There's One More Present: Christmas Morning in the Matchmaker
Every Christmas, I end up thinking about one morning in the late nineties. My brothers and I had torn through everything under the tree, or so we thought. Then came the words every kid hopes to hear: wait, there's one more. It was a Nintendo 64.
It was that classic moment of a kid's mind being blown: something we never thought would happen, and a complete surprise. And the console was only part of it. What I really remember is the whole family in one room, wrapping paper everywhere, the tree still lit, and my brothers and me parked in front of the TV for the rest of the day.
That feeling has stuck with me ever since, and we worked really hard to put it into Christmas Morning, the new holiday mode in the Daydream Matchmaker. It's open now through January 6.
A game, not a quiz
Most of the Matchmaker asks you questions. Christmas Morning doesn't. It puts you in a living room on Christmas morning, with your brother and sister on the carpet and a parent in the doorway holding a coffee. Then somebody points behind the couch. Hold the button to unwrap the last present, and inside is the Super Daydream: a game console of our own, with four cartridges and an instruction booklet.
Four cartridges, four blind dates
Each cartridge is a short game, about a minute long, and each one is a genre.
- Mistletoe is the Romance cartridge. Pull back, let go, and glide across the ice to a stop under the mistletoe.
- Downhill is the Thriller. It's a sled race down the mountain against your brother and sister: steer around the trees and hop the logs.
- The Case of the Missing Cookies is the Mystery. Someone ate Santa's cookies. Follow the footprints across the yard, find three clues, then name who did it.
- Starfall is Fantasy & Sci-Fi. Fly the sleigh through the northern lights and catch the falling stars before the music ends.
Win or lose, every cartridge ends with a blind date from its genre, wrapped the way every Daydream Made book is. You read the clues and decide whether it's the one that comes home. Start over and the next box holds four different blind dates.
Our holiday gift to you
Beat all four games, in any order and with as many tries as you like, and there's a special gift from us at the end. One per reader, through January 6. When you've beaten all four, you'll sign in to your Daydream Library to collect it. We won't say more than that. It's a present, after all.
There's also a cheat code somewhere in the instruction booklet. Same policy.
The rest of the Matchmaker is dressed for the season
Christmas Morning isn't the only thing that changed. Snow falls on the home screen under a string of lights, and your matches come with little gift tags. If you're shopping for someone, the Perfect Gift is first in line through Christmas Eve. It asks a few questions about the reader on your list, then suggests blind dates that fit.
And the Library Tank has gone all out. There's a stack of wrapped presents on the sand, Santa hats on a few of its residents, a little tree on the cabinet, and string lights that take over the room when you switch the tank light off.
Come see us at Mohegan Sun
If you'd rather pick a blind date in person, come say hi at booth 368 at the 40th New England Christmas Festival at Mohegan Sun, November 6 to 8. It's in the Earth Expo & Convention Center in Uncasville, Friday and Saturday 9am to 6pm and Sunday 9am to 5pm. Our Christmas and holiday blind dates will be there, and our new mini books make their debut. Kids 14 and under get in free, and parking is free. Tickets are at nechristmasfestival.com.
Thank you
Every blind date starts with someone taking a chance on a book they can't see. Thank you for taking so many with us this year. I hope Christmas Morning gives you a little of that feeling from when you were a kid, when there was still one more present to open.
Jeff and Taylor, Daydream Made
