Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm Christina Norman.

I don't know about you, but I find this time of year just a little bit stressful.

It's not the constant Santa ads on TV.

It's not the long, dark days.

It's the pressure to give the perfect gift to everyone you love.

If you celebrate the holidays at all,

it can be totally nerve-wracking. What if my BFF's enthusiasm for tin French sardines

doesn't match mine? And what if I spend too much money, or worse yet, too little, on my

office's white elephant gift? What if my brother doesn't like the whiskey

stones I got him? I mean, that's just a joke. Please don't get your brother whiskey stones.

Trust me. On this episode, we have two stories about giving gifts and what you receive in return.

Oh, and don't worry, even though one story mentions Santa, it doesn't reveal any of the big guy's secrets.

First up, Stephanie Garibaldi, who told this at a Moth story slam in Washington, D.C.

Here's Stephanie, live at the Moth.

I have always hated visiting the mall Santa.

As a shy kid, I much preferred writing a letter.

It seemed much more civilized and sitting on a strange man's lap and making demands.

My parents would drag me anyway, and when Santa would invariably ask what I wanted for Christmas,

I would just mumble something like, whatever you have in the sleigh is fine.

As a parent, it wasn't any better. You waited in a huge line to pay a huge amount of money for a photo of your kids sitting on a stranger's lap,

either grimacing, fake smiling, or worse, out and out crying.

So I was pretty relieved when I thought that my daughter at age nine had maybe outgrown the whole visiting Santa thing.

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