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The festive season always comes with at least a tiny bit of nostalgia. On Christmas, most of us would usually go visit our relatives, give presents, sit around the table, and unavoidably reminisce about the good old days of childhood and the way Christmas used to feel back then. Unfortunately, this year's holidays have been a lot different for most of us since the pandemic has prevented most people from visiting their loved ones living elsewhere.
And since a lot of us spent Christmas at home, some might well have missed out on that heartwarming opportunity to get all nostalgic about the past for a bit. But don't worry, we are here to save the day. Bored Panda prepared you a nostalgic list of photographs from the '80s and '90s capturing people enjoying their Christmas gifts. Let's take a look!
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#1
PKMN Trainer Link 5 years ago
This is the best game I have ever played!!! I JUST GOT AN OCARINA FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
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#2
#3
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
WOW!!! Even i was a kid when I got this for Christmas but i had to share it with my sisters : ( Tank command, pacman, space invaders, fast food...... My friend was the only child so he was spoilt rotten. He had a hell of a lot of games and i used to borrow a lot from him ; )
Manny Regalado 5 years ago
And we Still went out, played ball all day and came home for dinner...
#4
Tzippora Gold 5 years ago
one day in 40 years people will go ¨why is this child happy to have an Nintendo switch and animal crossing?¨
Michael Skopetos 5 years ago
This game was my wife and I's LIFE for 10 weeks until we beat the game.
Kimberley McMillan 5 years ago
My best friend still has hers. We play super mario bros and burger time on it. Or we did when there wasn't lockdown.
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
Pretty relatable. The outfit, the glasses and the NEED for NES.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 5 years ago
And for a few months, Angela was suddenly the most-liked kid in school.
#5
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
I was into action man and think to myself now, I wonder what happened to it all. It would be worth a lot nowadays.
#6
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 5 years ago (edited)
Mario 2 was my fave! It has been years, but I could probably remember the jumping pattern on the whale level.
#7
#8
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
I remember my son getting his PS. It came with games but the one game he was to young to understand was Final Fantasy 7. I was hooked on that game since then.
#9
Hilary Mol 5 years ago
This is like an episode of "Hoarders", only with Christmas presents piled halfway to the ceiling. Holy cow.
Micah64 5 years ago
If I'm thinking right some people didn't have color tvs back then.
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Billy The Kid 5 years ago
Parents you can set the TV and Nintendo up in my room and i will see you when im a teenager!
Susan Williams 5 years ago
This was my gift to me and my kids while hubby/daad was in Japan for a six months tour with the Yorktown.
#10
Stefaan De Clerck 5 years ago
The Commodore 64: that's ancient. We got the 128 but the 64 remained the most popular computer ever.
Angela-Jayne Linford 5 years ago
I desperately wanted a commodore 64 but ended up with a spectrum zx and a new cassette player to go with it. I've still got it all packaged up with all the games and the cassette player.
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Kevin Hickey 5 years ago
Today, these kids are the bosses of the kids who got the video games. He he...
Manny Regalado 5 years ago
Holy Mother!! That's gotta be 82' 83'! My cousins had that and we'd play the track games!
#12
Sabrina Duran 5 years ago
omg sameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Danny Ruiz 4 years ago
I remember putting this game on my roof next to the chimney. Didn't put it under the tree, and next morning kids were a little dissapointed. One gift was croquet, so later that morning they were playing outside when my youngest spotted the gift. They seriously thought Santa dropped it. LOL!
#13
#14
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
The old cartridge games. Not like these discs that get scratched up.
Flash Henry 5 years ago
one of my biggest regrets is selling the Mega Drive and the Saturn for college money
#15
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
It’s impossible to not love that game, even if you aren’t a gamer or into shooting games. It’s just fun.
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#16
Michael Skopetos 5 years ago
I still have and use these games even now. do-do-do, do do do do! AAAAAH!
#17
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
Its mine and no one is getting their hands on it even if i have to fall asleep holding it.
#18
Joanne Haywood 5 years ago
Is that a Steve Austin action figure in the background? I wanted one but never got one.
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 5 years ago
You sunk my battleship! My kid has a version with ping pong balls and you bounce them into a ship.
#19
Wandaluzt 5 years ago
Or parents that busted their asses the whole year to afford them maybe?
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glowworm2 5 years ago
I had that tape measurer on the far right. That's the little orange guy with eyes and feet.
