Many look forward to surprises during the season of merriment and harmony, and Sam Altman made sure to share one on social media. The OpenAI CEO took to his X profile last week to share an important easter egg. Although there were no instructions for executing the hint Altman shared, it did not take long for social media users to crack the code.
The spirit of Christmas inspires the hint shared by the OpenAI chief executive. It features an emoji of a gift-wrapped box. The post swiftly gained popularity on social media, racking up over 2.2 million views and 8k likes as of writing. Although some appreciated the innovation behind the easter egg, many comments had the same question in mind – does it anticipate the launch of another version of ChatGPT?
Sam Altman shares special Christmas prompt to mark the holiday season
On December 20, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to his X profile to share a simple post. It consisted of one line, “here is a little hint,” followed by a gift-wrapped box emoji. Upon much speculation and experimentation, the implementation of the hint came to the forefront quite smoothly. After logging into ChatGPT, the user has to simply send the gift-wrapped box emoji with no other verbal or textual input.
here is a little hint: π
— Sam Altman (@sama) December 20, 2025
Upon receiving the said prompt, the LLM will process the request and respond with a new feature to celebrate the holiday season. With the greeting “Happy Holidays,” an anime-inspired video clip of Santa Claus meeting a young girl will appear. Captioned “Star in your own holiday video,” it will also feature two options – “Choose selfie” and “Take selfie.” After uploading the said multimedia file, ChatGPT will then generate an animated video with the help of Sora.
Since the announcement, the internet has been abuzz with the new feature. However, the comment section of the OpenAI CEO’s post had something different to say.
Related: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Believes GPT-5.2 Is Smarter Than Claude AI, Gemini
Sam Altman receives mixed reactions from netizens
After Sam Altman shared the Christmas easter egg on his X profile on December 20, many users on the platform took to the comments to guess what the post was hinting at. Although most of the guesses were about the details of the next ChatGPT update, others simply appreciated the initiative the chief executive took to spread Christmas cheer. One user uploaded an AI-generated image of Sam Altman in a Santa Claus outfit, with the caption, “Another year with Sam bringing happiness!”
Another year with Sam bringing happiness! ππ pic.twitter.com/7rA72tPGxJ
— Evinstein π (@Evinst3in) December 20, 2025
Most netizens, however, enquired about the necessity of a Christmas special easter egg on ChatGPT. One user was straightforward with the criticism, stating that rewarding users by removing “constraints” is a better gift than adding features. Another netizen shared a screenshot of a glitch they faced with the feature on December 21.
The best gifts donβt add features.
— Tommy. T (@tallmetommy) December 20, 2025
They remove constraints. π
I get this π pic.twitter.com/rv2ydcyeOr
— filos π€ (@filos) December 21, 2025
Although some users received this unique approach of celebrating Christmas with ChatGPT, many netizens expressed their skepticism regarding the utility of such a feature. Given the trend of “wrapped” content being en vogue over the past few years, perhaps ChatGPT’s “holiday video” feature could not hit a home run this time.
Also Read: TIME Names AI Tech Leaders as Person Of The Year 2025
