The holidays are not only a time of joy, but a time of stress. They are a lot like weddings. You want everything to be perfection.

   If the crowds, congestion, and cash demands are getting you down, perhaps you should take time off and read or listen to this book.

   Skipping Christmas offers a fascinating and funny peek at the rituals of Christmas. Picking cards…deciding who goes on the card list and whether to decorate outside…plotting which gifts to buy…picking up a few spare gifts in case someone unexpectedly gives you one…

   This novel is about the year Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas. Their daughter is off to Peru in the Peace Corps. For half the money they spend on Christmas, they reason, they could go on a cruise and avoid the whole frantic scene.

   Naturally, events catch up with them because it's pretty hard to skip Christmas.

   Take this short, entertaining book of popular fiction in the light spirit in which it is offered. (Also available in an audio version, superbly read by Dennis Boutsikaris.)

From Skipping Christmas:

--"What a waste, Luther thought to himself. Why do we eat so much and drink so much in the celebration of the birth of Christ?"

--"How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of the fingers and it's January 2. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, no tipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic and crowds, no fruitcakes, no liquor and hams that no one needed, no 'Rudolph' and 'Frosty,' no office party, no wasted money. His list grew long. He huddled over the wheel, smiling…"

--"[Nora] had reluctantly agreed to buy no gifts. She also wept at the thought of no tree, though Luther had mercilessly driven home the point that they yelled at each other every Christmas when they decorated the damned thing."

 

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