Format Read: Paperback
Review: This is a fun short holiday read filled with action and adventure. The movie is also very good.
Recommended For: Those who want a Christmas book with crazy characters.

2018: read this with my husband. It’s an enjoyable and entertaining read all the way through.

2016: Loved this book so much. Now I have a book hangover. I need another just as heartwarming and page turning. This will be an annual read. I loved the movie, the book is better, of course. Simply delightful!

Cute story. Loved it much more than the movie. Entertaining for the Christmas season.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

Definitely a cute Christmas story but not the usual incredible books John Grisham usually writes.

Una comedia navideña muy alejada de lo que Grisham nos tiene acostumbrados. No me llenó. Se lee rápido al ser cortita, pero lo que se suponía debía ser gracioso, no terminaba de conectar con mi sentido del humor. Quizá fue cosa mía, ya que han pasado unos veinte o cien años desde que lo leí, pero el recuerdo que me quedó es de novela floja.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham was the PERFECT Christmas story for me! It was fun and refreshing. The general premise of the story is exactly something I could see my husband and me doing. Read it and learn a bit about our personalities!

If you’re looking for a Christmas story that is not a ‘sappy romance’ or a ‘Hallmark movie,’ pick this up! This story is hilarious. Hilariously ironic and thought provoking. What is Christmas all about, really? I laughed, I cried (i.e. I cried from laughing), I was touched, and ultimately just felt happy reading this gem.

The writing has an excellent tempo and reads very quickly; it’s also a short read just under 200 pages. For a quick, lighthearted, and Christmas filled fun story, please read Skipping Christmas!

Having never read a Grisham novel before, this has to be the best introduction to his books!

On a sentimental note, this story made me realize how important it is to us adults to make Christmas special for children - it’s all about the kiddos! Am I right?! What’s Christmas spirit without a whole lot of childhood magic!

Thank you for reading my review on Goodreads! Follow me on Instagram (@journeyofthepages) for further bookish engagement! www.instragram.com/journeyofthepages I hope to meet you there!

Pues... en mi casa se ve la peli cada vez que la ponen en la tele y como este año estoy sin tele me dije: Es hora de leer el libro XD. Y la verdad es que me he reído un montón porque la peli es una adaptación bastante fiel y la tenía todo el rato presente en la mente.

**Alerta Spoiler!!!

1.-La historia. Blair, la hija de los Krank se va de voluntaria a Peru y no va a estar en navidades, así que sus padres deciden "saltarse la Navidad" con todo lo que conlleva (no fiestas, no cenas, no árbol, no donaciones, no adornos, nos regalos, no Frosty en el tejado) y marcharse de crucero, para desgracia de Vecinos, amigos, compañeros y tal, que no están muy de acuerdo con esa decisión tan poco navideña. Y empiezan los líos, y cuando Blair dice el mismo día 24 que vuelve y además acompañada de su novio con el que va a casarse, los líos se multiplican por 2.

2.-Los personajes. Luther Krank es peor que el señor Scrooge, irónico, sarcástico, orgulloso... y claro,le pasa de todo (y aun le pasa poco) XD
Nora Krank me sacaba de quicio, tenía un comportamiento muy infantil y exagerado.
Blair ni fu ni fa, pero los vecinos eran geniales.
La verdad es que no hay mucho desarrollo de los personajes porque a la historia no le interesa. Es una sátira y una critica a la navidad, al consumismo y demás, y al final nos deja la típica moraleja del verdadero sentido navideño, el de unidad y tal (poco importan de verdad los personajes, que son los típicos). Porqué quien no quiere matar a sus vecinos por lo menos una vez a la semana porque son unos tocapetolas?, pero luego cuando los necesitas de verdad siempre están ahí (al menos en los pueblos es así, en las ciudades no lo tengo yo tan claro...).

