Louis C.K. often integrates the love, frustration, and hilarious insights that his daughters bring him into his comedy routine, and during his final appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, he talked about how he’s trying to make them into better people…and can’t quite do it.

The comedian’s on-screen daughters are both sweet and funny, getting Louis into sticky situations while teaching him the joys of parenthood (packing a duckling in his bag before he takes off to perform for the troops overseas, standing up to would-be criminals during a trick-or-treat outing), but real life can sometimes be even more difficult.

“They come down and there’s just nothing,” he said after telling Jay he’d toyed with the idea of giving the girls nothing for Christmas. “And they’re like ‘what?,’ and I’m like ‘yeah, there’s nothing here girls.’ And they’re like ‘did Santa come?’ ‘Well, if he did, he didn’t leave anything. Not for you.’ I actually do think that one Christmas with nothing would make them more generous, more cautious, and smarter people, so it would actually be good parenting to have one Christmas where you get nothing,” C.K. said. “But I can’t do it. I can’t do what’s right for my kids.”

The “American Hustle” actor also talked to Jay about a film he directed way back in 1998 called “Tomorrow Night” which was never released despite garnering good reviews at Sundance. The movie will be getting a second chance later this year when Louis releases it on his website.

Image via The Tonight Show