Christmas is steeped with nostalgia. There’s something about the ritual family traditions that brings out a rosy-eyed look toward the past; perhaps a past filled with wonderful home computers with names like Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari 800.

If you grew up with 8-bit and 16-bit home computers in the 1980s and 90s like me, you will be delighted to learn (or remember) that, even back then, people were constantly finding ways to celebrate this special holiday using their shiny new machines of the time.

As a result, we now have collections of dozens of animated musical Christmas programs from computer history, and most of these demos exist solely as rustic digital expressions of Christmas joy. They were often distributed freely (with a few commercial exceptions), and anyone with a modem or a blank floppy disk could share in the festivities.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a handful of classic Christmas demo programs from the 80s and 90s—with several classic home computers represented. I’ve even linked to videos or emulations of the demos so you can watch them yourselves. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!