This was my first time experiencing the humor of David Sedaris, and it was a fun leap to make. David Sedaris is a pretty popular essayist not completely unlike Augusten Burroughs. In the case of this work, though, the tales have nothing to do with his family, and they appear to be a mixture of his own experiences and examples of stated fiction rather than just being a memoir.

This volume pulls together a mixture of previously pubished works that all have ties to the holiday season. It is a little out of place, considering the fact that it is July, but I just saw it as an opportunity to experience the cliche of "Christmas in July."

The first of the pieces is "Santaland Diaries." It is a work that has been turned into a play here in Rhode Island that has been quite successful. Sedaris is basically sharing his experiences of being a Christmas elf at Macy's famous SantaLand, where people from the city of New York go so their little ones can have their pictures taken with Jolly Ole' Saint Nick. Having worked with kids and parents for years, I found this set of vignettes to be truly hysterical. He captures the bizarre experiences that can happen when kids are there, and they become even more interesting as the reader gets to know some of the interesting characters who get to be elves and Santas. To give you an idea of how funny thinks are, poor Sedaris has the elven name of Crumpet. As with the rest of the book, there is no shortage of social commentary, dark wit, and almost heartbreaking examples of the pathetic realities of humanity.

Next, readers dive into "Dinah, the Christmas Whore." In the essayd, Sedaris tells of a Christmas when he and his older sister run into Dinah, a practicing prostitute, and end up bringing her home for the holidays in order to get her out of a mess that includes an abusive boyfriend and the obvious troubles that you would think would come along with the world's oldest profession.

In "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol," readers get a front row seat as a theater critic examines what it is like to go to various Christmas pageants and performances. Unfortunately, he lacks the starry-eyed perspective of friends and family members who usually sit in the audience. As a result, he is brutally honest about the sad acting, miscasting, sets, and costumes that all seem so cute to the rest of us. His brutal honesty is so blunt that it can't help but bring a smile to your face even if you would crawl into a whole if any of the child performers would hear anything similar.

a theater critic shreds several elementary school productions of those excruciatingly dull Christmas pageants we've all had to sit through at one time or another. In reviewing the Sacred Heart Elementary School's version of "The Story of the First Christmas," the critic notes the children's pathetic acting.

The lowest point of the work is the essay "Based on a True Story." It highlights the need of the television industry to milk every tragedy around the country into a Movie of the Week (or film for Lifetime) for great ratings because people just love to experience the horrors that our fellow humans experience.

"Christmas Means Giving" would do Jonathan Swift proud as it presents the experiences of two couples who try to out do each other to see who can sacrifice more during the season of giving.

The final essay"Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!". It is designed to take on the form of those little letters we all put in our Christmas cards as we send them out to loved ones we really see in order to bring them up to speed on what has happened to us over the last year. Unfortunately, this is a card being sent from the mother in a family that has gone so terribly wrong since last Christmas, and the letter ends in a major "OH MY GOD!!" moment that will leave you shocked and horrified.

In these essays, Sedaris does a wonderful job of examining the dark underbelly of the way we all experience the holidays. It is more than just the fact of families coming together to find joy in each other and celebrate whatever perspective of the holiday that they want. Instead, there is the obvious commercial aspects, the stress, the bizarre and ironic realities of this time of joy against the harsh realities of life, and the plain old simple humor and cuteness of kids. I defy you guys to read this one without being both humored and horrified.