First published 2009
Augusten Burroughs faces another Christmas season armed with his trademark wit and a talent for holiday destruction. He tears apart oversized Santa decorations with his teeth. He constructs gingerbread tenements instead of quaint houses. He wakes up in bed next to someone dressed as Kris Kringle after a night he can barely remember. Each December brings fresh opportunities for seasonal chaos and unexpected moments of grace. Burroughs navigates family gatherings, holiday traditions, and his own complicated relationship with Christmas cheer. The candy makes him sick but he keeps eating it. The decorations mock him but he keeps putting them up. Through seven interconnected stories spanning past and present holidays, Burroughs discovers that Christmas strips people down to their worst impulses and occasionally reveals something beautiful underneath. The season demands too much and delivers too little, yet somehow it keeps pulling him back.
Genres: christmas, humor, contemporary, memoir
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Period: Christmas, Holidays
206 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press