The Christmas Mango: a Christmas tale

This tale began a year ago, and quite by accident. I would imagine that many good stories begin quite by accident. Really, all that happened was a slight mix-up about fruits. You see, budgets being tight during Christmas, my parents decided to take the traditional (read: cheap) approach to gifts and filled our stockings with fruit and unshelled nuts. As we unloaded our stockings on Christmas, we were exclaiming over the novelty of our stocking-stuffers (which amounted to an orange and a pear each, along with the nuts) when one of my sisters broke out, "All right! I got a Mango!"
The other three of us looked down at our pears, wondering why they weren't mangoes as well and feeling a bit miffed. My mother's reaction was entirely different; that is to say, she was as confused as we were, but even more so, because she was convinced that she had bought four pears instead of three and a mango. To save face, she calmly replied to my sister, "No, that's a pear."
Knowing exactly what she was holding in her hand, my sister contended that it was indeed a mango. Despite her explanation that it had no stem and was shaped like a mango, my mother still held, "It is a pear, not a mango. I did not buy a mango". We were all extremely amused, especially since the two were almost in hysteria over the fruit. Finally my sister cried out in exasperation, "It's a MANGO! Look! There's a sticker on this fruit that says 'Mamba Mangoes'! We were rolling with laughter, while my mother fell silent for a minute, contemplating the situation. Finally she acknowledged,

"I thought that was an oddly-shaped pear."

So my mother had found a random mango resting with the pears at the grocery store. We enjoyed it so much that it became a new tradition. Each year, it is a surprise: Who will get the Christmas mango? And rather than remaining embarassed, my mother is extremely proud of this tradition, because she started it. Quite by accident, too, which makes it even better.