rabck from booklady331; cute read. One of the ladies in the stitch and bitch knitting club mentions that she wants to go on strike to teach the hubby a lesson, and the other ladies take off with the idea. And the hubbies are told that if they want a holiday, they just have to do it themselves, with amusing results ( )

A group of women, who think their husbands don't appreciate all they do during the holidays, decide to go on strike regarding Christmas--leaving their husbands to plan, cook, bake, organize, etc. A single woman from the group thinks that the other women don't appreciate what they have. (I never figured out if she was divorced or widowed--it did seem that she'd lost a son from one section of the book.)

Communication is key in any relationship, particularly marriage. Compromise is a part of any relationship. But it needs to go both ways. If one person feels like they're making all the concessions then resentment can fester (as it seems to with Bob/Joy and Glen/Laura). In some cases, I don't think the wives took into account that the kids might be the innocents in this but still get hurt or embarrassed when something their father did wasn't right. I'm not sure how many of the husbands really learned. Glen seems to now understand how much goes into Christmas with 2 kids. I think he will keep his promise to help his wife with party planning and execution more often. Bob did seem more willing to go to family gatherings and not complain--he found his own way to contribute to them to make it more tolerable for himself--and the family loved the murder mystery theme he created.

Sharon learned that not everything has to be "just so" for it to be a joyful holiday. It's more important to make the memories than to have everything "perfect".

So I guess both sides learned some lessons, though I'm not sure it was the ones they originally thought they'd learn.

Funny and enjoyable, fast read.
Characters were easy to relate to and were very realistic and contemporary.
Nice ending and full of holiday spirit.
( )

As some people do around the Christmas holidays, the women in this novel constantly bit off more than they could chew. Christmas cards had to be sent; pictures had to be developed to go into the cards; decorations had to go up (beautifully); food had to be prepared (perfectly); guests had to be invited … and on and on. The idea for the strike began right after Thanksgiving. Both Joy and Laura were exhausted after it was over and their husbands had not helped a lick. At their knitting club, they were talking about it and came up with the idea to go on strike for Christmas. If the husbands wanted Christmas in all its glory, they’d have to do it themselves.

Not all of the women were onboard with the plan. Carol’s only companion was her cat, George, named after George Clooney. She’d lost her son when he was sixteen and her husband of 35 years passed away two years before. “She replayed the conversation … in her head and sighed. Joy and Laura and the others – who would have pegged them for Grinchettes? All that complaining about their lives when they had their health and their families – it was like whining about inferior caviar while just outside your door people were starving.”

I can understand the point of the story but felt that the contrast between these women and Carol was a bit too stark. The women who virtually had everything were just whiny and unappreciative and I wasn’t in love with their attitude. The writing style is excellent and the story flows well. There was less character development than I’d hoped for by the end. Included in the back of the book, there are some wonderful recipes. There’s even a recipe for Figgy Pudding — ♪ ♫ “Oh, bring us some Figgy Pudding; Oh, bring us some Figgy Pudding …” ♫ ♪ Rating: 3 out of 5. ( )

on strike for christmas by sheila roberts, wow this was me a few years ago when i was no longer able to see.

I did go on strike and got a LOT OF help from my husband to help with all the Christmas chores. This is a very good book about how one woman can't take it anymore, doing it all for the holidays and her husband sits back and does nothing. she brings it to her knitting friends and they also want to go on strike for the holidays, make their spouses do it all this year.

this is hilarious but sometimes serious when you understand the full impact of it all. the ending i could not believe it really happened for a minute. the woman all came together with one another ( )