My Favorite Humorous Holiday Stories

In this anthology I visit the rowdy, rollicking Riley family on three consecutive Christmases. Mr. Riley is a dentist in the adjacent big town. He's moved his family into an old farmhouse on Butternut Hill Road. Mrs. Riley owns a used bookshop down in the village. The Riley children include the eldest, Ruby, oldest son, Carmine, a bookish fellow, younger sons Rusty and Pepper, and youngest daughter Chili. 

In the first Riley story I incorporated a true, legendary story from my hometown involving the two sons of ne of my mother's friends from nursing school back in the fifties. Rusty and Pepper n real life once moved the Christmas tree out onto the porch roof. It was a story my mother told nearly every Christmas. Imagine my surprise in ninth grade when my algebra teacher was none other but the infamous Rusty! Rust and Pepper are up to Christmas mischief in the first story, but all five Riley children are involved in the moving Christmas tree mischief. It's a story about family and the holidays.

In the second Riley story the focus is primarily on Carmine, the bookish, best behaved of the boys. The children have written their lists and opened their presents and are awaiting the arrival of family for gift exchanging and dinner when Ruby realizes that there is something not right with Carmine. It turns out he didn't get the gift he desired most and he's heartbroken about it. Ruby reports to her mother, who confers with Mr. Riley who digs out the list Carmine had given him. The dilemma is quickly discussed and a solution is subtly put into action. The story demonstrates how a family pulls together to make Christmas happy for all members.

In the third story Ruby finds a kindred spirit and a first boyfriend as she helps with the elementary school holiday program in which little Chili plays an elf. It's trial by fire when her boyfriend is invited to a Riley family dinner. The story is about family, brothers and sisters teasing one another, and the sturdiness of young love enduring through all tribulations.

Finally, in Finding Christmas, I draw on my own experiences growing up in the 60's, 70's and into the present, the values I was taught, the meaning of Christmas and how outrageous things have become as Christmas has become so commercialized and transformed into light and sound show competition with the neighbors, people fighting for limited supply items that are wildly promoted and then short stocked, etc. A middle-aged empty nester couple anticipates their son and daughter coming home for Christmas. As the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas pass, they continue with their holiday traditions while friends, family, neighbors and strangers demonstrate how out of control the holiday has become. It's a nostalgic story about a family maintaining their traditions and beliefs in the chaos of the modern Christmas experience.