3.-La pluma, la trama y demás. El estilo no era enrevesado pero no me convenció mucho, a veces pasaba de una cosa a otra de repente. Se lee fácil y es un libro cortito y las escenas que querían ser graciosas, aunque forzadas, consiguieron sacarme unas sonrisas (porque es muy difícil conseguir que algo me haga tanta gracia como para refirme). Se me hizo un poco pesado sobre la mitad, pero el final pasa volando, incluso un pelín precipitadamente.

4.-El final. Bien, una feliz navidad con todos unidos y una especia de redención de Luther que tiene un gesto de amor desinteresado que lo hace ser un poco menos señor Scrooge.
Eso sí, en el libro no hay ladrón ni escarabajo (coche) tirado por renos, pero me dio igual XD

En fin, 3 estrellas sobre 5 porque me hizo sonreír y pasar un buen rato, y porque no se le puede pedir más. Se que este no es el genero habitual de Grisham así que me he quedado con ganas de leer algo más suyo.

**Libro leído para los boletos de navidad de "La cafetería de Audrey"

My rating is 3.5/5

It was a funny story with a deeper layer, a moral layer.
Are worth the expenses we made for the holidays?
Is it necessary to buy all the things everybody is selling in order to celebrate the holiday?
Is is okay is someone just doesn't feel in the mood to join the trail and just skip the holiday?

I was reflecting on the meaning behind the celebration at this time of the year through my reading, I fond Luther Krank, nobody should be forced to celebrate if the person doesn't fell like it and that is just fine!
When I was reading I keep thinking that this was a movie... I think I heard about it somewhere... and it is! I haven't seen it but is good to know

Need something to listen to during the rush before the holidays? This book is almost twenty years old, but there are some timeless dilemmas that are addressed. There are lots of 'good' traditions we add into our routines for any type of celebrations. As more and more get added over the years, all the things on the 'to do' list can become a crushing burden. The first instinct may be to throw off that yoke entirely as Luther Krank tries to do. What he and wife Nora discover is how intricately those traditions are ties to family, friends, and community. With the COVID concerns this year, it could be an optimal time to determine which activities should endure and remain on the list. For some it may be a good time to leave them behind. Some of you may not realize that this book was the inspiration for the film 'Christmas With the Kranks.' If you ask me, though, the book is better.

In my opinion, this is the Christmas book. Forget A Christmas Carol or anything else resembling wholesome Christmas stories, Skipping Christmas is a destined classic. What can I say, the concept of skipping Christmas entirely and going on a cruise instead just speaks to my Grinch-y soul.



This year I opted to re-read the audiobook version which is narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris who portrays Luther Krank perfectly in all his deadpan humorous glory. When I first discovered this novel, many, many years ago… I almost glanced over it because “John Grisham? Isn’t that the guy that writes legal thrillers?” Yep, he sure is, but apparently he also has a humorous side. Many of you have likely seen the film adaptation Christmas with the Kranks which is all sorts of hilarious (especially with the book lacking that sidesplitting scene after Luther gets botox), but this short novel is an amusing way to spend a few hours surrounded by Christmas cheer as you contemplate an alternative to it all.

It’s tough bucking the norm, isn’t it?

At 177 pages long, this book packs a punch and takes a hilarious look at the pressure to conform and the commercialization of the Christmas season.

It sparks lots of discussions surrounding what can be skipped and what is an essential part of Christmas as well as the traditions we blindly follow and the stress we put ourselves under - all in the name of Christmas.

Marketed as a ‘modern-day Christmas classic, this tale holds a mirror up to our human nature and offers us an opportunity to laugh at ourselves and/or take the cue to trim a little of the ‘traditions’ that keep us run off our feet at this time of year and give us back time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

You’ll realize that you sit in one of two camps: (1) you agree with the Kranks that the excessive antics detract from the true meaning of Christmas or (2) you agree that the festivities with all their excessive trappings are festive and exciting and that sometimes you need to take the ‘good’ with the ‘bad.’

Have you seen Christmas With The Kranks, the 2004 film based on the book and starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis?

This was a great book and I’d recommend it as an easy, quick read, perfect for this time of year.