ChickyChicky 5 years ago
My kids get this many toys for Christmas. From their grandparents, one grandma in particular. It's f***ing annoying. I can't get them more than one gift because of the overabundance of crap. It's just too much. And that one grandma really does remember it all and would be sad if it was donated to someone else. It also requires me to do a huge cleanout of their room before the holidays. And they're not any happier or better off than if they had a reasonable amount of toys. Ugh. Thanks for letting me rant.
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Troy Currie 5 years ago
Looks like there was a lot of noisemakers...would have been a lot of tape shortly thereafter to cover up the holes for the speakers and muffle the sound a little!
#20
Joanne Haywood 5 years ago
Ker-Plunk. When games were fun and simple and didn’t need a TV with a SCART socket. Good grief, I feel so old!
Terri Williams 5 years ago
I loved playing Ker-Plunk with my siblings! Fun game.
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Jennifer Boyer 5 years ago
That outfit! This must be from the '70s, rather than the '80s/'90s.
Joanne Haywood 5 years ago
70s. The tank top and checked trousers are a dead giveaway. And the hairstyle - I had the same cut.
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Donna Gettings Apperson 5 years ago
Kerplunk is a must give gift to your friends with kids. They will hate you. But that makes it amazing.
Rob Williams 5 years ago
Ker-Plunk was one of those games that took ages longer to set up than it did to play! Usually back in the box and up in the loft by New Year...
#21
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 5 years ago
Too early for hose. Or tights or whatever she is wearing Christmas morning. I'm glad hose is not a thing anymore. I wore them maybe twice as a kid. Awful. Thick tights are ok, but sheer hose I hate.
Nela Rothenbach 5 years ago
Might not be in the morning...we (Germans) traditionally open present on the 24th in the evening.
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Billy The Kid 5 years ago
Dont look like he got much but he is still looks like a very happy kid.
Barb Braun 5 years ago
How has this picture of two cute little kids and their mama looking so very happy at Christmas turned into a debate about stockings?
#22
#23
#24
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 5 years ago
When I was as bout 11 or 12 (1990ish) my mom took the Nintendo from the living room and put it in her room "because I was playing it too much". A few weeks later she put it back in the living room because she would stay up all night playing Mario, and one morning driving to work she tried to kill a gumba (which was really a car) with the buttons (?) on her steering wheel. She had to fess up.
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
LOL. Adults can be more addicted than kids. "Dad i cant get pass this bit, can you help me?" "off course" 3 hours later, "dad can i have it back now?"
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#25
Kisses4Katie 5 years ago
Yeah parents were really weird in the 80's. Mine wouldn't let me use sharp objects either. I also had a leash.
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#26
Terri Williams 5 years ago
I am the proud owner of my Mom's old Remington typewriter, a Royal typewriter (found in a resale shop for $35) and was given an electric typewriter that use to hook up to computers (about 20 years ago!). My grandkids know how to change the ribbons and type on them. They also know how to use a rotary phone thanks to my "treasures".
Load More Replies... Jennifer Boyer 5 years ago
Awww! I got my first (well, only) typewriter as a Christmas gift in 1988. Lucky boy!
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
Any kid that got a typewriter nowadays it would be out of the window! Nowadays they expect Tablets and laptops.
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
I’m sure the typewriter kid wouldn’t be happy with a feather pen, ink and paper. It’s all relative.
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2WheelTravlr 5 years ago
Hey, that's not a Selectric, he's never going to learn to type fast with that antique!
#27
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
It’s unreal how many kids (and adults) they make happy worldwide.
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#28
Katie Mills 5 years ago
No love for the Sega? I didn’t get my first Nintendo console until the wii, but you can bet I played sonic the hedgehog for HOURS on my sega!
#29
Sawdust 5 years ago
The Star Wars Death Start playset. I got this for Christmas when I was a kid. It even included a trash compactor with monster. :-)
David Beaulieu 5 years ago
And the little foam blocks that were the trash!
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Joan Marie Wiser 5 years ago
How my brother cried when he didn’t get this...only to get it a few days later.
#31
#33
ALONA 1089980 5 years ago
I am only 13 so idk what this stuff is but my parents talk about it all the time
#34
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
The girl on the right looks like she wished she got the talk and play
#35
#36
#37
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
Bottom left corner, " I trade you this big bag of sweets/candy for it"
#38
#39
Kim Charles 5 years ago
The kid in the back is obviously the middle child with his rusty truck
Billy The Kid 5 years ago (edited)
LOL. But it looks like an antique so could be worth more.
