Matt Tomljenovich knows what he’s getting for Christmas – a candelabra.

The eliminated player from “The Amazing Race” says he has received plenty of ribbing from his friends and family about not knowing what the item was and therefore struggling to locate one during a challenge in Estonia.

“I’ve gotten so much crap about it it’s not even funny. Mostly people are saying what I’m going to get for Christmas is a bunch of candelabras,” he says with a laugh.  

Matt and his father Gary were the most recent team to be eliminated from the race after being the last to arrive at the Pit Stop.

They had also arrived last during the previous leg in Sweden, but received a second chance when it was a non-elimination round. They were required to complete a Speed Bump (an extra task that only they would have to do) in the next leg, which proved to be more time consuming than it looked.

The Speed Bump was spending a mere five minutes on a “Saunabuss” but Matt says by the time they got there, stripped down, sweated it out for the required time and changed back into their clothes, they had lost 20 minutes.

They then raced over to the next challenge at Mustpeade, a Roadblock challenge where Matt had to find a candelabra with a numbered key, unlock a corresponding room and then decode a secret message from a seemingly blank scroll.

“Even though it looked like I had a really tough time with the candelabra and that we got lost and everything, we actually made up time,” says Matt.

“If I had known what a candelabra was, I would’ve been in and out of there in like three minutes.”

Once they got to the next challenge – a Detour where teams had to play a round of volleyball in the muddy bogs or fire a slingshot at a target – they figured they would be the last to arrive as they didn’t see any other teams around.

“But the thing with the race is you don’t know what’s happening with the other teams. Someone’s cab could’ve gone in an entire opposite direction, someone could’ve broke down, you never know what could happen so we just raced until we were done,” says Matt.

It was disappointing considering they had gotten a second chance the previous leg, but Matt says they were OK with the elimination.

“I’d rather get out of Estonia than get out a leg ahead. Those hay bales (at the Roadblock challenge in Sweden) were tough for my dad, and I would rather that not kill us,” he jokes.

Before coming onto the race, Matt says he and his dad were in two separate worlds – they didn’t spend much time together and rarely talked.

“It was a big chance for us to get to know each other better. I’m 22 and this is the longest we’ve been together just him and me throughout my entire life,” says Matt.

He adds that he knew going on the race together was a gamble.

“I was like, ‘We’re either going to get along perfectly and it’s going to be sweet or we’re going to bite each other’s heads off and we’re going to hate each other.’ It was kind of 50-50 and I’m glad it went the first way.”

Matt says since returning home, his relationship with his dad has been stronger than ever.

“It has been pretty great so far,” says Matt, who has no regrets about going on “The Amazing Race.”  “It was a blast. One of the best things I’ve ever done.”