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Holidays on Ice

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 55,596 ratings · 3,116 reviews

David Sedaris’s beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. 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...more

Hardcover, 166 pages

Published October 8th 2008 by Little, Brown and Company (first published October 1st 1997)

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore

Best Christmas Holiday Books

27th out of 236 books — 191 voters

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

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Witty authors

15th out of 39 books — 58 voters

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Jan 06, 2013 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-kindle, 2013, reviewed, flames-on-the-side-of-my-face

I feel weird reviewing this book right now because the honest truth is: I really genuinely did not like it. And yet I’ve been called out recently by a bunch of helpful strangers on Goodreads for not liking their favorite books—this asshole telling me I should avoid all literary fiction, this one here saying that my problem is with fiction in general—and I fear I’m going to develop a reputation for hating books, and then Otis will kick me off Goodreads and all the mean girls in the Feedback Group...more I feel weird reviewing this book right now because the honest truth is: I really genuinely did not like it. And yet I’ve been called out recently by a bunch of helpful strangers on Goodreads for not liking their favorite books—this asshole telling me I should avoid all literary fiction, this one here saying that my problem is with fiction in general—and I fear I’m going to develop a reputation for hating books, and then Otis will kick me off Goodreads and all the mean girls in the Feedback Group will cheer and the only people who will care are the one hundred sixty-four people in my friends list, but then a huge chunk of those people are real-life friends who have only ever logged into Goodreads once, so in the end there are about five people who will care. Maybe six.

And that’s not to mention some of these other pressing fears a reviewer has to deal with: what if I rate too many books lowly (will people think I’m just trying to stir the pot and call negative attention to myself?), or what if I rate too many books highly (will people think I’m indiscriminate about which books are my favorites and therefore consider me unreliable?). I suppose there’s also the potential for too many mediocre reviews, and I guess that’s the guy whom everybody thinks can’t make up his freaking mind.

In the end, I’m going to just opt for honesty. I disliked this David Sedaris book. I have never read a David Sedaris book before but I understand him to be a very popular comedian and I usually enjoy very popular comedians. Except this book isn’t funny. The initial story around which the entire collection is based, “SantaLand Diaries,” is about Sedaris’s stint as a Christmas elf at a Macy’s department store. The observations of his boss, of the other elves, of parents and children waiting to see Santa, and of the other shoppers are pretty standard fare—there is nothing particularly noteworthy about his comments that made me laugh or even raise an eyebrow in amusement. Of his other stories, there is really only one that is mildly memorable; the rest rely heavily on shock value which is not something that can successfully stand on its own in my opinion. Having said that, I don’t know that I will give up on Sedaris altogether. This book seems sort of thrown together, most of the stories not relating to anything in particular, whether to each other or to any unified theme, but I would expect some of his other collections to have better focus, and I will retain his other books in my ‘to read’ list based on that expectation.(less)

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Dec 04, 2008 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To the tune of “Frosty the Snowman”

Da-vid Se-daris
Was a writer oh-so-droll
With a quirky style and take on life
That will put you on the floor.

Da-vid Se-daris
Writes the weirdest stuff you’ll see
About the Christmas whore and the Macy’s elves
And deathly children’s pageantry.

There must have been some crazy
In the Sedaris family tree
‘Cause David ain’t the only one
Have you seen his sister Amy?

Oh! Da-vid Se-daris!
Can your stories all be true?
It matters not when you write as hot
As in Holidays on Ice!

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Dec 07, 2011 Gavin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays-auto-bio

So it might be a little cruel of me to review a book about Christmas when Christmas is off most of our radars, but, hey, there's still snow on the ground where I live so I'm allowing myself this review.

Like most people, I have often laughed at the strange humor David Sedaris illuminates in his past books, Naked being the funniest, IMO. When I was given a copy of HOLIDAYS ON ICE I knew what I was about to get into, so it sat on my shelves for a few months. On a whim, I plucked it from the mass o...more So it might be a little cruel of me to review a book about Christmas when Christmas is off most of our radars, but, hey, there's still snow on the ground where I live so I'm allowing myself this review.

