My BEST gifts were a vacuum cleaner and a bottle of wine.

Wow, really? You are the Regional Editor and you were crass enough to post this the day after Christmas? What does Christmas mean to you anyway? And it's poorly written to boot. Holiday Guide for the insensitive, maybe.

R's post made me smile because my darling daughter gave me a much-needed (and very much appreciated) Oreck for Christmas. I'm pretty sure the 40-year-old Eureka upright it replaced actually deposited more dirt than it picked up. We were both amazed at how much brighter the ancient oriental in the dining room looked after just one vacuuming.

My favorite gift, of course, was spending time with her and the rest of my family.

Yes John, but you actually get what Christmas is about. I found this post in extremely poor taste. And given the economy, it was a real struggle for a lot of people to have Christmas at all. And after surviving breast cancer in 2011, Chreistmas meant more than ever and every person who even took the time to send a card was appreciated, you know what I mean?

Heartfelt words of encouragement are among the most precious gifts we can give and receive, no doubt about it. And my experience is that those who have gone through tough times often seem more attuned to the healing qualities of honest affirmation, and are more spontaneous in offering it to others. Happy New Year, Carla.

Happy New Year to you too John :<}

I would agree that it is unfortunate that Ms. Bennett does not seem to have mastered the use of "your" vs. "you're". Perhaps a good gift for her would be the very helpful book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves". It's also unfortunate that this very clear and glaring grammatical error was not caught by anyone else at Patch.

As for best/worst gift stories, well, they can be funny at times, and I don't necessarily agree that they denigrate the spirit of Christmas or Hanukkah. Still, the BEST gift is always the gift of precious time with friends & families and the WORST gift is the opposite IMHO. I'd give every great 'thing' i have away to have just one day with any number of people I love who aren't here anymore.

Typos are the bane of all writers, a fact that I can attest to from many wince-worthy personal experiences over the decades. When I see an error in a Patch piece, I simply send a private note to our extraordinarily capable editor, who seems to appreciate my discretion. That approach seems especially appropriate, given the neighborly nature of our virtual community.

John: it was more than a typo...because someone edited the post :<} She is not the editor of the Patch in Radnor - Sam Strike is and she doesn't make those kinds of mistakes. The author of this is a regional editor...even less reason to make the mistakes. Finally, neighborly is as neighborly does, and if someone deserves the discretion, they get it. But in this case, I feel strongly enough about this that I chose to leave a comment. And I stand by my original comment that this author obviously doesn't get the true meaning of the season. And that is a pity, indeed.

I was actually referring to Sam, who is diligent and quite responsive to my occasional edits on Radnor Patch. I don't know Ms. Bennett, nor am I certain this polling piece was her creation. My most recent note was really in response to Ms. Brown, whose first paragraph reminded me how often I need (and appreciate) grace in response to some mistake I've made.

But having just bought my third (and final -- really) Costco panettone, I'm going to extend the pleasure of the season by signing off here and cutting myself a big slice. Buona notte!

John - Sam has integrity and ethics and well as opposed to some of those above her has an actual background in journalism. She is fair and balanced. IMHO AOL Patch started with a bang and this post is an example of the drivel which costs them readership. It's a shame because they have people with solid newspaper backgrounds whose voices you never hear. Patch has gotten fluffy. Or just plain tacky and dumb as is the example of this post insensitively posted the day after Christmas. The Main Line Patches are not what they used to be. I notice a BIG difference when you compare the "Main Line" Patches which are under the regional control of this post's author and OTHER Patches in neighboring areas. Truthfully there are probably too many Patches. And FYI, here is a note I received from someone else who had problems with this post:

"Then, it's me, too, as a breast cancer survivor. Why would someone care what the worst gift was that someone else received? Someone who gave that person that gift could be reading the Patch and see that the gift that they spent time selecting and paid money for was hated by that person. How insensitive. If someone thought enough to buy someone else a gift and that person didn't care for it, give it to charity. Aren't there more important things to discuss than what was the worst gift you received?"

Hello all. Thanks for weighing in. I think we can say the feedback has been received, and we corrected the grammar on the post. The attempt was not to offend but give a light-hearted look at the holidays. One year I got a shredder in a Yankee swap. It wasn't the best gift for a 15-year-old, but I appreciated the sentiment.

I'm going to close the thread on commenting, as I think the rabbit hole we are descending into is getting a little out of hand. Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Sam Scavuzzo
Associate Regional Editor