Skipping Christmas

Skipping Christmas is a comedy novel by John Grisham. It was published by Doubleday on November 6, 2001 and reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list on December 9.^[1]

The book was adapted for the 2004 film Christmas with the Kranks by screenwriter Chris Columbus and recorded by actor Dennis Boutsikaris and released as a 4-CD audiobook by the Random House Audio Publishing Group in October 2006.^[2]

Plot

The story focus on how Luther and Nora Krank try to avoid the frenzy traditionally experienced during the Christmas holiday. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the two bring their daughter Blair to the airport, where she departs for a year-long assignment in a remote area of Peru with the Peace Corps. Nora bemoans the fact the upcoming Christmas will be their first time they are separated as a family, prompting her husband to calculate how much they spent celebrating the holidays the prior year. When he realizes they have little to show for the $6,100 they invested in decorations, gifts, and entertaining, he decides to skip all the hubbub at home and surprise Nora by booking a ten-day Caribbean Cruise aboard the Island Princess.

It doesn't take long for Nora to adjust to the idea of no Christmas shopping, no Christmas tree, and no Christmas Eve party they host every year. To the couple's amazement, their neighbors on Hemlock Street strongly object to their decision to boycott the holiday, because their decision not to decorate their home will jeopardize their winning the coveted prize for best decorated block in the neighborhood. The local Boy Scout troop is dismayed when the Kranks refuse to support them by purchasing a tree, the police are angered when they decline to buy a calendar, the fruitcakes salesmen are shocked to find that they will not be buying a fruitcake this year, and the stationer is upset when he loses their annual order of engraved greeting cards. Luther and Nora find themselves the objects of derision and anxiously await their departure on Christmas Day.

Without warning, Blair calls on Christmas Eve to tell them she's at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with mere hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law's arrival. When the Boy Scouts are sold out of Christmas trees, Luther arranges to borrow the tree of a neighbor leaving for the holidays. He and Vic Frohmeyer's son Spike try to transport it across the street, but the neighbors notice and think that Luther is stealing the family's Christmas tree and they phone the police, leaving Luther to barely escape arrest.

At the end Luther attempts to set up a Frosty the Snowman decoration on his roof, but fails and barely escapes possible death. After noticing the scene, the Kranks admit the truth and are rescued by everyone they've alienated, who pull together and provide the Christmas celebration Blair is expecting. Blair calls before the party can be started saying she has arrived. After successfully keeping Blair and her fiance busy so the party can get started, Luther gives in to celebrating Christmas and gives the cruise package to a neighbor who he doesn't get along with very well, and who is having a very bad Christmas because his wife may have a terminal disease.

Critical reception

Publishers Weekly observed, "For all its clever curmudgeonly edge and minor charms, no way does this Christmas yarn from Grisham rank with A Christmas Carol, as the publisher claims. Nor does it rank with Grisham's own best work. The premise is terrific, as you'd expect from Grisham . . . But as clever as this setup is, its elaboration is ho-hum. There's a good reason why nearly all classic Christmas tales rely on an element of fantasy, for, literarily at least, Christmas is a time of miracles. Grisham sticks to the mundane, however, and his story lacks magic for that . . . The misanthropy in this short novel makes a good antidote to the more cloying Christmas tales, and the book is fun to read. To compare it to Dickens, however, is...humbug." ^[3]

Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly graded the book C+ and commented, "Even at 177 minipages, Skipping Christmas feels padded . . . Despite a few nicely observed details . . . Grisham mostly trades in stale fruitcake jokes and sub–Christmas Vacation slapstick. Like his recent coming-of-age novel, A Painted House, Skipping represents a departure for the king of the legal thrillers, but in this case, it's to an unworthy destination." ^[4]

References