Like most people, I have often laughed at the strange humor David Sedaris illuminates in his past books, Naked being the funniest, IMO. When I was given a copy of HOLIDAYS ON ICE I knew what I was about to get into, so it sat on my shelves for a few months. On a whim, I plucked it from the mass of unread books of mine and flipped to the front page. There was an inscription: For Lindsay in Japan, Christmas 2000 Love, Mom and Dad. For some reason I found this hilarious. I guess I never saw HOLIDAYS ON ICE as a book to give someone for Christmas; it is the type of book that is better gotten at a used bookstore or through a Secret Santa that is the workplace scrooge. Giving this to a loved one thousands of miles away struck a chord with me.

I proceeded to read The SantaLand Diaries and almost fell off my chair a few times because I was laughing so hard. Water came out my nose once. I think we've all been in a situation during the holidays were we needed some extra cash. I've had the pleasure of working three or four holiday jobs, mostly at warehouses or with UPS. I've never thought about becoming one of the unlucky ones to actually work as a department store Santa or as one of his minions. 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. Not because I don't love them, I do. I just want them to experience what it is like to work this type of job.

The other really good essay is Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!! Sedaris nails the parody of Christmas newsletters perfectly. I would love to receive a letter like this one. Instead, I will most likely continue to receive the banal information of my friends and family: Little Billy is doing this; we redecorated our pantry; Joe sure likes college. I want something more. I want: Helen has finally beaten her meth addiction; Gary finally decided to start paying that overdue child support. I want real life. I want the details of what the year was really like. If I wanted Hallmark, I’d buy a card.

Sure these essays and stories are misanthropic and sometimes course, filled with crude humor and bleak holiday cheer, but they are funny. And funny is never out of season.

Oh, by the way, Lindsay, who was in Japan in 2000, if you’re on GR, Merry Christmas!

RECOMMENDED
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Dec 11, 2007 whichwaydidshego? rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, rorysbooklist

After reading the first short story, I thought this was going to be a delightful book. "SantaLand Diaries," after all, had me rolling down the isle of the plane on which I was reading it... Okay, I was just giggling constantly with frequent bursts of loud laugher interspersed. No rolling, but still very humiliating on the whole. At any rate, I came home in a dither to read the other stories as well. Ugh. Appalling. Not a single chuckle among them. Worse, they were gross, often offensive (and I d...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Jessi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: your-so-funny-you-should-have-your, baby-its-cold-outside

Holidays on Ice is great right down to the cover which features an alcoholic beverage with ice in in it (adorable and much like my family's holidays). It features Christmas themed stories some his holiday experiences, others just featuring his talent as a writer. Santa land Diaries is the first essay and it is the star of this show. These are journal entries from when David at the age of 33 worked as an elf at Macy's Santaland...at the age of 33.

It chronicles the insane parents, the unfortunat...more Holidays on Ice is great right down to the cover which features an alcoholic beverage with ice in in it (adorable and much like my family's holidays). It features Christmas themed stories some his holiday experiences, others just featuring his talent as a writer. Santa land Diaries is the first essay and it is the star of this show. These are journal entries from when David at the age of 33 worked as an elf at Macy's Santaland...at the age of 33.

It chronicles the insane parents, the unfortunate children, an interesting and multi-cultural array of Santa's and the policies Macy's enforces with regard to Santaland. There is so much gold here it is unreal, a Santa who never breaks character ( he is called Santa Santa) there is a gay elf (snowball) who leads all the other gay elves and a Santa on, there is a designated corner for children to vomit in, I could go on.

One of my fav bits
"The back hallway was jammed with people. There was a line for Santa and a line for the women's bathroom, and one woman, after asking me a thousand questions already asked, which is the line for the women's bathroom? And I shouted that I thought it was the line with all the women in it. And she said, I'm going to have you fired. I had two people say that to me today, I'm going to have you fired. Go ahead, be my guest.
I'm wearing a green velvet costume. It doesn't get any worse than this. Who do these people think they are? I'm going to have you fired, and I want to lean over, and say I'm going to have you killed."

