Brian Lair on WMYC, and yes, it's been an all call-in Brian Lairor show today, partly because it's

just fun, and we do this once in a while, just because, and partly to give most of our team the day before

Christmas off, so they didn't have to book guests, you know, like when everybody they might call

is probably taking a vacation day themselves and would decline. And we'll wrap this up as we

head toward Christmas with the simplest of questions. what's the best gift you ever received?

212-433 W-N-YC. It can be a Christmas gift, or it doesn't have to be, it can be a birthday

present or any kind of gift. Call or text with the best gift you ever received, and what made it that?

212-433-9692. And I'll say this, as simple as it is, was inspired by a New York Times article,

a very sweet one on the topic with the headline, 600 readers told us about the best gifts

they ever got. These are the top 13. So to help with the headline, 600 readers told us about the best gifts they ever got.

These are the top 13.

So to help with the prompt for this, I'll just read out some of the very nice stories from that article.

You ready?

Listener, Tade Allen in Virginia Beach writes,

One Christmas in 1996, when my husband was deployed,

Virginia Beach is a big military town, I was feeling overwhelmed. I was a young working mother with three kids, two of them still in diapers. I lamented to a friend that I couldn't imagine

how I would get a Christmas tree,

get it home and set it all up with the kids underfoot and no husband to help me.

One evening, a few weeks later, there was a knock at the door.

There stood that friend with a fully decorated Christmas tree.

Where do you want it?

He asked.

...