WAVY screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Christmas comes but once a year.

Tales of racy pictures on gadget gifts come slightly more often.

A Virginia father says that his 8-year-old son received a Christmas surprise when he and his friends took pictures of themselves with his new Nintendo DS.

He found a dozen pornographic images in a file that had been put there by someone else.

As WJLA-TV reports, the boy's dad, Tom Mayhew says he bought the device at Walmart.

"It was a shocker because we had the family here and there were a lot of kids here. The kids were the ones that discovered those pictures," he told WJLA-TV.

Some might imagine that it would have all been different if the adults had discovered the pictures.

"It's disgusting for one," continued Mayhew. "I mean, it seems weird that this was the only thing left on it."

Weird to some, suspicious to others. Might this have been some sort of prank?

The images were time-stamped December 1, but Mayhew bought it on December 23. He believes that this DS had been bought by someone and returned with the images left on it.

Walmart has yet to comment on what might have happened, but this is hardly the first time a Christmas has been disrupted by the inspection of naked bodies on a new gadget.

Why, just last Christmas, a 3DS bought at GameStop in Colorado had some heart-stopping images left on it. These were seen first by a 5-year-old.

This, though, was a refurbished model, whereas Mayhew was buying a product he believed was new.

One of the consequences for Mayhew is that he says he will now have that conversation with his son a little sooner than he had planned.

Perhaps he'll also choose to have a stiff conversation with Walmart and ask a few searching questions.