Holiday Gift Guide: Merry Christmas, Even If You Don’t Buy This Book

Let’s be honest: there is not enough book here to even begin to write a review. Merry Christmas, Even If You Don’t Buy This Book (Sterling) is a small and sweetly snarky book of seasonal postcards. I’m writing about it for two reasons: both important. Reason one: It’s clever. It says what a lot of people are thinking in a way that can be cheerfully shared with friends. Reason two: In a year where we are, more than ever, encouraging people to buy books during the holiday season, this is one you can buy easily and share with a lot of people.

Viewed from one angle, though, Merry Christmas, Even If You Don’t Buy This Book isn’t even really a book. It’s a collection of 45 postcards -- bound together as a book, hence the ISBN and book-like form. And I don’t know for certain that each card is based on classic Christmas clip-art, but it certainly looks that way to me.

And then the sweetly snarky part. The image is Santa Claus sitting at a piano and laughing so hard it looks as though he might fall down. The caption: There’s nothing like holiday cheer to offset devastating seasonal affective disorder.

Another: Santa is speaking while popping out of (or into?) a chimney. “I hope your Christmas display doesn’t incinerate your home and loved ones.”

Or a couple, sitting next to a Christmas tree, speaking to the child at their feet: “I want a menorah for Christmas.”

There are a lot more, obviously. Forty-two more, to be precise. It seems likely that most everyone will find at least a handful to inflict on their friends. A fun, arms akimbo way to meet holiday 2009.