Isn't he great!
If you don't love Sedaris you may not enjoy the rest of the collection Santaland by far outshines the rest.
I listen to the audio version which features Sedaris himself reading, I enjoy listening to him so much more then reading it,he brings that extra something.
At one point in Santaland Diaries "Santa" Santa demands that David sing "Away in A Manger" at first David claims not to know but when pushed by "Santa" Santa he decides to sing it as Billie Holliday would have sung it, then we are treated to this rendition which causes my dog EverlyBrothers to start howling as if he was singing with him,

it was like in 101 Dalmations when they used the friggen Twilight Bark for trying to find the puppies,anyway I found this made it even funnier, my neighbors maybe not. But I think David Sedaris would have got a chuckle from it.(less)

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Jun 07, 2007 thefourthvine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays, short-stories

Okay. Let it be said: "Santaland Diaries," the first essay of this book, is wonderful. But the rest of the book is basically filler; this was before Sedaris found his niche (humor essayist), and it really shows. He should never, ever write fiction, for example, and yet he tries to here. The results are not pretty, or even very readable.

It's also notable that half of the pieces in this short book have appeared in other collections of his. So, really, this is not worth buying; get "Santaland Diari...more

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Nov 20, 2007 Alison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: rgbookclub

David Sedaris is messed up! I can't even begin to tell you, you'll just have to read these Christmas stories on crack and find out for yourself.

Holidays on Ice is a collection of six short stories all wrapped up in a black Christmas bow. They are dark, sarcastic, evil, irreverent, funny, real, revealing, and sweet.

SantaLand Diaries recounts Sedaris's experience working as a Christmas elf in Santaland at Macy's in Manhattan. He encounters overzealous, self-centered, and racist parents. He flirts...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Tanu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first story was amazing, listening to David Sedaris sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" like Billie Holiday had me rolling on the floor laughing..I cracked up so many times through out the story..

The other stories though, were very mediocre, not funny at all, sometimes even gross..So the first one gets sparkling, chrismasy 4 stars from me, and the others get 1, average- 2stars for the book.

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Jun 21, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: comedy

Holidays on Ice puts David Sedaris on ice. Why? Because, aside from one inclusion, this is a collection of short fiction, where as when he's riffing on real life in his other books, the man is on fire!

Sedaris is best listened to rather than read, in my opinion. I always go the audiobook route with him, because he narrates them himself, adding in all the oh-so-necessary inflection, as well as some hilarious renditions of his parents and, one of my favorites, Billie Holiday. But here too is an iss...more

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Apr 13, 2008 cassarooni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 2004 I was in a relationship where partner and I had very different ideas of what the holidays should look like. He's all about family and one-up-manship in the category of who brought the most unique/popular gift and who created the best dish for the potluck end of the Christmas meal.
Me, I'd rather vacate. So I packed up the dog this one year and drove to a secret get-away for Christmas alone. (Think "ahhh," not "awww") His gift to me was this book on CD, which I listened to during the 3 ho...more

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Dec 15, 2008 Alison Looney rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm afraid my book-selection privileges will be revoked by my book club for choosing this one.

I enjoy David Sedaris, in part because of his constant vigilance for finding the worst in people. Exploring the darker side of man makes for funny personal essays.

But when he turns to fiction, he has absolute creative control over his subjects. Instead of reporting on someone's shortcomings, he's inventing them. Perhaps this power is too much - he can't seem to help but create the worst imaginable scen...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Jen B rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

This was my introduction to David Sedaris, and I have to say I found a couple of the stories very, very funny. "The SantaLand Diaries" - about Sedaris' job as an elf at Macy's during the Christmas season - was absolutely hilarious. It took me back to my collegiate summer job at Walt Disney World, where I, too, was forced to deal with pushy adults, bratty kids, and an uncomfortable and unflattering uniform. I also thought "Delilah the Christmas Whore" was entertaining - as much for its references...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, humor

My mother was a little crazy.

