Reviewed by Robet McCool
It's a simple idea – take what you normally spend for Christmas, or even less, and go on a Caribbean cruise. In John Grisham's 2001's Skipping Christmas (Doubleday ISBN 0-385-50583-3) that is the premise, and how horrible it could be.
Luther and Nora Krank see their twenty-three year old daughter Blair off for a two year tour with the Peace Tour, and Luther goes home with a new idea. With Blair gone he totals up what they spent last Christmas, and how much chaos and frenzy the holiday brings to his life.
He decides to book a cruise instead, and forget all the falderall of decorating the house and the tree as he usually did. This includes not putting up the eight foot Frosty the snowman on his roof.
Everybody on Hemlock Street puts up their Frosty, and there is a contest for the best neighborhood decorations which their street has won before for their Frosty display.
He doesn't buy the Boy Scout's Canadian blue spruce, he doesn't buy the annual charities calenders, he doesn't buy the Christmas turkey from the butcher. He doesn't plan to throw their normal Christmas dinner for the neighborhood and friends.
Since they are leaving on Christmas day he sees no reason to celebrate the holiday at all, either at work with its drunken office party, or with anyone else at all.
But things go wrong when the neighbors' plans for Luther are dashed. He is an outlaw on his own street, and the Christmas decoration self-appointed director is severely disappointed with him.
Then the horror starts.
Blair calls Luther and Nora from the airport in Miami with the news that she and her new fiance are on their way home to celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas, with Frosty and all.
They have seven hours to do a weeks worth of decorating, cooking, and planning the Christmas Eve dinner. There is no way they can do it all by themselves, but when they say it's because of Blair coming home, the neighbors all chip in to make a Christmas to remember.
The story ends with an example of the true Christmas spirit, and a heartwarming gesture that shows Luther in a new and caring light.