Load More Replies... 2WheelTravlr 5 years ago
Okay, I agree the rusty truck is weird, but I'm more freaked out by the fact that they are apparently living in an unfinished house where their parents decided to put up curtains but not put down any flooring over the plywood subfloors.
#40
#41
Cian Thomas McHugh 5 years ago
That's not very nice. Imagine you are a kid in the mid-80s. You open the big present on Christmas and see the box. It's an NES. You are super duper happy. This thing was the big s**t in the 80s. It was the biggest gaming console of its time.
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#43
#45
Jolanda Lannagan 5 years ago
N64 Wave Race!! I also played that on my brand new N64 on Christmas morning :D (all day really...)
#46
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
So the boy at the back gets all that GI-JOE and the one at the front gets 2 boxes of LEGO : (
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What do you think ?
mph seti 5 years ago (edited)
Getting a game system is peak Xmas for most kids from the 80's through today. Computers, tablets, and phones have moved in, but a console is still very popular and on many wishlists. They're expensive, fun, stay fun for years, and wildly popular. This isn't just true in the US either.
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Mag Pop 5 years ago
Vintage is 1980s at the earliest at this stage. Don't insult people by saying "90s vintage" wtf man we're not even 40 yet :(
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
Vintage is wrong. Retro is probably the word you’d use. It was over 20 years ago after all. But I feel you.
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E Menendez 5 years ago (edited)
I grew up in relative poverty (in the 90s) and I am always amazed by the amount of gifts kids got. In general we got a set of pajamas, a coloring book with crayons, and a stuffed toy. And that was because this is what was provided by the local church for families in need for children under 12. I am blown away by some of these pictures.
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
That's sad : ( Sorry to hear that. It makes me cry when I see the Salvation army adverts on the telly giving toys out to the unfortunate but the smile on their little faces. Some kids can be brats!
Load More Replies... Jennifer Boyer 5 years ago
This was fun, but, as a non-gamer, I would've loved to have seen more non-video game shots. At least one shot of a girl opening up a Cabbage Patch Kid gift in 1983 would've been great--I remember how I screamed with joy when I opened mine!
John Louis 5 years ago
I kind of think the term vintage should be for a time before video games (circa - mid-1970's). Video games are still a primary Christmas gift so it's really not vintage.
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Considering the explosive evolution of game systems in the last 25-35 years? Yes, these are older/classic/vintage/etc.
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Peko 5 years ago
When I look back at the people I used to play video games with when I was I child I find, two doctors, one teacher, one scientist, one kindergartener teacher, and one web developer. Truly the downfall of humanity.
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mph seti 5 years ago (edited)
Getting a game system is peak Xmas for most kids from the 80's through today. Computers, tablets, and phones have moved in, but a console is still very popular and on many wishlists. They're expensive, fun, stay fun for years, and wildly popular. This isn't just true in the US either.
Load More Replies... Mag Pop 5 years ago
Vintage is 1980s at the earliest at this stage. Don't insult people by saying "90s vintage" wtf man we're not even 40 yet :(
Mewton’s Third Paw 5 years ago
Vintage is wrong. Retro is probably the word you’d use. It was over 20 years ago after all. But I feel you.
Load More Replies... E Menendez 5 years ago (edited)
I grew up in relative poverty (in the 90s) and I am always amazed by the amount of gifts kids got. In general we got a set of pajamas, a coloring book with crayons, and a stuffed toy. And that was because this is what was provided by the local church for families in need for children under 12. I am blown away by some of these pictures.
Billy The Kid 5 years ago
That's sad : ( Sorry to hear that. It makes me cry when I see the Salvation army adverts on the telly giving toys out to the unfortunate but the smile on their little faces. Some kids can be brats!
Load More Replies... Jennifer Boyer 5 years ago
This was fun, but, as a non-gamer, I would've loved to have seen more non-video game shots. At least one shot of a girl opening up a Cabbage Patch Kid gift in 1983 would've been great--I remember how I screamed with joy when I opened mine!
John Louis 5 years ago
I kind of think the term vintage should be for a time before video games (circa - mid-1970's). Video games are still a primary Christmas gift so it's really not vintage.
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Considering the explosive evolution of game systems in the last 25-35 years? Yes, these are older/classic/vintage/etc.
Load More Replies... Peko 5 years ago
When I look back at the people I used to play video games with when I was I child I find, two doctors, one teacher, one scientist, one kindergartener teacher, and one web developer. Truly the downfall of humanity.
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