Christmas is the most wonderful time of year, and also a period I couldn’t separate from the world of video games even if I tried. Growing up in a family of nine siblings meant I was used to being thrown a controller or TV remote and asked to occupy myself while both my parents either went to work or wanted me to stop annoying them for five minutes.
As a consequence, I became well-versed with video games from a very young age. Shortly after we moved to a random rural farmhouse in the middle of Wales in 2002, I was handed a box containing a PS1 and loads of games my mother had clearly stolen from my Dad, who she’d walked out on a few weeks prior. I didn’t understand the intricacy of adult relationships, but one thing I was able to wrap my head around was the joy of Crash Bandicoot and the melodrama of Final Fantasy 7, two classics I played at such an early age that would influence my taste for years to come. My dad didn’t pay child support, but he did get me into Japanese RPGs.
Video Games Are For Life, Not Just For Christmas
This brings me to one of the first Christmas mornings spent in that ramshackle bungalow, which happened to coincide with the early years of the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube generation. With four brothers of a similar age, it only made sense that we had one console each, because no way in hell were we going to share.
But gaming consoles are super expensive, as are the games you play on them, but not if your parents are crafty buggers that are willing to buy your PS2 from your older brother’s weed dealer with pre-owned copies of Final Fantasy 10 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. I was a kid and didn’t know any better, so when the fabled morning came along, and we had several different consoles under the tree, it was a Christmas miracle.
Gaming Nostalgia And Christmas Mornings Are Kindred Spirits
We spent the next several days hopping between different bedrooms, jumping between loads of new consoles and games like it was a videogame buffet. The visuals of Star Fox Adventures were out of this world, while Halo: Combat Evolved introduced us to a new genre that we had never had the privilege to experience before. Everywhere I looked, there was a defining game of the era being played, introducing me to new characters, worlds, stories, and mechanics that would have an impact on my personal and professional life that wasn’t quantifiable at that point in time. Moments like this never are, and it’s only after the fact that their meaning is suddenly crystalised.
Nowadays, I know the sort of games and genres I enjoy, and have the disposable income to go out there and pick something up. But as a kid, my parents had a base level idea that we enjoyed video games and needed to fill that void. I might make suggestions, but the fact that I was given SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom and Ico on the same day was a killer combo that would have lifelong consequences. It’s hard not to feel nostalgic about times like this when Christmas comes around, and how spur-of-the-moment decisions made by my parents while throwing presents under the tree would change who I am forever.
I had a similar experience when the PS3 launched, yet another console that was purchased from a family friend who may or may not have dealt illegal drugs, but that didn’t matter when it worked and my family had picked out a cavalcade of bangers that included Fallout 3, Dead Space, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I was more locked into the gaming world during this time and knew the sort of games I wanted, but even then there were a handful of surprises I couldn’t have predicted, and like so many Christmas mornings before it, meant the world.
As the medium transitions into a new digital era and blockbuster games are less frequent, it feels like this period of gaming magic has been lost to time. That only makes looking back on it more precious, and why I’ll always have this time of year to thank for my love of gaming.
