REVIEW: On Strike for Christmas

Title: On Strike for Christmas
Author: Sheila Roberts
ISBN: 9780312370220
Protagonists: members of the Stitch 'n' Bitch knitting group
Setting: present-day, town of Holly
Standalone Fiction
Rating: B+

First Line: Glen Fredericks slapped the back of his last departing Thanksgiving dinner guest.

Glen Fredericks is one of those hail-fellow-well-met types who thinks he's contributing to holiday preparations by inviting tons of people, putting the extra leaf in the dining room table, and sitting in front of the television to watch the game while his wife Laura runs herself silly trying to get everything done. Joy Robertson is almost the polar opposite of her husband Bob ("Bob Humbug") during the holidays. Christmas season spent with all her family and friends makes her light up like Rockefeller Plaza. Bob would rather spend the holidays alone with his wife on a remote beach and hates spending any time with Joy's extended family and large circle of friends. When Laura and Joy attend the next meeting of their Stitch 'n' Bitch knitting group and mention their holiday hassles, it strikes a chord with almost all the other members. They decide to boycott Christmas. They are going to do exactly what their husbands do every Christmas season, and if their husbands want to celebrate Christmas...well, they'd better get off their duffs and get to work! The local newspaper gets wind of the story, and it's not long before they're all celebrities.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I liked the premise but thought it might be too "chick lit-ty" for me. Granted, the storyline is going to resonate with a lot of women; it did with me although not as something I live with today. I love Christmas and put up tons of decorations every year. My husband, Denis, does all the outside decorations--something that was never done before because I don't do ladders--and he also does anything else that I ask of him. (I know exactly where I want things, so he knows it's best to stay out of the way until I require help.) I enjoyed reading of the husbands' attempts to circumnavigate the rules of the strike, their abysmal failures, and their successes. More than a few scenes tugged at my heartstrings without going overboard.

If you're not like me and prefer to read some holiday fiction closer to the actual holiday, On Strike for Christmas would be a very good choice.