On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Roberts

On Strike for Christmas was a nice, feel good, get in the Christmas spirit type book. As I’m sure you can determine from the title alone, the book is about several women who decide to go on strike during Christmas. They feel overworked, underappreciated and totally taken advantage of during the holidays. There are four main characters:

Joy - married to "Bob Humbug"; he detests everything Christmas.
Laura - married to Mr. Popularity; he’s always the perfect host but never willing to lend a hand.
Sharon - married to a laid back, whatever happens, happens, type of guy; she’s a perfectionist.
Kay - married to Mr. Penny Pincher himself; she has to buy gifts for her own step kids because he won’t even spend on that.

It was uproariously funny to read chapters of the poor husbands tackling normal everyday Christmas chores the wives would normally handle -from getting an Advent Calendar, to buying and putting up the Christmas tree. I confess there were several times where I was actually laughing out loud. Especially when it was Glen (Laura’s husband) that you were reading about.

I felt the women were a bit self-centered and didn’t think much about their families and how this "strike" would affect their marriage, but in the end the story had a very touching ending (with me shedding a tear or two - I’m such a sucker for these things). So, if you want to read about families, friends and Christmas fun, this is the book for you this holiday season.