Students of physiology are taught that the body's homeostatic mechanisms are in place to maintain the body's internal environment. This is most often associated with maintaining health. Congestive Heart Failure represents a disease in which the body's homeostatic mechanisms worsen the progression of the disease. Using the analogy of Santa Claus delivering presents around the world in a single evening, students can gain a better understanding of how the body's attempt to respond to a deviation from homeostasis, the decrease in cardiac output, may drive the progression of the disease.