Although we haven’t done it in years, we have a tradition derived from my father: when we have a holiday party, we ask each guest to bring not a gift, but an ornament for the Christmas tree. In this way, our tree has become sort of a living history of holidays in the family.

With the minor downside that we cannot fucking remember who gave us what.

In any case, this naturally enough means that we have a nicely eclectic tree with not one generic shiny ball on it. Instead, we have alot of handicrafts, joke ornaments (we seem to have lost the condom that someone brought one year), and of, course, tributes to geekdom.

I thought I’d share a few.

What geek wouldn’t have Wally over for Christmas?

It’s Mario! Karting! We have two Pikachus too.

We have the full collection from Hallmark

An Origin ornament.

The only LegendMUD ornament on the planet

An acorn from Robert Frost’s home

Dr Cat origami butterfly

These were handed out as Christmas presents one year at Origin — either appearing on our desks (like so many things did at OSI — they were forever dropping off Play-Doh and having sculpture contests, or sets of little Lego soldiers), or handed out at one of the parties. The parties were always crazy. One year, the party involved a complicated scavenger hunt held within a hotel, with clues and prizes. Another year, it was a live-action roleplay quest you had to go through in groups. Another year, it was held in a bar converted temporarily to a casino, with a roaring 20s theme. You get the idea.

In any case, we have hung on to the ornament.

Legend has, or had, or will someday have (hey, time is confusing), a CafePress store. One of the things that you can get from CafePress are ornaments. This LegendMUD logo has been in use ever since we changed it from the ugly green and blue version in… uh, maybe 1996. Alas, I no longer have a high-res version of it. (Anyone recognize the font?) But Kristen did manage to get it reduced down nicely for an ornament.

But it’s the only one there is — she made the prototype, and they were never put out for public purchase.

My friend Tanya Angell Allen, amazing poet and writer, daughter of also amazing poet and writer Dick Allen, once went to Robert Frost’s home. She sent me this acorn from there, along with an eloquent letter. She is so goddamn good at writing letters — they always read exactly like the sort of collected poetic letters of famous writers that you see published in books. I still have them all, somewhere in a box in the garage. I imagine they are acquiring the patina of age that grants them respectability now.

In any case, she sent this acorn, on the grounds that it plausibly could have been a descendant of snowy woods that one stops by of an evening to take a road less traveled, and therefore must be chock full of poetic goodness waiting to burst out into treehood.

Dr. Cat, of Furcadia fame, does origami. This you know, if you spend more than five minutes with him. Naturally, we got multiple origami ornaments from him — little cubes, butterflies, fish, and others. Alas, the cubes have fallen apart with the years, and we’re down to just two butterflies. I still have the first fish he did for me, which I usually keep around my desk (near the Lego soldiers, in fact).