By and large really fun and delightful stories; I particularly enjoyed Front Row Center, which was the perfect blend of absurdity, childhood nostalgia, and Christmas Americana. Sedaris knows how to skewer American culture like few others do; he goes way over the top, but in a way that’s captivating and not tiring - in Christmas Means Giving, he simply takes keeping-up-with-the-Joneses to its logical conclusion.

My one misgiving, and I’d say it’s a big one, is that there are some fairly strong notes of white privilege here - see especially, Six to Eight Black Men. It’s all well and good to make fun of Dutch Christmas traditions, but in this story he really makes light of some pretty terrible history, without a whole lot of thought; it definitely put a damper on the book.