She saw people looking through our windows, heard them whispering under our porch, spotted private family conversations in the newspaper, unexpectedly screamed profanity at people who looked suspicious (sometimes while we were in a restaurant or some other very public location), and thought the writing on trucks and other vehicles that passed us on the road were coded messages just for her. … It was a bit creepy.

My father didn’t help. Rather than acknowledging my mother was crazy (she had paranoid schizophrenia, which I didn’t know until my late teens), he said she was “nervous.” This verdict suggested her visions were normal, and to my young mind, validated the notion that there were indeed people peeking into the house. It made me rather skittish.

However, as a bright side to my mother’s fickle mental state, she was brilliant and often savagely funny when lucid. Form letters—letters sent at Christmas generally boasting of a family’s all-around success and wholesomeness—were targets of particular glee. My mother would read these saccharine missives with just the right amount of over-the-top chirpiness, and then would compose her own, much darker, Christmas form letter about our family. For example, “Last summer, mother was institutionalized again at Grover’s Sanitarium. It is a lovely tree-lined facility, and who can forget the shock treatments!? Whee!!!” We had a highly evolved sense of humor. However, even in her darkest moments, I doubt my mother could have matched David Sedaris’ send-up of form letters in his essay, “Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!!”

Humor has always been about pushing the envelope. How far can you stretch humor before it tips over the edge and becomes disturbing? There’s no clear answer. I had a friend once comment vigorously, “You think the movie Fargo is funny? That’s not a funny movie!” Well sorry. I think it is. But humor is also deeply idiosyncratic. In Sedaris’s mock form letter, and this is not much of a spoiler given that you know something truly amiss is going on with the Dunbar family early on, the baby grandson is found—lifeless—in the dryer, having died while in the washing machine (but mercifully and most certainly, our letter writer assures us, before the spin cycle)… It’s not an essay that would appeal to everyone.

I doubt few would debate the humor of Sedaris’ classic “Santaland Diaries” or “Jesus Shaves,” which also appears in his collection Me Speak Pretty One Day. 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. Humor is wickedly difficult to write; you’re confined to prose to convey the pacing and intonation comedy requires. And then there’s Sedaris’ voice, slightly nasal, droll, and deliciously snarky. When my husband heard the essay, read by Sedaris, he laughed so hard he had tears running down his cheeks.

“The Cow and the Turkey” is another wonderfully funny essay, slightly reminiscent of James Thurber’s wild fables. There’s no way to convey its humor adequately. Just think of a barnyard, the problems being a Secret Santa might pose for the animals, and a very sinister cow. My mother was that cow, and yes, Moira, I know this has Faulknerian echoes:

“My mother is a fish.”
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Aug 03, 2008 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays, humor

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. David Sedaris is a modern satirist. He (like Pratchett) tackles the mythology of Christmas. The six essays contained in Holidays on Ice are heart-wrenching, tragic, and hysterical. Sedaris attacks his subject matter with gusto. We all have strange surreal experiences (many of which seem to cluster around the holidays). Sedaris captures the thought processes of his surreal experiences. One would assume his work was fiction if not told otherwise. Who needs fiction when the truth is so colorful?
S...more David Sedaris is a modern satirist. He (like Pratchett) tackles the mythology of Christmas. The six essays contained in Holidays on Ice are heart-wrenching, tragic, and hysterical. Sedaris attacks his subject matter with gusto. We all have strange surreal experiences (many of which seem to cluster around the holidays). Sedaris captures the thought processes of his surreal experiences. One would assume his work was fiction if not told otherwise. Who needs fiction when the truth is so colorful?
Sedaris’ experiences at Macy’s in the SantaLand Dairies ring frighteningly true: drunk Santas, obnoxious parents, children urinating on the fake snow. It is Sedaris’ ability to make these bizarre moments in the human experience acceptable, even funny that captivates his reader. He uses anecdotes to express his distain for what Christmas has come to mean.
At the end of each essay the reader, though amused, feels a little dirtier, a little more ashamed for the roles we have accepted in the western holiday madness. Sedaris’ prose is crisp and biting—he makes it easy for his reader to believe that his mother had no problem with a prostitute drinking with him and his siblings on Christmas Eve (as long as dad didn’t find out). He makes a case for the sappy-holiday-movie producer; we can almost see him preaching to that congregation. Almost.
But as critical readers come to see Sedaris isn’t talking about the movie industry, or his mother’s good will. He’s talking about us: our compassion, our greed, our combination of idiosyncrasies that make us human. He allows us to laugh at ourselves when we realize his sister isn’t getting him a prostitute for Christmas – she is rescuing one.
The deceptive use of foreshadowing throughout the book allows the reader to make assumptions. Assumptions that are almost universally wrong. As a consummate writer Sedaris successfully forces the reader to look inward and reconcile the fact that the moral of the story isn’t that prostitutes can be saved, but that we made assumptions. And we shouldn’t do that. No one knows where the story leads, even on Christmas.

