It began as a Christmas morning shrouded in silence and snow.
I was 6, my brother was 4, and for Christmas my mother was going to get breakfast in bed.The two of us tiptoed into the kitchen and set to work on bacon and eggs. Predictably, perhaps, it wasn't long before the kitchen was enveloped in flames, and our mother was awakened not by the smell of a perfect breakfast but by the clamor of fire trucks.
So began my life as the World's Worst Holiday Gift Giver. My best presents come back like boomerangs: shirts too small, ties too short, trifles that clash with everything.
Naturally, I welcomed the chance to ask some famous people for their own greatest successes in gift-giving.
JANINE TURNER, TV star
Filming "Northern Exposure" in Seattle leaves a terrible void in my life - my family. They are all in Texas.
Thus, modern-day wonders provided a mutually rewarding Christmas gift - video telephones. I gave one to my parents and one to my brother.
So now I can watch my beloved niece and nephews as they dance in their living room.
MARTHA STEWART, author
When my daughter Alexis was 4, I gave her a blanket made of lambskin. It was soft and cozy and warm.
She took it with her everywhere. She slept with it by night, walked around with it by day. It always seemed to comfort her and make her happy. It brought such joy to Alexis and to me: I could just see the appreciation in her eyes.
Today, Alexis is 29, a contributing editor of the magazine Martha Stewart Living and the owner of the Bridgehampton Motel.
Alexis and I don't know where that lambskin blanket is today, except in our hearts.
YAKOV SMIRNOFF, comedian
In Russia, we celebrated New Year's instead of Christmas. I didn't trust Santa Claus much either, because whether you were sleeping or awake it was the KGB.
So when I came to America, I embraced the spirit of Christmas and enjoy giving fun gifts.
One Christmas, I gave my conservative father-in-law from Oregon a fun gift - a one-way ticket to Siberia. I don't think it went over very well.
Another Christmas, I gave my cousin Urie some Time-Life books with a note. "Merry Christmas. I hope these will help you become a general contractor."
It worked! But when he was supposed to fix my house, he didn't show up.
KATHY MATTEA, country-music star
Every year since I was born, my family has gotten together at my parents' house for a huge Christmas party.
In 1980, just after moving to Nashville, I got a job as a waitress.
Unfortunately, I was the low man on the totem pole and therefore had to call my parents to tell them I'd have to work on Christmas Eve, missing the annual Christmas bash for the first time in all of my 21 years.
A few days before Christmas, one of my co-workers gave me a very special gift. She offered to take my shift.
Elated, I called my sister-in-law to tell her I'd be able to come home Christmas Eve and would like to surprise the family.
After driving all day, I arrived home just as the party was cranking into high gear and walked into the back door leading to the kitchen. Mom was standing at the kitchen counter.
"What does someone have to do to get a drink around here?" I asked. My family ran to hug me.
It was a very special Christmas.
JOHN TESH, musician and TV host
For our first Christmas as husband and wife, I gave Connie (Sellecca) a photograph of herself, taken when she was 8 years old.
After I had the slightly damaged photo repaired and enlarged, I had it superimposed onto the sheet music for "Concetta" - a musical arrangement I had composed with Connie in mind for my album "Monterey Nights." After a long search, I found the perfect antique silver frame to complement the beautiful photograph.
Connie is the inspiration in my life and in my music. This gift shows just how much she means to me.
EMMITT SMITH, athlete
Christmas is a very happy family holiday for the Smith family. However, each year I'm usually playing football for the Dallas Cowboys. So I can't join my family in Pensacola, Fla.
The best gift I ever gave was when I bought my mom a new car. I had her open the box and jiggle the keys while listening long distance to her screams of joy. I was disappointed I couldn't be with her, to see her face. But her yells made me very satisfied. I made a good choice.
GARRISON KEILLOR, author and radio host
A poem written to my daughter was in a suitcase full of presents that was stolen at JFK Airport a few days before Christmas. So the poem had to be reconstructed.
My daughter's name has fourteen letters. I had written her a sonnet, each line beginning with a letter of her name.
It wasn't a bad poem. But the second version turned out better than the first. And, of course, losing the gift made me appreciate the value of it more.
TOMMY TUNE, dancer/choreographer/director
It was Dec. 23, and I hadn't shopped for Mom because I was waist-deep in rehearsal for a new Broadway musical.
On my lunch hour, I dashed crosstown to Saks Fifth Avenue, took one look at the bustling ground floor of Manhattan's busiest department store and froze.
Yikes! Too many possibilities!
Then, I literally saw red. Red items popped out and the rest of the world receded.
Red was Mom's favorite color, so I attacked like a predator, buying a red parasol, a red pocketbook, a red cashmere stole, Chanel nail polish and lipstick - Chanel red was the reddest! - a red makeup case, red bedroom slippers, a red velvet robe and a pair of red gloves.
I'll never forget Mom's joy on Christmas morning. She truly became the lady in red!
WILLARD SCOTT, TV weatherman
The whole spirit of Christmas, to me, is love, the giving of yourself.
It was a Christmas in the early 1960s, when I was working on Washington television as Bozo the Clown. A rare opportunity was presented to me.
Someone with a 6-year-old daughter at Children's Hospital called me. Her little girl was terminal, and the one thing she wanted for Christmas was to see Bozo.
I went to visit her the day before Christmas Eve. She held my hand, smiled and seemed to gain a tremendous amount of joy from the experience.
It was a really emotional thing. I went away with tears in my eyes.
Shortly after Christmas, the little girl died. Thinking about it now, it seems I was able to bring that little girl joy in such a painful period of her life.
I will never be able to give anyone anything more significant than that.
JACKIE COLLINS,
Hollywood author
I gave to my husband a gold watch with a very special inscription several months before he died.
Now I have the watch, so I always have a part of him with me.
KATIE COURIC, TV host
The best present I ever gave was when I gave my parents a microwave - even though my father hates "modern technology" and refuses to use an ATM card.
Now, they "nuke" everything and think that the microwave is the best invention ever.
BILLY RAY CYRUS, musician
The best Christmas gift I ever gave was when I totally surprised my mother with her first upright piano.
This happened about six years ago. A couple of friends and I went down to the music store in Flatwoods, Ky., my hometown. Mom had gone to the grocery store - the only time she ever leaves the house - so we had only an hour.
We rushed into the store, bought the piano and had to get it into the living room before she got back.
She drove up while we were still carrying the piano into the living room. She came in the front door while we ran out the back.
And there to greet her was the piano. Mom was speechless.
HOWIE MANDEL, comedian
In 1979, I told my best friend Mike that I was thinking about getting him this really nice $1,500 thing for Christmas.
I didn't end up getting him anything.
He seemed disappointed until I reminded him that it's the thought that counts.