Throwback Thursday Review — Christmas Edition: Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

This month, we will be sharing some of our favorite Christmas reads from the past. And I started with one of my favorites, Skipping Christmas. This review first appeared on EFC in 2013 with reviews from me and Belinda.

Skipping Christmas is one of my favorites, and I’m hoping to read it again this year!

Skipping Christmas
written by John Grisham
published by Double Day

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: My book group read this for December’s Christmas Party.

Did I enjoy this book: I always do. I looked at my copy and I first read it in 2001. I know I have read it almost every year since then.

The Kranks are your typical family who tends to go a bit over-the-top at Christmas. When Luther, the accountant, goes over the numbers, he realizes that with the money they spend on Christmas they could go on a cruise and still have money left over. So begins the Kranks attempt at skipping Christmas. It is a great idea, in theory.

Skipping Christmas is such a fun read. It is light, funny, quick, and always gives me a good laugh. I think at one point or another everyone thinks about skipping Christmas. After reading this book, you won’t want to. It just isn’t worth it. But this book will make you laugh out loud.

Would I recommend it: Absolutely!

Did I enjoy this book: I did.

There’s an old cliché about how one phone call can change everything.  Too bad no one told Nora and Luther, our main characters, about the old saying. If only they’d have known, their story might have been very different.

Nora and Luther are cute caricatures of typical Americans who get carried away during the last month of every year. With their nest recently empty of any reason to believe in Santa, miserly Luther decides Christmas is too expensive. He and his wife will skip it altogether and enjoy a cruise instead.

Almost immediately they realize that skipping Christmas is harder than just going along with tradition. However, our stubborn, but lovable protagonists simply dig in and get carried away with the idea of not getting carried away by the Christmas craziness.

And it looks like they’re going to pull it off until the phone rings and the laughs begin.

Would I recommend it: Absolutely not . . .  if you’re in public. When people see you sitting alone with your nose in a book giggling to yourself they give you funny looks and whisper to the person next to them. Or so I’ve been told. So don’t embarrass yourself. Read it alone and laugh out loud all you want.

About the book – from Goodreads: Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded shops, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on the street without a rooftop Frosty the snowman; they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences – and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.

A classic tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that has become part of our holiday tradition.