From this year and any other.  

This year the best present so far, has been the pen Ogre got me, a black skull and crossbones patterned Benu Fountain pen.  

My favorite gifts of years past have included: 

The Barbie Camper. 

This thing was about 3 feet long and could bear the weight of your average 5 year old.  Honestly, I rode it around the house more than I played with Barbie in it.  I cried when it finally gave up the ghost after being ridden down a driveway, and wiping out at at the bottom, several times in rapid succession.  

221b Baker Street: the board game.  

My Dad read me Sherlock Holmes stories as bedtime stories when I was a kid. I made my Dad and my sister play this game obsessively until I knew the answers to all the “mysteries,” and Dad made me stop.  I still remember them.  But I recently discovered there are more supplemental mysteries you can buy separately.  Super psyched.  

Fresh ‘n’ Fancy: cosmetic kit.

So, with this, you mixed up your own make up by combining the various things included in the kit.  And what I did with it for the most part was make bruises and wounds on myself and my friends and freak out our parents.  I got really good at it, too. It had nail polish too, but that just peeled off in one piece, and made really awesome bloody wounds.  

Original Slime with Worms (1970s). 

I do not remember if I had the worms version at home and the eyeball version at my grandparents’, or vice versa.  But whichever version I had at home, I’m not sure if it was me or my sister who didn’t get the top screwed on tight, and it got dumped into a box of Richie Rich comics.  Sigh.  

What were your most memorable Christmas Presents, in a good way?  I have a few that were memorable in agonizing ways.  Like this.

This was a present for the whole family, because we were really into jigsaw puzzles.  It was a double-sided, sepia toned profile of Sherlock Holmes on one side and Reichenbach Falls on the other, IN THE SAME COLORS.  It was a nightmare to put together, and took us MONTHS.  I will never forget this fucking puzzle.  

So, yeah, the good, the bad, the mediocre, tell me about your memorable presents.