My favorite holiday memory is when I was a kid playing UO, my two brothers and I shared an account. It was Christmas day and someone PKed my younger brother who was mining near Minoc. I logged on and got sweet, sweet revenge.
My other favorite holiday memory is the same younger brother accidentally cast Earthquake in a decent sized group PVP battle on some island. Unfortunately this caused him to go from Great Lord to - luckily - neutral karma because there was no targeting check. To add insult to injury, he eventually was killed and ended up stuck on the island for at least a week because there was no GMs active due to the holidays. Always makes me laugh thinking about it, as he'd insist on playing his time even if it was as a ghost stuck on the island in a desperate bid to get out of there.
First year playing liked the snow and how it represented UO’s caring about the time of year. It added a really personal touch to the game. Lived in an area where it snowed a lot at that time.
Dec 26th, 1997. There were reindeer randomly placed around the cities. I remember there was one just inside the eastern edge of Britain. I was a new player, young, had no clue what I was doing but was so excited to be playing!
I ran a bit too far east of Britain and was met face to face with my first Ettin. I engaged it but after only trading a couple of blows, made a tactical retreat to the city, hanging on to my last few hitpoints.
The Etting followed me, and I'd no idea about being able to call for the guards. I ran past the reindeer stationed along the road, the ettin trailing close behind, and I suddenly heard the sound of a deer in combat.
The reindeer made short work of the ettin, but the best part was the corpse stayed and I could loot all of its goodies! I spent the majority of my Christmas/New Year break luring unsuspecting ogres, trolls, and ettin out of the woods to my reindeer partner!
Made some good gold, but thinking back I also vendored a lot of the gear before identifying it... I try not to think about what items I may unknowingly vendored.