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Nov 13, 2011 The Holy Terror rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody

Recommended to The Holy Terror by: Jeannine

Shelves: christmas, non-fiction, memoirs, borrowed, disturbing, waste-of-time, wish-i-never-read, terrible-writing, hated-this-book

There were only three stories in this collection that I didn't absolutely despise; Santaland Diaries, Dinah the Christmas Whore, and 6 to 8 Black Men were the only ones that were even remotely funny. The rest I honestly wish I had never read. I'd suggest reading these in the store or borrowing the book from the library if you really want to read it. Don't waste your money on this collection, especially the hardcover version, unless you really want to spend money on stories about a baby killed in...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Roy Hudson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed the majority of this book, but I felt it suffered by opening with "SantaLand Diaries" and following it with the snarky Christmas greeting story. "SantaLand Diaries" was easily my favorite thing about the book, so it was a tough act to follow. Still, I enjoyed the book enough to make it an annual Christmas read. (First read it last year, reading it a second time now.)

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Dec 28, 2008 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

I was pretty disappointed in this collection and not just because that most of these essays and stories have been published in other books he has written that I already have. Nevertheless, some of the essays will bring a smile to anyone's face who wants to experience eccentric and unconventional Christmas tales (I'm looking at you, "Dinah, the Christmas Whore"!).

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Feb 22, 2009 Derek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a quick read around the holidays (or anytime). Hilarious!

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Dec 15, 2008 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, read-in-08, nonfiction-memoirs

"the santaland diaries" alone made it worth the read. absolutely hilarious. the other stories...not so much. definitely not his best.

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Mar 30, 2009 Joanna Compton-Mys rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-partial-list

Although I have heard many of David Sedaris' works read by the author, I still have to say that the first selection in this audio collection is one of my favorites. Entitled "The Santaland Diaries" it is funny in a voyeuristic sort of way, in the way it is hard to look away when there is a "scene" in public. The funny of a man reduced to wearing a green velvet suit and playing an elf while working at Macy's in New York City. Sedaris gives the reader (or in this case, the listener) this as a gift...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another wonderful Sedaris read! This one is a collection of stories previously published in his other books, as well as some new ones, all relating to the holidays. David Sedaris is one of the few authors whose works make me laugh out loud.

My favorite story of his is called "Six to Eight Black Men," and it describes how different Christmas traditions are elsewhere. The title comes from a conversation he has with a Dutchman, who claims that St. Nicholas dresses like the pope and lives in Spain; a...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's David Sedaris, of course it's five stars!

Not to mention that in this book, Sedaris is discussing one of his funniest topics - family.

This book is worth reading if for no other reason than for the Dunbar family holiday newsletter. You know the cheesy, bragging, generic letters you get from some people around the holidays? The kind that are supposed to sum up the entire past year (well the good parts anyway)? Yeah, this makes a total mockery of it and I DARE you not to crack up when they glos...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I became a fan of David Sedaris last year, and when my sister gave me this collection of holiday-themed stories and essays I jumped right in. The pieces range from ostensibly autobiographical to completely fabrcated. One may tell the fictional (not to mention absurd) tale of two rich families trying to outdo each other in attempts at hoarding more holiday spirit, and another recounts the soul-crushing time Sedaris spent employed as a Christmas Elf at Macy's department store.

