The worst Christmas gift I ever got was a pair of white Capri pants with black flowers all over them. They were on a hanger and covered in a plastic dry cleaner bag. The most remarkable aspect of this gift, though, was the pungent smell of moth balls. I received it from a parent of one of my preschool students. She sold clothing out of her home, apparently having an abundance of it in stock and storing the excess in moth balls. Normally a very supportive and thoughtful parent, she was very excited to present me with this gift. She didn't wrap it, perhaps because Christmas was not a holiday she celebrated herself or perhaps because she just opened her car's trunk and pulled out what she had on hand. Either way, I graciously accepted her gift, trying my best to suppress coughing from the fumes.

I hung my gift on the closet door in my classroom, but the moth ball odor quickly drifted across to where the children were playing and they started asking about "that smell." I opened a couple of windows, but the smell was too strong. My eyes were beginning to water and my nose was burning. I realized that this could be harmful to my young students, so I knew the pants had to be removed from the classroom. I couldn't just put them in another classroom; students were everywhere, so my assistant offered to put them in the trunk of my car that was parked in the school lot. I was relieved and grateful for their removal. I had to keep the windows and door open to air out the room, but the smell lingered far into the session.

At the end of the day, I returned to my car with the rest of my Christmas gifts. When I opened the trunk, the fumes that hit me were even stronger than in the classroom. Evidently, they were more powerful now because they were confined to a small area. I didn't expect it and my lungs immediately reacted at the potency of the vapors. At first, it took my breath away and then I started coughing and gagging. I moved far back to get away from that smell.

When I was breathing normally again, I knew that the pants had to go. I have never thrown away or gotten rid of a gift a child has given me, but I couldn't bring this into my home. I had some of the other Christmas gifts in a plastic bag, so I took them out of it, placed them in the back seat, and then I took the bag around the back of the car. I took a deep breath and held it. I quickly reached in for the pants and tied them up in the bag. I had to place them back into the trunk and not get rid of them near the school, because somehow she might find out and it could hurt her feelings. So, I took them home, driving with the trunk open all the way, and placed them in my own garbage pail at the end of my driveway.

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