The Hammock Blog

Bill Hudgins: When I was maybe 9 or 10, I got a Superman suit. I also got a set of three plastic models of sailing ships. I put the suit on immediately, cape and all, and zoomed around the house. Later on, still wearing the suit, I started putting the models together. My Dad was helping, but after a while, his help began to annoy me. I'm sure I whined something about wanting to do it myself, hoping he'd back off. When he didn't, the Superman suit and the glue must've gone to my head, because I swung around and punched him in the nose. It bled a little bit, and I knew I was about to get another present, delivered posteriorly.

Megan Morris: I was about 8 when I got my first Nintendo...the old-school NES. My parents had no idea they were creating a monster, but it started me on my path toward video-game geekdom. I now have six different game systems—including the original NES and all of my original games (plus some extras!).

Ben Stewart: I've gotten a lot good gifts and bad gifts for Christmas, but my most memorable has to be a funny one. My mother still buys me gifts and stocking stuffers as if I'm still a kid, and I know she does it with the best intentions, so I don't really tell her to stop. Two years ago, she knitted blankets for me and my nephews. My nephews got cool sports blankets with footballs and basketballs on them. She knitted me a blanket covered in puppy dogs. Not just puppy dogs, but puppy dogs with Santa hats on their heads. It was definitely the most memorable gift I've ever gotten. It still cracks me up to think about it.

Summer Huggins: When I was five or six, Santa brought me a "Baby Alive" doll. You know, the one that you can actually feed. I spent a good amount of time Christmas morning getting her dressed, sitting her comfortably in a big fluffy chair, and feeding her. And then she pooped! I handed her back to my mother and I don't remember ever playing with her again. Mom swears that doll is the reason I don't have kids to this day.

Natalie Willis: By far, the worst gift was given to me was by my parents when I was a teenager. It was a portrait session to Glamour Shots. I hate being photographed. I went to the session and they primped my hair in a big, 1980's Texas hairstyle. One of the photos shows me holding a white fur coat up around my face. In another I'm wearing a denim rhinestone jacket.

For me, I’ll never forget when my cousin gave me a handmade doll for Christmas, which she had spent hours making. I wasn’t a very girly 8-year-old, and I was so disappointed that my much-anticipated Christmas gift turned out to be a doll that I ran out of the room crying. I was probably hoping for a set of art supplies or some books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think my parents were embarrassed that I reacted so rudely—I sure am!

Barbara Logan: My most memorable present was a Barbie Dream House. I must have been 4 or 5 when I received it, and when I came down the stairs to discover my new pink plastic palace I was so thrilled. As an adult the gift took on an even more special significance when I realized through pictures and stories of that Christmas Eve that my mom and dad had stayed up the entire night putting it together.

As the holidays approach, we’ll be scrambling to finish our shopping lists between meeting deadlines and getting magazines out to the printer—and tracking down Natalie’s Glamour Shots (for blackmail purposes, of course). Hopefully, this year Christmas will be void of nosebleeds, tears and other gift-giving mishaps.