Selected Shorts – “Unwrapping the Holidays”

Date: December 18, 2025
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Theme: Exploring the complexities, joys, and challenges of the holiday season through fiction, focusing on generosity, gratitude, and family dynamics.

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Meg Wolitzer curates a collection of three holiday-themed short stories, each brought to life by accomplished actors. The stories challenge traditional holiday narratives, instead delving into questions of generosity, fitting in, and the nuanced motivations behind giving and receiving. Listeners are treated to sharp humor, poignant reflections, and unexpected perspectives on what it means to celebrate the holidays.

Key Discussion Points & Stories

1. Introduction: The Art of Giving and Receiving

• Main Idea: The holidays prompt self-reflection on generosity and gratitude and the challenge of living up to the morals of holiday tales.
• Wolitzer recalls childhood holiday memories, including the disappointment of receiving “Skipper” instead of the popular Barbie doll—leading to a self-deprecating joke about therapy.

  "Instead of Barbie, we were once given Barbie's younger sister Skipper, and as a result I went into therapy over it years later, but not with the therapist everyone else went to. Instead, I saw her younger sister." (03:15)

• The episode will share stories that reveal new aspects of the holidays and move beyond clichés.

2. Story 1: “Interview with God” by Amy Krauss Rosenthal

Performed by: Jane Atkinson (God), James Naughton (Interviewer)
Segment: 04:45–10:20

Summary:

• An imaginary, humorous interview with God, who is depicted with a mix of Martha Stewart and Mel Brooks qualities.
• Touches on religion, tradition, and philosophical questions, using witty, contemporary references and gender role reversals.

Notable Moments:

• God’s Gender:

  “Female.” (05:17, Jane Atkinson as God) “I knew it. I knew it.” (05:18, Naughton)

• Miracles & Holidays:

  "I guess having oil burned for eight days was pretty impressive. But I felt the Maccabees deserved a break with that dreadful king and all." (05:55, God)

  • Playful reference to “Jujubes” as a Maccabee nickname.
• Heaven’s Details:

  "Oh, it's soft and fluffy and white. And you people were right about the harp thing. 24 hours a day. Harp, harp, harp. ... now I download from my Napster right now. Moby and Macy Gray are my favorites." (07:06, God)

• On Mortality:

  "A good 80 years and boom, out. Always better to leave the Hanukkah party while you're still having fun before the Shamma's candle burns out." (07:53, God)

• On War and Peace:

  “I hate to say this, this is gonna sound simply awful, but ratings. It's good for ratings. But please understand one thing. Peace was something you all created. It's not actually possible as far as I'm concerned.” (08:13, God)

• On the Meaning of Life:

  "Ah, well, relationships. Feeling your child's tiny palm against your cheek, walking in the rain and feeling pleasantly sad. Hot latkes with cold applesauce." (09:37, God)

Tone:

Witty, irreverent, and warmly philosophical. Light mockery of religious and pop culture themes.

3. Story 2: “Heidi Is Dead” by Sheri Flick

Read by: Idina Verson
Segment: 11:56–26:18

Summary:

• Narrated by Jessica, who spends the holidays with her husband’s Nebraska family—an environment strikingly different from her own Boston upbringing.
• The story begins with the death of a family puppy, Heidi, setting off a cascade of emotional chaos and odd mourning rituals.
• Highlights Jessica's sense of alienation: contrasting open, chaotic family displays with her own family's restrained, formal traditions.

Memorable Moments:

• Initial Loss:

  “Heidi is dead. The car that ran over Heidi didn't even put on its brakes... Heidi was a puppy and a worried bloody smear on the slushy road that evening, Christmas Eve...” (11:56)

• Family Dynamics:

  "These people are in their 30s and 40s. I married late into the family. Everyone seems to know how to handle these outbursts except me." (12:38)

• Coping with Difference:

  "Ted suggests I tone down my sarcasm in front of his family. He explained that the guys had no idea what I was talking about, and that was why my question was met with the same kind of long, steady stare my cat gives me when I yell at her for eating plants." (14:00)

• Humor in Discomfort:

  "Seafood is bought fresh from the docks, if bought at all. We're polite, even though we all dislike one another. There would never arise a circumstance under which a pillow would be thrown at another family member in jest or anger for any reason whatsoever." (15:18)

• Outsider Perspective:

  “So I said, my cat, Ishmael. He can fetch. Most people don't know you can teach cats tricks.” (24:30)

  • The awkward silence and subtle family judgment after revealing she’s “not really a dog person.”

