Holidays on Ice
by David Sedaris
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 11783)
Read in December, 2007
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....more
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....more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
large printing conglomerate editor as a cautionary tale;someone working a demeaning part-time job
Reading this copy of Santaland Diaries clearly illustrated how deeply the cover art and the book's condition affect the reader's first and subsequent perceptions of the writing. Instead of buying this book, I borrowed a sad little copy from the library. It didn't even have a proper spine. The once red now faded to pink in parts, slightly tattered front and back cover of almost-construction paper got even worse when I noticed - STAPLES -instead of the spine it needed. The bad impression went ...more
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Read in December, 2007
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 o...more
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Read in March, 2007
So I liked it better than "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim", but it did slump toward the end. There was definitely a marked difference in quality between the stories that had already been published, and the ones that were written expressly for this book. And irony as gruesome, self-inflicted bodily harm? (One-upping the neighbors deteriorates into giving away life possessions, organs, and everyone dies of an infection) Not exactly my cup of tea. Still, some of the other stories...more
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Read in December, 2006
I wanted to get in the spirit early this year, so I picked up a copy of David Sedaris's holiday stories, but they failed to incite much spirit or, excepting the first item in the collection, much laughter. There are six items in this collection: they include a presumably autobiographical description of Sedaris's working as an elf at Macy's in New York City, another presumably autobiographical story about a Christmas when Sedaris was a youngster, and then four fictional monologues. The only stori...more
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Read in December, 2005
recommends it for:
Elves, Freud Impersonators and anyone with the Xmas Blues
I laughed and then tried to make a drink that looks like the one on the cover.
This is THE must read holiday themed book. Sedaris put together all of his tales of Chirstmas jeer into one easily digested novella. If you ever have the Xmas blues, loathe your job around the holidays, need to drink heavily to endure your family or pondered just for a minute about getting a job as an elf Sedaris will make you laugh until you pee yourself just a little bit.
If you have ever pondered digging in...more
This is THE must read holiday themed book. Sedaris put together all of his tales of Chirstmas jeer into one easily digested novella. If you ever have the Xmas blues, loathe your job around the holidays, need to drink heavily to endure your family or pondered just for a minute about getting a job as an elf Sedaris will make you laugh until you pee yourself just a little bit.
If you have ever pondered digging in...more
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Read in December, 2006
Disappointing, to say the least. I'd hopscotched around Sedaris's books chronologically, and you could tell he hadn't quite settled onto his "My Wacky Family" style here, as the non-autobiographical pieces included here are not only not funny but sort of grotesque and unsettling, not to mention weirdly dependent on child murder as a comedic device (not that I think infanticide is an unotuchable source for comedy, since everyone knows dead babies are comic gold, it's just not funny on ...more
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Read in December, 2004
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 listen...more
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 listen...more
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Read in December, 2007
David Sedaris's slow burn humor really lends itself to the holidays. "SantaLand Diaries" is brilliant - a great gay 90s voice of desperation wallowing in a bland, ugly white world in the middle of one the biggest cities in the world. I saw a one man play of this performed at the Gallery Players Theater in Brooklyn, and the rhythms of Sedaris's rants are subtly lilting and lyric.
"Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" is an extended joke - something Thurber or ...more
"Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" is an extended joke - something Thurber or ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Here's the thing - in this book you can see hints of the David Sedaris who will bring us "Me Talk Pretty One Day" - but only hints. Maybe his writing style matured, maybe he got a better editor, who's to say - the bottom line is that if I didn't like his work so much I wouldn't have kept reading some of these stories to find the few gem-laugh-out-loud moments here. There are few though. The Christmas letter was fun, the macy's elf story was just too long and not properly edited but ...more
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Read in December, 2007
This little book was highly disappointing to me. Oh sure, I REALLY enjoyed reading "Santaland Diaries" again, in which David tells of his misadventures working as an elf in a huge multi-Santa department store. That story makes me laugh out loud.
