Christmas 1992 was an unlabeled tape that should have been in the Cracked Egg Studios archives, with footage documenting the Phillips family's Christmas celebration that year, as well as a number of earlier events. It 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.
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.
In April 1992, John Phillips took 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 video. On December 25, 1992, John Phillips documented the opening of gifts on the same video.
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.
In 2008, Ted Phillips 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 were destroyed in this process without being photographed. No Crackipedia article was written at this time, so the only evidence of the conversion was 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 the 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.
Recounting
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
Since the original video is no longer extant, since memories are undecided about the order of segments, and since it included certain events, such as a celebration of Ted's ability to read a Disney logo and the Christmas event supposedly taking place only a few weeks after The Flood, it is currently considered equally probable that the Christmas portrayed was actually that of calendar year 1991. However, the video is still referred to Christmas 1992 in the vernacular, due to the preference for the later videos Christmas 1993 and Christmas 1994 to be continuously sequential.In April 1992, John Phillips took 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 video. On December 25, 1992, John Phillips documented the opening of gifts on the same video.
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.
In 2008, Ted Phillips 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 were destroyed in this process without being photographed. No Crackipedia article was written at this time, so the only evidence of the conversion was 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 the 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.
Categories:
Christmas
Lost Projects
Old Camera