After living through 25 Christmases, I have definitely gotten my share fare of holiday gifts. And while my gifts ranged widely from toothpaste, to sweaters, to cook books and more, there have been a select number of gifts that I received as a kid that stand out to me as some of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received. Now these are by no means the most sentimental, thoughtful or even expensive gifts I have received, they are simply the ones I remember bringing me the most joy as a child. Enjoy!

Rock Band – We broke this out of the box the second my siblings and I opened it and played it well into the night. I was on drums, my sister was vocals and my brother was always guitar.

Video Camera – Technically I personally did not receive this as a gift but I definitely made the most use of it. The number of “TV shows,” “dramatic movies,” and “music videos” that came out of this is terribly embarrassing.

Razor Scooter – I don’t remember if the winter my brother, sister and I got these was a cold one but it didn’t really matter. As soon as we opened them up we were zooming down our neighbors driveway at speeds that definitely were not safe and loving every moment of it.

Game Boy (with Pokemon Blue of course) – This was one of those rare gifts that my parents had to take away from me for a while on Christmas day because after I opened it, I didn’t want to open any of my other presents. It obviously made for a great gift! But it also made for a very slow unwrapping process.

Dance Dance Revolution – Yep, another video game. If you couldn’t already tell, I was really into (and still get very addicted to some) video games. This was another case of opening a gift for the kids and disappearing for hours leaving my parents to wonder if we would ever get to the others under the tree. Again, great gift, bad timing.