Holidays on Ice: With Six New Stories

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They don’t actually care about being a Santa elf, they don’t get into it like the other embarrassing excited holiday elves do. Yesterday, I was trying to describe and then read a couple of short excerpts from the latter essay, when I found a YouTube clip of Sedaris reading the essay. When my husband heard the essay, read by Sedaris, he laughed so hard he had tears running down his cheeks.

His tone is often dark, even bleak, but there's a wry quality in his stories that lets you know he's really doing it all for effect - setting you up for an even bigger laugh because you know he's enjoying every minute of telling his sad, hilarious stories. I think Sedaris thought he was being clever with these stories but really they were just sad and unfunny. Along with the dragging, carrying, yanking, pulling, swearing and crying that goes with getting my hoard from the basement to the various areas of my house also comes the annual re-listen to my Darling David telling me tales of Christmases past. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ( Us and Them); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ( Jesus Shaves); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm ( Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ( Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like ( The Monster Mash); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry ( Cow and Turkey). It's a quick read, funny, and made me feel a little better knowing that I at least don't have to make a living handing out leaflets dressed in a taco costume.And after reading this humorous essay, I am inclined to say that I am going to push this opportunity onto my children when they come of age. David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. On any given day you can be an Entrance Elf, a Water Cooler Elf, a Bridge Elf, Train Elf, Maze Elf, Island Elf, Magic Window Elf, Emergency Exit Elf, Counter Elf, Magic Tree Elf, Pointer Elf, Santa Elf, Photo Elf, Usher Elf, Cash Register Elf, Runner Elf, or Exit Elf. I prefer his more personal tales to his bizarre fantastical stories of death and destruction and general evil. We traveled the path a second time and were given the code names for various post, such as "The Vomit Corner," a mirrored wall near the Magic Tree, where nauseous children tend to surrender the contents of their stomachs.

The collection of holiday stories approach by Dave Sedaris was intriguing, captivating and often entertaining. 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. Being a fan of dark humor, I must admit I did chuckle while reading a few of the shocking passages, but others, as in Season’s greetings to Our Friends and Family, left me feeling uneasy and perturbed. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps.I was surprised to hear these people being described as retards and freaks, this is not something you expect to hear these days! You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Also, since this is a much shorter compilation of holiday related stories, it did not have the full satisfaction of one of his full length books with all original material. Holidays on Ice is a 1997 collection of essays and stories about Christmas, some new and some previously published, by David Sedaris.

He’ll give them money, cars, and side by side refrigerator and freezers (what is with that, it gets used often in the stories as like peak rich person) if they within 3 hours get a woman to sell him the tragic story of how she saved her son only for him to die shortly after. Since several of the pieces were previously published, I judge this book could have been postponed until Sedaris came up with a complete new set of stories.When it was my turn I explained that I wanted to be an elf because it was one of the most frightening career opportunities I had ever come across. While it contained the cynicism I have come to expect from him, it seemed to overpower the humor a lot more than usual.