This rating is sort of an average, since they ranged from extremely funny to very annoying to me, but then humour is subjective. I barely made it through the first two, but the third one had me laughing out loud because I could completely relate. The rest of the book varied, but by far I laughed the loudest at "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol" I kid you not.

Let me just give one example to show just why this essay was by far the funniest--when my kids did their few years of dance lessons I was happier dashing in to see their acts at dress rehearsals but volunteering in the back watching dance students. Let's be honest; many of these shows are best enjoyed by doting parents and grandparents and they are a fun experience for the kids who want to be in them.

There are some other essays/stories I enjoyed and I can see why others would laugh at tales I didn't.

I am pretty sure that David Sedaris can do no wrong for me, and I loved Holidays on Ice! This is an odd mix of fiction and nonfiction, and while one of the stories wasn't really for me, I loved the rest of them. The book is a compilation of short stories and a few of them are new, but there are also older ones mixed in here as well. Sedaris as a Macy's elf will forever be one of my favorites and I'm glad that's the story he decided to start with. I listened to the audio since he narrates, but Ann Magnuson and Amy Sedaris are also narrators as well, and as always this is the way to go. It's much funnier when you can actually hear Sedaris (or others) read the stories, and I am itching to go to one of his events.

Not everyone will love Holidays on Ice like I did, but it is pretty classic Sedaris, and he is definitely in a category all his own. There is snark, sarcasm, and lots of ridiculousness but it was a good time, and I can't wait to catch up on all his other books!

David Sedaris is messed up! I can't even begin to tell you, you'll just have to read these Christmas stories on crack and find out for yourself.

Holidays on Ice is a collection of six short stories all wrapped up in a black Christmas bow. They are dark, sarcastic, evil, irreverent, funny, real, revealing, and sweet.

SantaLand Diaries recounts Sedaris's experience working as a Christmas elf in Santaland at Macy's in Manhattan. He encounters overzealous, self-centered, and racist parents. He flirts with a fellow elf to learn later that he's a bit of an elf-tease ("Snowball just leads elves on, elves and Santas. He is playing a dangerous game.") He observes human nature in all of it's narcissistic, misguided glory.

Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family is a suburban mom's Christmas form letter. She updates her loved ones on her trials of the past year spiraling into a dark (O.K., pitch black) and unexpected ending.

Dinah, the Christmas whore is by far my favorite story. "From this moment on, the phrase ho ho ho would take on a whole new meaning..." It reminds us that there are more layers to people than meets the eye...including moms, sisters, and prostitutes. In a style specific to Sedaris, it celebrates family connection.

Front Row Center is one man's review of local children's Christmas productions. Mean, biting, and funny. Sedaris says what he wants to, and we don't really care if he's kidding or not.

Based Upon a True Story/Christmas Means Giving go to the extreme to satirize man's greed, arrogance, and need to compete. His in-your-face story telling makes you want to be a better person...lest you're the subject of his next parody.

This doesn't deserve five stars, or even four. It's great fun, but short. Sedaris is definetely twisted and talented, but I can't give this the same amount of stars that I would dish out to a true classic novel.

The least funny of any of his books. It was a chore to get through it.

Nov 27, 2016

The Possum needed some "Santaland Diaries" and then I was supposed to take the book back to the library, but Santaland sounded really appealing so I read the whole thing again. This is my favorite Sedaris. "Six to Eight Black Men" is battling "Santaland" for favorite xmas anecdote, and "Jesus Shaves" got me laughing aloud, which I don't often do when sitting alone in a room reading.

Be of good cheer.

***

February 21, 2021

I don't know why it struck my fancy just now, but it surely did.

Somewhere along the way, when I was feeling tangential, which is pretty much always, although that's beside the fact, I saw someone on the internet aggrieved that Sedaris might not, strictly speaking, be telling the actual truth about everything. While I understand the ire of a person reading a memoir in which pivotal events turn out to be imaginary, I am surprised that anyone would think Sedaris is reporting. These are labeled Stories. Some of them, no spoilers, are clearly not based on actual events. Others are simply too funny to be true. Life is rarely sardonic, you know?

***

I was puzzled, wondering why I couldn't find an original review of Santaland Diaries, nor even a date read. And then I realized: this was in the Access database. Stupid zip drive.

Library copy

I absolutely adore this book. If you want to read it I highly recommend the audio version. David is the perfect narrator for his stories. Such fun.

Holidays on Ice puts David Sedaris on ice by breaking up this book into fiction and non-fiction. Sedaris riffing on real life is where it's at. His fictional short stories often include his sarcastic wit, but lack the personal connection of his diary-style work. Herein you get a mishmash of holiday-based anecdotes and stories. His "Santa Land Diaries" made him a household name. Then there are also a few selections that rope in his oddball family. Those are my favorites, and I would guess the favorite of many another, since Sedaris would put out book after book based on this kind of material for the next two decades.

The elven-voiced man is best listened to rather than read, in my opinion. I always go with audiobooks narrated by himself, because he adds the oh-so-necessary inflection, as well as some humorous renditions of his family members and, one of my favorites, Billie Holiday doing Christmas and commercial jingles. But here too is an issue. Some of these shorts are not read by him, but rather by guest narrators. That's like casting Rip Torn as the evil-yet-somehow-handsome villain in your movie...



...and then replacing him with Rip Taylor, because you thought it would liven things up.



Go take a listen to Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family Up in Corduroy and Denim or When You Are Engulfed In Flames. They're non-fiction (well...with a bit of hyperbole thrown in for fun) pieces about his life and they are comedy gold.

In 2004 I was in a relationship where partner and I had very different ideas of what the holidays should look like. He's all about family and one-up-manship in the category of who brought the most unique/popular gift and who created the best dish for the potluck end of the Christmas meal.
Me, I'd rather vacate. So I packed up the dog this one year and drove to a secret get-away for Christmas alone. (Think "ahhh," not "awww") His gift to me was this book on CD, which I listened to during the 3 hour drive to my holiday sanctuary. I laughed so hard that I have to say, this was among my BEST holidays EVER.
Now it's a tradition for me. Long road trip over Christmas to the get-away destination and Holidays On Ice in the CD player.

I was looking forward to reading this as I've never read anything by David Sedaris and I had heard really good things . . . plus I was really in the mood for a light/funny book.

But, ugh, this was awful. His writing did NOTHING for me. In fact, I was rather turned off by his topics and style.

I brought the book to the DMV to read. During the god awful four hours I spent there I couldn't even bring myself to finish the last two short stories. I just sat there—bored out of my mind—because that was more appealing then reading this.

A new tradition created this year to get me through the holidays! Amazing.

(3.5 stars, rounded up)

This is Sedaris’ best book, in my opinion. “Six to Eight Black Men” is easily one of the funniest essays I’ve ever encountered. I heard it on the radio while driving through Vermont shortly before this book came out and I was in danger of crashing the car because I was laughing so hard.

The other standout is “Santaland Diaries”, where he recounts his time working as a Christmas elf at a department store. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some aspect of this inspired the part of the movie Elf where Buddy has a similar job.