Much like with his ot...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with a slightly warped sense of humor

Recommended to Julie by: Cyber Book Club

Shelves: humor, fiction, 2008, signed-out, cyber-botm

One of the December books for the Cyber Book Club.

Okay, this is my first experience with David Sedaris. He writes really well, and I found myself chuckling at the book in places, but just as often my mouth was hanging open in shock at what the characters were doing/what they were saying, especially in the fiction pieces. I could have done without "Monster Mash" entirely, and lived my life very happily. I also found myself a little put off by the descriptions of Sedaris's attitudes and behavior a...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Alea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-for-review

I read the original version of this collection a few years ago and really enjoyed it so I jumped at the chance of reading the stories again and the new additional stories! The new stories are definitely a welcome addition!

Of the original stories, The SantaLand Diaries starts the collection off on a hilarious note. You get to read bout the inner workings of being a department store Christmas elf. The crazy santas, elves and customers! Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!! starts off in...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hilarious

David Sedaris is so funny. I think this is the 3rd time I have read this collection. I've got to tell you that you have to read these Christmas stories and find out for yourself.

Holidays on Ice is a collection of six short stories all wrapped up in a funny, irreverent, dark, shameless, suffering scotch with ice.

The Christmas Elf story is a laugh out loud delight.

Season's Greetings is a dark and irreverent updated version of the chirpy Christmas letter.

Dinah is an outstanding story of family and...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Billy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only time in my life when I specifically recall cackling bitterly was last year, on Christmas Day. I was driving through Central Jersey, down pleasant roads winding through the woods near one of the campuses of Rutgers University, on the way to visit my ailing father in a nursing care facility. As it turns out, it was the last Christmas I'd spend with him, and while I didn't know that at the time, the outlook was bleak enough that I was certainly low on holiday cheer. The radio is damn near...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Jade rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alright, I know I haven't written book reviews in a while, but hopefully this one will right the situation, because Holidays on Ice is a complete must-read. You see, I'm not a fun person. Sure, I make crappy jokes all the time, but very few things make me laugh. The few books I found truly funny so far are Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series, High Fidelity, Pride and Prejudice and The Idiot (well yes Lizaveta Prokofyevna was hilarious). See? Not. A. Fun. Person. But Holidays on Ice had me...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-memoir, queer, so-this-is-christmas

This year, I heard the season's first Christmas carol while traveling home from my grandmother's funeral. After getting home, I went to my local library. The library is a good place to kill time when you are broke and unemployed. Exhausted by my travels, I found a spot in the back of the fiction section and plunked myself down on the floor, figuring I would look at whatever I could reach without having to get up or move. David Sedaris's Holidays On Ice practically leapt into my hand. I hadn't ev...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Alexandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

I forgot how funny this guy is. And not slapstick, ha-ha, silly/stupid funny. Dry, sarcastic, ironic fucking hysterical. This is the kind of stuff I wish I wrote. He "gets" people. Knows their secret selfish sides, morbid curiosities, idiosyncrasies, their wanting to be the top of the heap, the most impressive and all important. And their pathetic attempts to be so. The man just captures it exquisitely.
My favorite stories were Jesus Shaves, Us and Them (this one, I think was especially brillian...more

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About David Sedaris

David Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist and radio contributor.

Sedaris came to prominence in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries." He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. Each of his four subsequent essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Fa ...more

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Quotes from Holidays on Ice

“All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.” — 259 people liked it

“It make one's mouth hurt to speak with such forced merriment.” — 13 people liked it

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title link	preview: Holidays on Ice
avg rating	preview: Holidays on Ice Goodreads rating: 3.96 (55596 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3300121-holidays-on-ice?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344271821l/3300121.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3300121-holidays-on-ice?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris[/url]

Holidays on Ice

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