I grew up dirt poor, my single parent mom had 5 kids to buy Christmas for when I was young, so needless to say, I didnt get much, but it was great anyway.
Video games didnt come along anyway until after I was pretty much grown.
I do remember Mom buying us all a game that was like pong, but also had a hockey game on it.
It was a huge console that supported 1 or two players, with a knob you turned to move the paddles. It plugged into our tv and was in black and white.
We pretty much wore that thing out.
Then, in Christmas of 1983, I "bought my son" (who was not quite 1 year old yet) an Atari 2600.
It came with Ms Pacman and Zaxxon carts.
Needless to say, I wore that thing out before my son got old enough to even hold the joystick controller.
Since then, I never bought a Christmas present for myself and claimed it was for my kids.
Also, my son has received Nes, Super Nes, gameboy, gamecube, and several others I cant remember.
My daughter has gotten several systems too, last being a Ninetendo DS.
So I have payed dearly for my old Atari 2600

But since that first system, i have bought myself Timex TS1000 computer, Commodore 64, Radio Shack color computer, then I moved up to PCs.
Now I have come full circle and am playing Ms Pacman and Zaxxon again.. What goes around comes around.
Thanks for starting this thread, its nice to remember things sometimes..
Merry Christmas to all!