When Waverly and her family go to the First Chinese Baptist Church's annual Christmas party, every child at the party gets to talk with Santa, and then choose one present from a stack of gifts. There are separate gift stacks for boys and girls, and for different age groups.

When Waverly goes about choosing her gift, she is very strategic, knowing she only has one chance at getting a present she'll actually like. She watches other children choose before her, and notes that "big gifts were not necessarily the nicest ones," and "the sound of the box was also important." She digs through the presents, "testing their weight, imagining what they contained." Waverly ends up choosing a present that turns out to be a 12 pack of Life Savers candies, and she "spent the rest of the party arranging and rearranging the candy tubes in the order of [her] favorites." She is obviously very pleased with her choice, as she says that her brother "chose wisely as well," indicating the she believes that she herself chose wisely. Later on, she is also able to use the candies to bribe people into playing chess with her.