Christmas 1992 was the incorrect vernacular given to an unlabeled tape that should have been in the Cracked Egg Studios archives, with footage documenting the Phillips family's Christmas celebration that actually occurred the prior year 1991, as well as a number of other subsequent events. The footage was originally recorded on VHS-C media, but was transferred to Beta or VHS prior to the original footage being lost or destroyed during the 1990s. By June 2022, there were no known copies of this tape, making it a Lost Project.
Recounting
Teddy and Nicky open Christmas presents on December 25, 1991. They receive gifts such as The Land Before Time VHS, Cookie Monster piggy banks, laser guns, and an item that says something like "Rip Cord." Because Teddy is the older and physical larger brother, he says:
Nicky explores the kitchen base cabinets. Sheba walks around the kitchen.
Teddy and Nicky eat breakfast at Uncle Ron's house. Teddy wears a shirt with the number 4 on it.
In a motel room with 2 beds in Conyers, Georgia, Teddy and Nicky jump on the beds. Teddy jumps back and forth between them, but Nicky is unable to jump that far and always has to climb onto the next bed before attempting to jump back.
Teddy sits on the couch with a TV tray and watches the television series Heathcliff while eating bite-size cuts of chicken. He bangs his fork and knife on the tray repeatedly to notify Kathy that he is ready for another serving.
Teddy is exuberant that one of his presentsTeddy Phillips said:
Kathy Phillips is proud that Teddy can read the Disney logo, even though he hasn't started school yet.Teddy Phillips said:
Nicky explores the kitchen base cabinets. Sheba walks around the kitchen.
Teddy and Nicky eat breakfast at Uncle Ron's house. Teddy wears a shirt with the number 4 on it.
In a motel room with 2 beds in Conyers, Georgia, Teddy and Nicky jump on the beds. Teddy jumps back and forth between them, but Nicky is unable to jump that far and always has to climb onto the next bed before attempting to jump back.
Teddy sits on the couch with a TV tray and watches the television series Heathcliff while eating bite-size cuts of chicken. He bangs his fork and knife on the tray repeatedly to notify Kathy that he is ready for another serving.
History
On December 25, 1991, John Phillips decided to document the occasion using the old camera, which he had recently purchased.
In April 1992, John Phillips brought the Phillips family on a religious pilgrimage to Conyers, Georgia, involving a stopover at the home of Ronald Phillips and a motel stay. He documented elements of all three events on the same VHS tape.
In the source footage for When There Were Monsters, John Phillips complains that if the movie is too long, it will record over Christmas. However, he was actually recording on the same VHS-C media for Ted's First Day of School. To prevent this from happening in the future, he copied Christmas 1992 to Beta media.
The copy continued to be watched by members of the Phillips family for many years. The tape contained several moments that were frequently quoted by family and are still referenced in new Cracked Egg Studios productions to this day.
If a VHS-C tape was still extant in 2008, Ted Phillips would have, as one of the first conversions performed at the time, converted the Christmas 1992 source VHS-C to VHS for storage in the archives. Like the other VHS-C shells, labels, and J-cards from that batch of conversions, the ones for Christmas 1992 would have been destroyed in this process without being photographed. No Crackipedia article was written at this time, so the only evidence of the conversion would have been the existence of the converted tape.
In late 2012, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it was discovered that the storage bins which had been used to protect the Phillips family's video collection had been submerged and had not been water tight. Although recovery efforts emphasized attempts to save both damaged media that was known to have historical value and some unlabeled media, over 90% of the Beta tapes and over 50% of the VHS tapes were still deemed unrecoverable and were discarded. It was likely that the loss of any Beta copy of Christmas 1992 was deemed acceptable due to the perceived existence of the VHS conversion. In the years following, a majority of previously recovered VHS tapes were discarded due to mold, before a mold recovery process was implemented in 2022.
After a near full accounting of the current state of the archives during 2022, it was established that the Christmas 1992 VHS was missing. While there are still a small number of unaccounted VHS tapes spread across the country, it is currently believed that Christmas 1992 was somehow mixed with the family's VHS collection in the past, was among the tapes discarded after Hurricane Sandy due to water or mold damage, and is now permanently lost. It is the most notable of only a handful of notable tapes considered to have been lost in this way.
In April 1992, John Phillips brought the Phillips family on a religious pilgrimage to Conyers, Georgia, involving a stopover at the home of Ronald Phillips and a motel stay. He documented elements of all three events on the same VHS tape.
In the source footage for When There Were Monsters, John Phillips complains that if the movie is too long, it will record over Christmas. However, he was actually recording on the same VHS-C media for Ted's First Day of School. To prevent this from happening in the future, he copied Christmas 1992 to Beta media.
The copy continued to be watched by members of the Phillips family for many years. The tape contained several moments that were frequently quoted by family and are still referenced in new Cracked Egg Studios productions to this day.
If a VHS-C tape was still extant in 2008, Ted Phillips would have, as one of the first conversions performed at the time, converted the Christmas 1992 source VHS-C to VHS for storage in the archives. Like the other VHS-C shells, labels, and J-cards from that batch of conversions, the ones for Christmas 1992 would have been destroyed in this process without being photographed. No Crackipedia article was written at this time, so the only evidence of the conversion would have been the existence of the converted tape.
In late 2012, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it was discovered that the storage bins which had been used to protect the Phillips family's video collection had been submerged and had not been water tight. Although recovery efforts emphasized attempts to save both damaged media that was known to have historical value and some unlabeled media, over 90% of the Beta tapes and over 50% of the VHS tapes were still deemed unrecoverable and were discarded. It was likely that the loss of any Beta copy of Christmas 1992 was deemed acceptable due to the perceived existence of the VHS conversion. In the years following, a majority of previously recovered VHS tapes were discarded due to mold, before a mold recovery process was implemented in 2022.
After a near full accounting of the current state of the archives during 2022, it was established that the Christmas 1992 VHS was missing. While there are still a small number of unaccounted VHS tapes spread across the country, it is currently believed that Christmas 1992 was somehow mixed with the family's VHS collection in the past, was among the tapes discarded after Hurricane Sandy due to water or mold damage, and is now permanently lost. It is the most notable of only a handful of notable tapes considered to have been lost in this way.
Dating this Video
Since the original video is no longer extant, memories have been undecided about the order of segments for some time. This was compounded with a preference for the later videos Christmas 1993 and Christmas 1994 to be continuously sequential, which had caused this video to incorrectly be referenced as Christmas 1992 in the vernacular for many years.
However, since it included certain events, such as a celebration of Ted's ability to read a Disney logo and the Christmas event which would have taken place only a few weeks after The Flood, scholars theorized that it may have actually been footage of the Christmas 1991 event. Additionally, a key clue existed in the video, which was the presence of the family dog Sheba, who could be seen migrating between rooms and walking around the kitchen. On July 4, 2025, Kathy Phillips revealed that Sheba had passed away shortly after Teddy Phillips was diagnosed with leukemia in June 1992. Thus, it was impossible for the 1992 Christmas to have been the event in the video.
However, since it included certain events, such as a celebration of Ted's ability to read a Disney logo and the Christmas event which would have taken place only a few weeks after The Flood, scholars theorized that it may have actually been footage of the Christmas 1991 event. Additionally, a key clue existed in the video, which was the presence of the family dog Sheba, who could be seen migrating between rooms and walking around the kitchen. On July 4, 2025, Kathy Phillips revealed that Sheba had passed away shortly after Teddy Phillips was diagnosed with leukemia in June 1992. Thus, it was impossible for the 1992 Christmas to have been the event in the video.
Categories:
Christmas
Lost Projects
Old Camera