Christmas Humor

Merry Christmas!  If you need a break from the festivities or you don't celebrate, enjoy these ten books of Christmas related humor.

An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe - My mother is not a foodie. But for as long as I can remember, once a year, she becomes possessed of a profound and desperate need to serve up a perfect roast turkey. Faced with a walk into the village though, she might think 'oh, f*** it' and decide to get a frozen one from Bejams on the 23rd and leave it to defrost in the downstairs toilet for not quite 48 hours." From perennially dry turkeys to Christmas pudding fires, from the round robin code of conduct to the risks and rewards of re-gifting, An Almost Perfect Christmas is an ode to the joy and insanity of the most wonderful time of the year.

Awkward Family Holiday Photos by Mike Bender & Doug Chernack - Holidays. They're those momentous occasions when we gather with family to eat, drink, celebrate, and, of course, pose for photographs. From Mom's homemade Halloween costumes to re-creating a Nativity scene for the Christmas card to that overly patriotic uncle who literally wears the flag on the Fourth, holidays make for humiliating memories that we carry in our hearts for years to come. Whether your family loves Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, July Fourth, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Hanukkah, this book pays homage to all of the holidays' most uncomfortable moments.

The Book of (Holiday) Awesome by Neil Pasricha - There's nothing like the holidays. They bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, in everyone. Luckily, Neil Pasricha is here to remind us that not only are the holidays great but there's actually even more to celebrate than we realize. From Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa to such holidays as Mother's Day and Father's Day, Thanksgiving, and beyond, The Book of (Holiday) Awesome will show you why holidays are . . . AWESOME!
Plugging in the Christmas lights from last year and having them all work.
When the in-laws leave.
Successfully regifting a present to someone who actually wants it.
Drinking with Grandma.
Just barely wrapping a gift with that tiny scrap of leftover wrapping paper.
Knowing Kwanzaa is worth more Scrabble points than Hanukkah or Christmas.

Catmas Carols by Laurie Loughlin - Oh, come all ye furful! Cat lovers will rejoice to find this brand-new edition of the top-selling book (over 300,000 copies sold!) in their stockings. With 20 rollicking feline renditions of favorite Christmas carols, it's the perfect way to celebrate the holidays. Featuring all-new illustrations and including several new songs,Catmas Carols is full of festive odes to the joys of the season, from yummy dinner scraps and new catnip toys to the ornaments that shine temptingly from the tree. Joy to the world!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Zombies!: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols by Michael P. Spradlin - The snow is falling, the holidays are approaching and...It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies! This delightfully depraved book of classic Zombie Christmas carols by Michael P. Spradlin is guaranteed to spread Yuletide cheer to all those good boys and ghouls who devoured the monster New York Times bestsellers Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and World War Z, as well as fans of 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead. With an introduction by the inimitable Christopher Moore--bestselling author of Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck, and the classic "heartwarming tale of Christmas terror" The Stupidest Angel--It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies is a great gift for stuffing into a Christmas stocking...provided you remove the bloody severed foot first!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like F*ck This by Andrew Shaffer - "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like F*ck This" is an off-beat collection of Christmas parodies, essays, poems, and cartoons by New York Times bestselling humorist Andrew Shaffer. Previously published as "The Shelf on the Elf," this newly-expanded holiday cult classic has it all: holiday pickles, talking lambs, and knife-wielding maniacs.

Spending the Holidays With People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Yuletide Yahoos, Ho-Ho-Humblebraggers, and Other Seasonal Scourges by Jen Mann - In this hilariously irreverent collection of essays, Jen Mann, nationally bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat, turns her mordant wit on the holidays. On Mann's naughty list: mothers who go way overboard with their Elf on the Shelf, overzealous carolers who can't take a hint, and people who write their Christmas cards in the third person ("Joyce is enjoying Bunko. Yeah, Joyce, we know you wrote this letter."). And on her nice list . . . well, she's working on that one. Here, no celebration is off-limits. The essays include:
* You Can Keep Your Cookies, I'm Just Here for the Booze
* Nice Halloween Costume. Was Skank Sold Out?
* Why You Won't Be Invited to Our Chinese New Year Party
From hosting an ill-fated Chinese New Year party, to receiving horrible gifts from her husband on Mother's Day, to reluctantly telling her son the truth about the Easter Bunny, Mann knows the challenge of navigating the holidays while keeping her sanity intact. And even if she can't get out of attending another Christmas cookie exchange, at least she can try again next year.

A Very Klingon Khristmas by Paul Ruditis - This hilarious parody firmly plants Klingons at the center of the Christmas story--where they rightly should be--including everything from a Santa equipped with retractable claws, tribbles in the stockings of naughty Klingon boys and girls, and the spirited holiday warmth of a hot cup of mulled blood wine. Illustrated in a classic Norman Rockwell-inspired style, A Very Klingon Khristmas is the perfect holiday gift for every Star Trek fan!

Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets 'Festive' by Jen Yates - A holiday-themed follow-up to the New York Times best-seller Cake Wrecks, Wreck the Halls features over 150 all new four-color, what-were-they-thinking cake wrecks from author and award-winning blogger Jen Yates. Cakewrecks.com receives over 4.6 million page views per month and is ranked one of the top humor blogs on the web.
Award-winning blogger Jen Yates has focused on confectionery calamities at her popular Web site www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com since May 2008, while her debut book, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong, quickly climbed the charts to become a New York Times best-seller within weeks of its release. Now, Yates is back with Wreck the Halls, a fresh mix of fan favorites and plenty of never-before-seen holiday wreckage.
From thankless Thanksgiving turkeys and confusing Christmas conundrums, to less-than-happy Hanukkah horrors and New Year's meltdowns, Wreck the Halls has an icing-smeared disaster for every occasion. With additional chapters on Black Friday, family communication, and navigating the murky waters of politically correct cake greetings ("Winter!"), Wreck the Halls combines Yates's signature blend of wit and sarcasm with the most hilarious frosting fails this side of winter solstice. Find sweet relief from the holiday madness (not to mention plenty of laughs) with Wreck the Halls.

You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs - You've eaten too much candy at Christmas...but have you ever eaten the face off a six-footstuffed Santa? You've seen gingerbread houses...but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement? You've woken up with a hangover...but have you ever woken up next to Kris Kringle himself? Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection he recounts Christmases past and present--as only he could. With gimleteyed witand illuminated prose, Augusten shows how the holidays bring out the worst in us and sometimes, just sometimes, the very, very best.