One other one I completely forgot about- christmas of 2001. Was only 5 or 6 at that point and got Tahu and Lewa mata as presents- I had no idea what Bionicle was (and my parents had no idea what chaos they had just started). Couldnt put the ball joints together on those sets, my parents had to do it- my favorite part about those sets at that age? The swinging arms of course.
2 Likes
My best memory has to be in 06, I opened Vezon and Fenrakk and Brutaka, and got Avak, Vezon, and Jaller from my family. I also bought Thok for my dad, (I was young)who subtly gave the set back to me.
I got the Toa Terrain Crawler play set from about 2007-ish, never got around to finishing it (i probably could finish it now if 90% of my lego stuff wasnāt in a storage unit, but at least i have all of the exclusive parts).
Christmas gas always yielded up some form of Bionicle whenever it occurred. Turahk and Panrahk were the first Bionicle sets for Christmas (and ever), although my brother got Turahk, but letās be fair here - siblings play with your toys, no matter what age. I always assumed it was normal that we were both completely ok with it until I learned that apparently siblings were supposed to fight about literally everything. 
Later I got Vahki, then Piraka, then later Vezon/Fenrakk, then much later Brutaka, and the last set I got specifically for Christmas was big olā Gadunka donut. But most times Bionicle was Birthday related, like Stronius and Skopioā¦ Thatās also around the time my family mentally switched to me being an adult so now all I get is tools 
Nah, I still get Bionicle for holidays occasionally, but now Iām doing far more MOCing that overdosing on the excitement of opening a new canister. But the feeling of popping open a Rahkshi that never saw the light of day and looking through the bland yet very detailed instructions to put it togetherā¦ Even today, you couldnāt give me a LEGO set Iād rather open.