The Worst Noel
Subtitle: Hellish Holiday Tales
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: November 1, 2005
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 207
ISBN-13: 9780060838119
Subjects: Horror tales -- American.; Holidays -- Fiction.
Genres: Humorous short stories
First sentence: A deer hit us.
Description: Does the thought of mistletoe give you hives?
Does the sound of jingling bells instill fear in your heart?
Do you hide under the covers from the day after Thanksgiving till New Year's Day?
And even if you love Christmas, do the hyperconsumerism, overindulgence, and tinsel-covered everything make you crazy?

If you said yes to any of these questions, this is the book for you. You are not alone. Everyone has a Christmas-nightmare story to tell. Some of the best writers around have gone through some of the worst Christmases ever. Their tales of holly-draped horror are gathered here for your amusement, from Neal Pollack's Christmas-ham disaster to the accidental Santahood of Joni Rodgers to Binnie Kirshenbaum's receiving what may be the worst gift ever given. And Stanley Bing gives us a peek at the lonely guy's Xmas feast. All this, plus many more recollections of Worst Noels past.

So pour yourself a glass of eggnog, chisel off a piece of rock-hard fruitcake, and curl up in the big comfy chair by the fireplace where the stockings have been hung with such care -- and settle in to read The Worst Noel.
Table of contents: title: Donner is Ddead, by Cynthia Kaplan
pagenum: 1; title: Blue Christmas: The Tour, by John Marchese
pagenum: 11; title: Eight, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
pagenum: 23; title: That's Just About Enough Figgy Pudding, Actually, by Catherine Newman
pagenum: 31; title: Birthdays, by Ann Patchett
pagenum: 41; title: The Accidental Santa, by Joni Rodgers
pagenum: 53; title: Christmas 2001, by Anne Giardini
pagenum: 67; title: The Bite Before Christmas, by Stanley Bing
pagenum: 77; title: Survivor, by Louis Bayard
pagenum: 85; title: I'll Have Christmas with the Works on Rye, Hold the Ham and Jesus, by Valerie Frankel
pagenum: 101; title: Christmas in Paris, by Mike Albo
pagenum: 111; title: We Really Must Get Together this Year, by Marian Keyes
pagenum: 125; title: The Gift of the Magi Redux, by Binnie Kirshenbaum
pagenum: 131; title: A Foreign Country, by Mitchell Symons
pagenum: 143; title: The Jew Who Cooked a Ham for Christmas, by Neal Pollack
pagenum: 155; title: Rum Balls, by Roger Director
pagenum: 171; title: Buy Humbug, by Cintra Wilson
pagenum: 185; title: The Gift that Did Not Need Wrapping, by Elizabeth Noble