A few years ago the New York Times city room editor, James Barron, asked readers to recall the worst Christmas gifts they had ever received. I thought I’d share a couple with you.

• I’d tell you the worst Christmas gift I ever got, but I don’t, to this day, know what it was. It was a secret Santa gift from someone at a company I do consulting work for. I can’t describe it. It was something like a plastic, brown mushroom/toadstool thing, with things glued on it, in a box with clear plastic over it.... I really don’t know.
• My grandmother gave me a large, brown stuffed toad that she bought in Guatemala. I was about fourteen years old.
• One year, when I was about twelve, I got a boxed set on “How to Play Contract Bridge.” It was very puzzling — I had never expressed an interest in bridge or …