The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 6

 

You'll need change for a dollar when it comes to today's advent. We're looking at ornaments based on video games. So here's 4 quarters worth of ornaments that will make any gamer get in the holiday spirit.

My first experience with video games was probably just like a whole lot of others born between 1960-1980- Pac-Man! I found a pair of adorable hand blown glass ornaments that add a touch of Christmas to a Pac-Man stand unit. Both designs seem to have the same Christmas tree maze on the screen. But the design on the side appears different. While one has what looks like authentic 1980s Pac-Man and the ghosts in holiday colors and a Santa hat, the all-blue paneled version looks much more cleaner. I couldn't choose which one I like, so I went with both!

This type of stand units were referred to as cabinets. Not sure why as I don't recall any of them having closing doors. However, I wanted to include the next ornament as it represents my wife's very favorite game of all-time, Galaga. A Magic ornament from Hallmark, this 2009 piece would light up and play the theme song when the coin slot panel is pressed. Unlike other Magic ornaments that I am aware of, you don't have to plug this one in. Instead it took 3 batteries to power.

After Atari, the video game system most families had was the Nintendo Entertainment System. To represent the NES I selected this part of rubber ornaments sold by Game Stop. Its pixel accurate representations of the Mario Bros. I dunno why but I always like Luigi better...

In middle school and high school, I was introduced to Street Fighter II. My best friend Jonathan had the game and we'd have massively long tournaments when I spent the weekend over at his house. 

I choose this ornament representation mostly for its name: 'Bauble Heads'. HA! I love it! Plus it proves that the word baubles is really just another way of saying Christmas Ornament. #vindicated.

After the NES, there was the Gameboy. Who didn't get a copy of Tetris with their hand-held video game system? While I preferred the full-colored NES version of the game, I spent many an hour on my Gameboy making those blocks fall. And then when I went to sleep, those suckers would keep on fallin'!

Here's a lovely blown glass representation of the Gameboy COLOR system with Tetris game already in play. Manufactured and sold by Old World Glass. 

Do you have a lot of video games and you just don't know what to do with them? Why not go for the DIY approach! Take an old video game, hot glue a decorative bead with a hook attached and create those Christmas memories as you hang that now useless and devalued cartridge on the tree like with this Atari 2600 Indiana Jones game from the 1980s!

Lastly, I want to pay tribute to what I believe is the grandfather to the video game- the pinball machine. Every video arcade in the world had a row of pinball machines. Eventually, as the technology got better, some pinball machines turned into video games.

This ornament is from Hallmark. Titled 'Pinball Wonder', it's a magic ornament depicting Santa playing a holiday themed pinball game revolving around snowballs. Apparently this ornament not only had sounds and light, but Santa's arm would also move pulling the plunger back.

Okay- It's Advent present time. Today, I decided not to share an ornament based on one of my all-time fav video games. Instead, I'm sharing this very funny and very brief look at what would have happened if the movie TRON had gotten the holiday special treatment a'la Star Wars. Only 90 seconds and really funny. 

Enjoy!