Stephanie Garibaldi
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
I have always hated visiting the mall Santa. As a shy kid, I much preferred writing a letter. It seemed much more civilized than 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.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
You waited in a huge line to pay a huge amount of money for a photo of your kid 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. So I just didn't take her that year.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
Only imagine my horror, three days before Christmas, she says, Mom, I need to tell Santa something. Can you bring me to him? Okay, as a single mom, I have already gotten her whatever presents I'm going to manage to get her. They're neatly wrapped, ribbons and bows, and they're hidden away ready for Christmas morning.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
So I'm kind of panicking because, you know, she's going to make some big request of like the hot toy that you can't get anymore three days before Christmas. This is not good. So I try a strategy. I say, you know, I'm in pretty tight with Santa, so why don't you tell me, and I'll pass it along to Santa. But she says, no, this is so important. I need to tell him face to face.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
So we take her two days before Christmas. The line is longer than ever. We finally get up to the front, and she jumps right up there. And it's like she is ready for that first question. He says, so have you been a good girl this year? And she's like, oh, yes, I've been very good. So good that you're probably going to bring me a lot of presents. But here's the thing, Santa.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
That's what I wanted to talk to you about. See, I learned this year there are lots of kids who don't have very many toys. Yeah, in fact, some kids don't even have a bedroom of their own or a parent. I'm lucky because I have three parents. I have my mom and my grandparents. So I want you to take all the toys that you were going to bring to me and give them to kids who need them more.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
I got to tell you, I am trying to lose it like a fool in the mall Santa's line. All my fears, you know, when you're a single mom and she has to go like to aftercare after school and she's spending so many hours with a stranger, you think she's not getting good values. And you don't have those dreams that like these fancy schmancy two-parent families have.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
You don't think things like, my kid could be the president one day. No, you just kind of hope and pray that she'll become like a decent human being. And we haven't even talked about this. So she's come up with this out of her own heart. And I am floored. And then I saw something I've never seen before. Santa's taking it pretty hard, too, because I see him wipe a tear away from his cheek.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
And he gets himself together. He kind of harrumps a little bit. And then he says... Well, it's a privilege to honor such a request, and I will. He said, but I think I can also find a few extra gifts for a sweet girl like you in my bag. So I'll bring you something, too. And she's happy, and she says, thank you, Santa. And she reaches up and gives him this big hug.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
And we're making it out to the car, and she holds my hand on the way to the car. I'm still trying to get myself together. I'm speechless still. And I put her in her little car seat in the back, because even though she's nine, she's tiny, and she still fits in one of these car seats.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
And we're heading off from Anne Arundel Mills, and I get onto 295, and that's when I've kind of gotten myself together enough. And I take a deep breath, and I just glance in the rearview mirror briefly at her, because I don't want to risk injuring this beautiful future Nobel Peace Prize winning person. So, just glance and I say, you know, that was a really kind thing that you asked Santa for.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
Made me very proud. And she said, oh, I didn't mean it. So, yeah. So I hit the brakes, and I go off onto the shoulder of 295, even though you're not supposed to, just so I can turn in my seat and say, excuse me? I'm sorry, what did you just say? And she said, well, as you know, I haven't been very good this year. So...
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
I thought, yeah, I thought if I asked Santa to give my gifts to other kids that he would be fooled and think that I'm this amazing kid and he would bring me gifts anyway. And then she says, and it worked. All of a sudden, she's gone from like modern day Mother Teresa to Machiavelli.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
I am so upset that I've only had like 15 minutes to relish in the joy of this moment before it was cruelly ripped away from me. And part of me, I'm not gonna lie, part of me is proud because she thought of this, you know? But the bigger part of me is concerned, and also, she's missed the big picture, and she has bet on the wrong horse, not understanding the Santa mother thing. So, and...
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
And I think to myself what I should do. If I was a responsible mother, what I would do when I get home, I'm gonna unwrap all those presents I got for her, and I'm gonna give them to other children, and I'm gonna take pictures of those other children, and I'm gonna wrap those pictures in an empty box. That would teach her, right? Then maybe she'd have the value she needs to.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Gifts and Gratitude
But who has the time and the energy to do that when you're a single mom? So I vowed that I would talk to her later, and the later never came. And you know what? We had a pretty good Christmas that year.