If you’re like me (and I know I am) you might not have any special, treasured gaming memories associated with the holiday season. However, a great many of you do. And included amongst that great many are a few of Crush! Frag! Destroy!’s very own staff.

So, as our Twelve Days of 2010 content train keeps on rolling through the end of the year, we’re going to make a short stop at Nostalgia Station. While the rest of us make runs for the restrooms or buy overpriced hot dogs at the snack bar, the rest of you can reminisce over pixelated memories of warm and fuzzy holidays past. Enjoy!

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Sage: In 2002, having just seen Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in theaters, I was lucky enough to choose the video game adaption of the movie as the one present I got to open on Christmas Eve. Although it lacked co-op, my brother and I charged through and nearly completed the entire game the first night. I remember jumping up and screaming at that god-damn scary troll during the Mines of Moria mission, completely satisfied that there was one good movie-based video game in the world.

Dustin: The summer of ’96 the only thing I wanted was Super Mario RPG for SNES. I scrimped and saved and did odd jobs to get the cash for the game, but somehow I couldn’t scrape up the sixty dollars — and with the N64 on the way, my backlog of SNES games didn’t get much for trade-in.

Christmas came, and with it came my Uncle Larry and Aunt Debby, along with their two kids. On Christmas Eve, my mom and aunt went out to a church function, and my cousins and I begged our fathers to take us out to Target to spend the money that had come to us in Christmas cards. They complied, and I came home with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I was still playing when my mom came home, saw what was going on, and gave my dad an “Eat shit and die” look. I didn’t really understand until the next morning when we opened our gifts and I discovered that Mom had already bought me the game. Apparently taking your kids shopping the day before Christmas is a bad idea.

Rob R.: Most of my holidays involved family, so I was either obligated to socialize, in a totally different state without anything to play or both. However, there was one holiday season (at least, I think it was around that time of year) when I was able to bring my PlayStation to Ohio with me when we visited my grandparents/cousins/aunt and uncle/every other extended family member that decided to make the trip. Luckily they lived in a farm house, so there was plenty of room for everyone.

Anyway, I hooked up my PlayStation and before I knew it I’d attracted a small crowd. They watched me jump around, climb and shoot stuff in Tomb Raider for at least an hour, occasionally interrupting to ask me what I was playing again or what the name of the console was. Someone even went as far as to make a mental note of it so that they might get themselves one later.

And there was the time I beat Tetris on the Game Boy while we were on one of those twelve hour car rides to the Buckeye State. To this day, when I manage to make something fit when it seemed impossible (i.e. packing a car trunk, boxes, etc…) I’ll yell out, “Tetris, motherfucker!”

Nate: The first game I remember actively wanting and receiving for Christmas was Pokemon Red Version. I had keenly observed friends at daycare playing it for what seemed like an eternity, though, being like six years old, I was unable to get it on my own. After shedding tears of joy upon receiving a beautiful, yellow Game Boy Color for my birthday, I made Pokemon my Christmas goal. I opened present after present, awaiting the soft, pastel red of the familiar box, replete with a magnificent Charizard. It was the last gift, so I had no compunctions about exuberantly proclaiming how “awesome” it was before playing it for the remainder of the evening, and for untold hundreds of hours in the months afterwards.

Scott: I can fondly remember the Christmas in which I got the just-released Nintendo 64. A few weeks before Christmas, I was at my Grandma’s house. She had a giant safe, well over 5 feet tall, where she kept all her valuables and cash. I accompanied her down into the basement so she could grab some cash for lunch. She opened the safe, and down laying on the bottom, I saw the bright orange, yellow, and green box with Mario, Stormtroopers, and other launch game mascots strewn about it. My mouth hit the floor. My Grandma immediately recognized her mistake, and quickly told me that it was for my cousin, Jennifer. My heart broke.

A few weeks later, Christmas had arrived, and the entire family was crowded into my Grandma’s tiny living room. The gifts were all handed out, and I had all but forgotten about the N64, when my Grandma went and got one last present from the bedroom. I knew what it was before I even opened it. When my mom, brother, and I returned home, my mom gave me an extra controller and both Super Mario 64 and Shadows of the Empire. She had withheld them from me that morning as to not ruin the surprise before we got to my Grandma’s house. I don’t think I ever had a more wondrous Christmas break from school.

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So how about you readers out there? Any fond holiday gaming memories to share? Toss ‘em into the comments section below and share them with us!