Tone:

Wry, observational, and bittersweet. Understated humor and honest vulnerability about not fitting in.

4. Story 3: “Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor” by John Cheever

Read by: Tegel F. Bouget
Segment: 30:12–57:34

Summary:

• Follows Charlie, a lonely elevator operator in a luxury Manhattan building, as he works on Christmas day.
• Through subtly embellished stories of his own misfortune, Charlie elicits sympathy and gifts from tenants, resulting in an avalanche of food and presents.
• Realizes the fleeting power and joy of generosity and ultimately seeks to pass on his bounty to those less fortunate, only to find the cycle of giving is endless and motivated by complex emotions.

Notable Quotes & Moments:

• Holiday Loneliness:

  "Christmas is a sad season of the year, he thought. Of all the millions of people in New York, I am practically the only one who has to get up in the cold black of 6am on Christmas Day." (30:15)

• Manipulating Sympathy:

  "Well, it isn't much of a holiday for me, Mrs. Hewing. See, I think Christmas is a very sad season of the year. It isn't that people around here ain't generous... but you see, I live alone in a furnished room and I don't have any family or anything and Christmas isn't much of a holiday for me." (32:06)

• Reflection on Poverty and Generosity:

  "...the poor kids inhaled every time they took a walk. They'd see all the expensive toys in the store windows... how could you tell them that Santa Claus only visited the rich, that he didn't know about the good?" (38:40)

• Overflow of Charity:

  "By three o'clock. Charlie had 14 dinners spread on the table and the floor of the locker room... there were goose, turkey, chicken, pheasants, trout... an avalanche of Charity he had pursued precipitated, filled the locker room and made him hesitant now and then, as if he had touched some wellspring in the female heart that would bury him alive in food and dressing gowns." (48:48)

• Final Irony – Passing it On:

  "He realized that he was in a position to give, that he could bring happiness easily to someone else, sobered him." (53:26) "A beautific light came into her face when she realized that she could give, that she could bring cheer... and like Mrs. DePaul and Mrs. Weston, like Charlie himself and like Mrs. Decker, when Mrs. Decker was to think subsequently of those poor Shannons, first love, then charity, and then a sense of power drove her." (56:38)

Tone:

Satirical, poignant, with a gentle mockery of human nature and holiday sentimentality; explores the ripple effects and questionable motivations behind acts of charity.

Notable Reflections & Quotes from the Host

• On Meeting Your Heroes:

  "They tell you never to meet your heroes, but in that case, seems like it worked out okay." (10:20, after “Interview with God”)

• On Fitting In:

  "There's always a kind of Marilyn Munster possibility lurking, by which I mean, if you're different from them, they may think of you as the weird one, even if they're the weird ones and you're not." (26:35)

• On the Cycle of Giving:

  "Because feelings and motivations aren't necessarily predictable or monochromatic, are they, even around the holidays?" (57:45)

  • A meditation on the multi-layered reasons people give and receive.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Framing: 00:45–04:45
• "Interview with God": 04:46–10:20
• Transition/Host Reflection: 10:20–11:56
• "Heidi Is Dead": 11:56–26:18
• Reflection & Segment Introduction: 26:18–28:37
• "Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor": 30:12–57:34
• Final Thoughts & Wrap-up: 57:34–end

Conclusion

By unwrapping the holidays through fiction, this episode of Selected Shorts paints a vivid, sometimes comical, sometimes moving portrait of how the season can disrupt, challenge, or reaffirm our sense of self, family, and community. Rather than offering trite morals, these stories probe the messiness and the wonder at the heart of celebrating together—reminding us that giving, receiving, and belonging are acts rich with their own complexity, especially at the holidays.