Book Review: An Idiot Girl's Christmas

Sometimes, Christmas isn't perfect.  A neighbor's over the top Christmas decorations get on your nerves.  The most socially inept guests attend your holiday party.  The malls are crowded and on Christmas morning you've got partially used and re-gifted items in your stocking.  When the stresses of the holidays are just too overwhelming, you might as well laugh.  Reading An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro will help you do that.  Or, after reading about Laurie's holidays, it might make you think that just maybe your friends and family aren't nearly as bad as you thought they were.

In this collection of short humorous essays, Laurie writes about being the recipient of ugly sweaters, Christmas socks, and partially used bath salts.  She writes about her mother's gaudy multicolored Christmas tree purchased from QVC and describes how she kept her own Christmas tree up until March one year just to annoy her mother!  We've all had our own experiences with last minute shopping at crowded stores, Christmas with the in-laws, and badly behaved party guests, but Laurie tells it like nobody else.  I especially enjoyed the tale of her cranky neighbor and his holiday lawn decorations and her story of shopping with her elderly grandmother.  If the holidays have got you down, An Idiot Girls Christmas will help put things in perspective or at least offer a laugh or two.