by what was under the tree. It's something I'm striving for as a Dad myself. The element of surprise is key! Secondly, I just want to remind all of you about the magic of receiving an appropriately techy gift this year. No, Christmas or Hanukkah shouldn't be all about consumerism. But there is also nothing wrong with losing yourself in the product manual (or more likely YouTube videos) of some gadget or gizmo on Christmas morning that brings you joy.
Here's to a happy and healthy holiday filled with iterations that improve your life and nostalgia for technology of days gone by!
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
P.S. - Hey, it’s almost the end of the year! Could you use some help reviewing what worked for you this year and what could be better for 2023? Need some help building positive habits or ditching negative ones? Iterating on a new business idea and need some guidance? Or maybe you just want to say hello and pick my brain for a bit, that’s fine too! If you’d like to chat, feel free to book some time with me here!