My family has a Christmas tradition: the kitchen present. The deal was you’d open all your presents on Christmas morning, and they’d be pretty good. You were a kid, you were easily pleased. You couldn’t sleep the night before over the excitement of potentially getting a box of crayons. But there would be one big present you asked for, and didn’t get.
Then your dad would go into the kitchen to make breakfast, and he’d freeze dramatically in the doorway. “Hey, it looks like Santa left a present in here while he was getting his beer and cookies!” Side note: yes, we were a ‘beer for Santa’ family. If my dad had to buy me aPS2, he was earning it. Anyway, this kitchen present would turn out to be the one big present you asked for, and it would be a Christmas miracle.
Band Hero Was A Big Ticket Christmas Present In Our House
Naturally, these kitchen presents were often associated with video games. Several consoles down the years, but most memorably, Band Hero. The music peripheral game came out in 2009, so I had long since stopped believing that Santa was leaving presents in the kitchen while drinking a bottle of beer. It was a joint effort from my parents - my mother bought the presents and my father drank the beer.
I was at the age where I was a little bit too cool for Christmas, but not too cool to ask for free stuff to be handed to me in brightly coloured paper. The kitchen present tradition had died out, and I think I made some smart remark about how transparent it had been, even though in reality it got me every year.
Then Christmas Day rolled around. Band Hero was a tough present to disguise - it came in a huge box, about six foot wide and three foot tall, containing a guitar, drum set, and microphone as well as the game. I knew as I descended the stairs on Christmas morning that I hadn’t gotten it. Understandable, I thought. I’d asked for several video games, and in a year that brought usAssassin’s Creed 2,Batman: Arkham Asylum,Uncharted 2, andDragon Age: Origins, the one I had harped on about most wasX-Men: Origins - Wolverine(mission accomplished on that front, by the way).
Taylor Swift Was No Small Factor
So, no Band Hero. It was fine. My room probably didn’t have enough space for the plastic paraphernalia anyway, I already hadGuitar Hero, and an outsized reason I wanted to upgrade to the full four piece version was simply becauseTaylor Swift was in the commercials. I looked at my haul and considered it a good Christmas nonetheless. Then my dad went for breakfast and froze dramatically in the doorway.
I have fonder memories of Band Hero than most. Again, an outsized portion of that is thanks to playing as Taylor Swift. But much of it also comes from this moment, from the way it crystallised a family tradition. I have many memories of playing it, with family and friends, as well as soloing each instrument or even doubling up on guitar and mic (it only made me suck at both even more). But my fondest memory of it is simply unwrapping it.
Band Hero never really found its audience. Too fiddly and expensive for the casual crowd, too pop-oriented for the more hardcore music fans already satiated by Guitar Hero andRock Band. But Christmas morning 2009, it found me, and it will always be an indelible part of the holidays.