I am not very traditional. When we were kids, we decorated, because it was fun for my parents to see us excited about the holiday - but we never really did the Perfect Christmas thing as, apparently, people do. Last year, we went to Asian Cafe and had sushi, and the year before that we did Rainbow Trout for dinner. (I imagine that my mom will start getting festive now, and decorating her house and going all out for the holiday because my nephew is getting to the age where he'll get excited about that kind of thing.) But for my boyfriend and I... it's just a day. We do gifts, we get a little Charlie Brown type tree (if any) and we have dinner at home or out somewhere that's open in true A Christmas Story style, but all of the OMGCHRISTMAS is something that we don't buy into or understand. We're heathens.

I honestly don't know why this book exists. I didn't get it at all. If you want to do your own thing for the holidays, do it. It's not a big deal. Everyone in this book acted like it was, but that's because they're all nosy shit-heads who think that conformity and homogeneity makes a good neighborhood, and good neighbors are expected to participate in the festivities. I think that's bullshit. Don't do the tree, don't do the gifts, don't do the decorating, or the dinner, or the party, or the cards, or whatever. It's nobody's business but yours, and if your neighbors have a problem with it... well, that's their problem isn't it? Last I checked, Christmas wasn't a requirement.

Anyway, I'd seen this movie (Christmas with the Kranks) and thought that it was pretty funny, so when I discovered that I actually had it on my kindle, I decided to read it as one of the short books to fill my remaining quota of challenge reads. I WILL NOT FAIL!

This book should have taken me about 2 hours, but instead it took me two days. For some reason, I just found the book annoying, in a way that the movie wasn't, despite it having Tim Allen in the lead. I found the characters to all be simply annoying. So superficial and suburban, upper middle class, keep up with the Joneses, traditional. They all decorate, and all have Frostys (placement and date of set up dictated by that one neighbor who thinks he's King Shit of Turd Hill), they do the overpriced cards, have the big holiday party, make the same dinner every year, blah blah blah. They all do this, not for the joy of the season, or because they like to, but because it's expected of them. Because it's what they've always done. Because they'll be judged by their neighbors if they fail to assimilate. Resistance is futile.

So, god forbid, someone want to do something different. The nerve. The gall. The SELFISHNESS.

Regardless, the Kranks decide to not do Christmas and instead go on a cruise. Which mortally offends everyone ever. Their neighbors go on a campaign of terror to bully the Kranks into the Christmas spirit, even going so far as to recruit college kids to carol in front of their house repeatedly or send them Frosty the Snowman cards or leave "Free Frosty" campaign signs on their lawn. Which only makes the Kranks more stubborn and resistant. Of course, everyone has a lovely change of heart on Christmas eve when, for some reason, everyone comes together to help save the day and protect the illusion of a Perfect Christmas for the 23 year old Krank daughter and her fiance (whom she's known for literally 3 weeks) when they unexpectedly call on Christmas Eve to surprise everyone by coming home for Christmas. So the whole neighborhood rallies to their rescue. Because again... I guess it's expected that Christmas be properly perfect.

Nora was such a whining ninny that she got on my nerves about 3 seconds into the book, with her constant "Is she OK??" questioning. For god's sake, the girl is 23 and in Peru TEACHING. She's not in a war zone. And how the hell is Nora's husband supposed to know if she's OK? His crystal ball works no better than anyone else's.

Luther got on my nerves, too. Just because stuff happens at the end of December doesn't mean that it's part of Christmas. He'd already agreed to charitable giving as the exception to their skipping Christmas... yet when the police department and fire departments come to collect money for their charities, he turns them away, cherry-picking "Christmas" vs "Charity" based on whether he feels like he's being shaken down for cash or not. He's essentially railing against being expected to give to these organizations, which I can understand... but again, it's hypocritical. All in the guise of saving money, but then he throws hundred of dollars away for tanning sessions while insisting on skipping the free holiday events. He would rather be miserable and hide himself away from his neighbors than compromise.

Ugh. Such a stupid premise for a book. ZOMG! Someone's not doing Christmas right! Let's harass the shit out of them until they do it the way we think is proper! That's TRUE Christmas spirit.