Girl opening presents on Christmas ()
The holiday season is a time where the impossible seems possible: Santa can shimmy down your skinny chimney, Frosty the Snowman comes alive, and the sold-out Turbo Man appears in the pile of presents. This year, we sent our staff down memory lane and asked them for their favorite holiday movies or specials, and the best present they ever received for the holidays.
Lords a Leapin’ Leah
Favorite Movie/Special: “A Christmas Story”
Best Gift Received: As far as my favorite gift… nothing sticks out in mind, just the years we would get to visit family we never saw, those were the best years, couldn’t tell you today what the gifts I got then were, just the joy.
Jolly Julianna
Favorite Movie/Special: “White Christmas.” It makes me think of Christmas with my Nonna and family.
Best Gift Received: The best gift I received is a cookbook my aunts put together with my Nonna. They included a rolling pin. The book continues to be used every year for the last 20 years.
Snow Angel Stacy
Favorite Movie/Special: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” My son can imitate Uncle Louis almost perfectly and my dad is very much Clark Griswold incarnate.
Best Gift Received: The best gift I received wasn’t actually a present. It was helping my 84-year-old grandmother decorate Christmas cookies for the first time, last year. It was wonderful and priceless.
All is Calm Ayla
Favorite Movie/Special: “The Year Without a Santa Claus”
Best Gift Received: “The best gift I have gotten was probably when I was 6- I got a Barbie jeep!”
Ayla and her Barbie Jeep ()
Twinkling Tamala
Favorite Movie/Special: “Christmas Time in South Park”
Best Gift Received: This is going to age me, but like a true tween, I had a popstar obsession. When I was 12, I had an Aaron Carter-themed Christmas. I got an Aaron Carter doll, an Aaron Carter tour bus; pretty much, if it was Aaron Carter-themed, I got it. Looking back, it seems so silly, but it was the most excited my tween self had ever been at Christmas.
Zazzie Zaddie
Favorite Movie/Special: “Elf” Best Gift Received: My husband and I don’t exchange physical gifts; we always plan a trip to a place we both want to go to and that is our gift to each other. If I had to pick the best holiday trip it would be going to Amsterdam for the first time. The best part of the trip was having my Pomeranian with us and seeing her reaction to Pommes Frite.
Kris Kandace Favorite Movie/Special: “Frosty the Snowman”
Best Gift Received: My best gift ever was a trip to Hong Kong with my aunt when I was 10.
Comet Capri Favorite Movie/Special: “Home Alone” movies or maybe “Polar Express”
Best Gift Received: I am not sure that I have a favorite gift, so I thought instead I’d share my most unique gift which is...coal. My family has a very strange tradition of passing around a lump of coal to a different member of the family each year and you have to be creative about how you give it to them, so they don’t know it’s coming. It’s been going on for 20+ years now and it’s so funny every year to see the cool ways it gets passed to the next person and their reaction when they get it and have to hang on to it for a whole year/figure out a way to regift it the next year.
Holly Heidi
Favorite Movie/Special: “The Year Without a Santa Claus”
Best Gift Received: “The best Christmas gift I ever received was a trip to the Cayman Islands, to spend the holidays with my parents. I was a young professional and didn’t have money to travel, so it was a generous and thoughtful gift and gave me wonderful memories that I cherish to this day.”
Noel Noel
Favorite Movie/Special: “Die Hard” and “The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)“
Kat Kringle
Favorite Movie/Special: “A Christmas Story.” I love the comedy mixed with nostalgia. I even have my own leg lamp for our window.
Best Gift Received: The best Christmas gift I ever got was a globe when I was ten. I was such a nerd and loved this thing. I made a place of honor for it in my room, memorized all the countries, and planned on where I was going to go when I grew up. The bonus was that my cat Nigel also loved the box, which became a cat bed for years. The globe disappeared when I went to college; it’s ridiculous that I kept it so long since it still had the USSR.
Jubilant John
Favorite Movie/Special: “The Princess Switch” series.
Best Gift Received: DIY Gin set.
