Christmas Eve 1995, an absolutely perfect setting at Lambeau Field. For an 11 year old kid like me that grew up in Wisconsin, this type of day was perfect. An idyllic moment that would become every memory I would crystallize in my head from that time. A light snow falling as I got home from church, ready to watch the Packers and looking forward to the Christmas festivities that were happening, school as far away from my thoughts as it could be, as winter break was just starting. Watching on TV, that Lambeau snow, the festive mid 90's Packers crowd (which was always hungry and excited for their Packers). It was everything I think about when I think of my indelible childhood memories and the 90's Packers.
This was a big game for the Packers. This was a high flying Steelers team that would eventually go on to the Super Bowl. For the Packers, a win would mean a home playoff game and a chance to finally take the next step in the playoffs, and to make the deep run that the franchise had been waiting for since 1967. With one play left to win it, Yancey Thigpen, one of the great receivers in team history (who had just set the single seas catch record that day), dropped a ball that was right in his stomach to give the Packers the win, and the division.
Who knows what happens if that ball isn't dropped. If the Packers had to go on the road in the playoffs that year would they have won and gotten their chance to go beat San Francisco? If the Packers don't get that franchise changing win in San Francisco do they have the confidence going into 1996 as the favorite, and finally to win the Super Bowl that had eluded them since the Johnson administration? Who knows. It was a gift from Santa that changed the course of history forever.