But everything in this book is rehashed, already published elsewhere, already read by me. And to make it worse, it's not only essays about events from David's life, but also short works of fiction by David. As much as I like David's pers...more
But everything in this book is rehashed, already published elsewhere, already read by me. And to make it worse, it's not only essays about events from David's life, but also short works of fiction by David. As much as I like David's pers...more
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Read in January, 2007
The best thing about the Memphis airport? They sell used books. Why don’t ALL airports do this? Anyway, this was a book that I got there, because my flight was delayed and I needed a quick laugh. Sedaris’ opening essay, about working as a Macy’s elf at Christmas, certainly delivered—and we’re talking the usual, must-bite-lip-and-not-appear-psycho-to-strangers kind of laugh-inducement here. Unfortunately, Sedaris is a much better essayist than he is a short story writer; the pieces of f...more
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Read in December, 2004
I was a nanny in college for a bibliophile. I could work, read, eat and watch kids and get paid for it. I read so many of Lori's books it was like my own barnes and noble and the best part about it was that I could just leave the book and pick it up the next day i worked. Lori's favorite author/npr personality is Sedaris. She enjoyed his subversive and dysfunctional stories, and I can see why. I found myself not quite believing that anyones family could have so many stories of dysfunction. I wou...more
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I liked the two autobiographical pieces, but the others were not very funny. Overall it was a little too dark for me.
Favorite quotes:
"Don't tell the store president I called you a bitch. Tell him I called you a fucking bitch, because that's exactly what you are. Now get out of my sight before I do something we both regret." (he was quoting his manager)
"In her desire to be typical, my sister had succeeded with flying, muted colors. Unlike me, she would never entertai...more
Favorite quotes:
"Don't tell the store president I called you a bitch. Tell him I called you a fucking bitch, because that's exactly what you are. Now get out of my sight before I do something we both regret." (he was quoting his manager)
"In her desire to be typical, my sister had succeeded with flying, muted colors. Unlike me, she would never entertai...more
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I remember my 6th grade Literacy teacher reading "SantaLand Diaries" out-loud to my class. Although I didn't think so back then, it seems that she censored a few of the dirtier and not-so-kid-friendly sections of the story. Holidays on Ice is a collection of six of David Sedaris' Christmas-themed short stories. However, many of the ironic stories left me with a feeling that didn't match up to the jolly mood I usually have during Christmas. His stories were more on the dark side ...more
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Read in May, 2007
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim had me giggling for hours and Me Talk Pretty One Day was riotous enough to keep enough the toughest of my students glued to their grammar exercises. So the expectations were soaring for Holidays on Ice.
All of which fell flat on their faces when I realized that the holiday season apparently brings out the whiny, bitchy Queen in Sedaris. I can't really stand snotty children and overbearing parents either, and yeah, it really sucks to...more
All of which fell flat on their faces when I realized that the holiday season apparently brings out the whiny, bitchy Queen in Sedaris. I can't really stand snotty children and overbearing parents either, and yeah, it really sucks to...more
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Read in December, 2005
recommends it for:
Fans of Sedaris
Naturally, a must-read for fans of David Sedaris. Includes very funny accounts such as his experience of working with Santa at a department store during Christmastime. I would have given the book four stars, except I find the last story in the volume extremely off-putting. Can one story ruin a whole volume? Probably not. But this is a small, carefully-chosen collection, and for me the last story selected (for surely the author chose the order in which the stories would appear in the book) s...more
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Read in February, 2008
i am on the fence about rating this one... the first story is the funniest and then it goes into some pretty disturbing satirical accounts. i can't tell yet whether or not i am scarred by it or pleased. i think i must be ultimately pleased. i guess i question it because some of the tales are a bit predictable in their anti x-mas nature, maybe i have been anti-xmas for too long to realize it. but that's my issue. the one that i am scarred about is the xmas letter for friends and family, but...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to MaRkO by:
Jasminrecommends it for: David Sedaris' fans
Finished reading the first story : "SantaLand Diaries" in one hour while waiting for a friend in Kinokuniya Plaza Senayan. Such a hilarious story, can't help chuckling and laughing. It made me see those fake-fatty guys in red jumpsuits at malls around December in a whole lot different way now.
Recently bought it on 20% discount at Kinokuniya. So I could finally finished reading this collection of stories.
Other than "SantaLand Diaries" and "Dinah The Christmas Whor...more
Recently bought it on 20% discount at Kinokuniya. So I could finally finished reading this collection of stories.
Other than "SantaLand Diaries" and "Dinah The Christmas Whor...more
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Read in December, 2005
Thinking about my favorite David Sedaris book was difficult, until I remembered how perfectly timely this book is. Plucking it from the library shelf on the way to teacher education classes I had to forcibly restrain myself from reading it while driving on a frozen Minnesota highway.
It's short and perfectly blends sweet and sour, turning your revulsion at the christmas card that gradually appears to have been written from jail, to the humanity of a Macy's Elf...and the twisted humanity of Ma...more
It's short and perfectly blends sweet and sour, turning your revulsion at the christmas card that gradually appears to have been written from jail, to the humanity of a Macy's Elf...and the twisted humanity of Ma...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.97 (10421 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.97 (8716 ratings) number of reviews: 689popular shelves
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"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."
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