Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present

I was lucky enough to get to read "Tinsel" in the days leading up to Christmas 2009. Although I'd be floored if "Tinsel" turned up as a Hallmark holiday movie next year, Hank Steuver is NOT all about impaling through the heart the Christmas Season and all who celebrate it. What this book is about is one man's search for something real in a season and city (a country) of artificial. Steuver shows that we're all searching for something real. "Fake Is Okay Here" is not only a pithy quote from one of the people profiled in the book, but is a way of life in Frisco, Texas, so much so that the town happily accepts snow from a snow machine to turn its town square into a winter wonderland, despite the fact that it's rare for winter to come to Frisco. The town square of Frisco, aptly named Frisco Square, is a place to "live, play, and work," that is to say a perfectly lovely neighborhood with idyllic architecture and landscaping, a throwback to "good old days" that never were. Frisco is at once a very particular place and any up-and-coming-hurrying-up-and-waiting 'burb in America. The story or biography or profile that Steuver has spun is as engaging and gripping as any novel. For all the forced nostalgia of the Frisco Squares across America, and the forced nostalgia of the Holiday Season itself, the "characters" that people "Tinsel" are very real, and Steuver portrays them as they are, warts and all. While he's delightfully snarky at times, it's always very, very clear that he has great affection for these people. The ribbing is good-natured. Any lesson or moral the reader arrives at, is arrived at honestly, without it being jammed down one's throat. Like a good journalist, Steuver reports the happenings in Frisco. He doesn't scramble to wrap up the book with a pat conclusion or a Christmas miracle to make you say "ahhhhhhhhh!" Yet it's a very satisfying read with a very satisfying end. And since Christmas is becoming a year-round pursuit for more and more people, don't think of this as a book appropriate to the Christmas Season only. Pick up a copy right now, RIGHT NOW. Only 361 more shopping days, after all...

I think this book was just terrific! Hank Stuever is a journalist for the Washington Post who takes 14 months off from the newspaper to immerse himself in the culture of Frisco, Texas and pays particular attention to the way Christmas is celebrated there. He follows the lives of three families in the area and how they deal with all the Christmas "stuff". A single mom with three kids, a childless couple, and a typical suburban family with mom, dad and two kids have their lives laid open for us as we get to see how they go about "doing" Christmas. This book appealed to me on my fronts. First of all, the town I live in is similar to Frisco - a fairly affluent suburb of a major city which is struggling to create a sense of itself as a separate town. I could really relate to his story of people giving you directions using stores as the landmarks (in my case, turn right at the Starbucks, just past the Kroger). Secondly, I am very, very split on my feelings around Christmas. Part of me absolutely loves it all and enjoys the music, food, festivities while the other part of me dreads the whole season. I usually end up feeling exhausted and promising myself to do it differently next year. As he examines how these three families deal with everything as well as a fairly introspective look at his own feelings about the season, I found myself with those light bulb moments where I realized I was not alone in my thinking. While the author describes himself as a cynic, I found him to be largely fair and balanced and a joy to read. This book is definitely not a light, easy, feel-good book about the season of Christmas, yet I found myself immersed in the book and read it all in a 24-hour period. A truly enjoyable read.

While not a page-turner in the traditional sense, TINSEL is a book unlike anything I have ever read. Not hilariously funny or overly melodramatic, it is a simple yet in-depth look at modern day Christmas. While focusing on three main families who each celebrate Christmas in a unique way, the fourth, and probably most riveting character, is the town of Frisco, Texas. Author Stuever gives a solid background of the town's development, boom, and eventual decline while encompassing the Christmas Seasons of 2006-2008. There is nothing in this book that is particularly earth-shattering or new to the reader, yet one finds it hard not to get caught up in the trappings of this town and its inhabitants. It's almost like a reality show in book form. Once one starts reading it is really hard to stop, like it or not. In the end I decided I really enjoyed TINSEL, and I also appreciated the author's straightforward approach in his storytelling. I kind of feel like visiting Frisco, Texas this December just so I can meet some of the people from the book. Stuever is excellent at describing the personalities and idiosyncrasies of each family member. One of my favorites was Marissa, a precocious and somewhat unappealing attention-seeking tween, who reminded me of a cross between JonBenet Ramsey and Laura Ingalls Wilder. You'll just have to check this book out for yourself because it is truly one of a kind and, clearly, hard for me to describe. Unwrap TINSEL this holiday season.

I loved this book. I've read a bit about the history of Christmas, so when I saw that someone was taking an in-depth look at how Christmas is celebrated today it seemed like a natural complement. The author takes us inside the holiday traditions of Frisco, Texas, a fast-growing and wealthy suburb finding its way in the land of the Big Box Store. He follows the lives of some of its citizens, but doesn't stop there, as he gives us an analysis of the area and national trends. The people he tracks could have been presented as caricatures (the guy with the giant light display, for example), but they become fully human in the telling. I found the look into the area's Angel Tree program surprising and the insights it gives as to the reasons people donate intriguing. The tanking economy lends drama to the story as residents of the wealthy neighborhood with its giant houses. Reading it was a little bit like listening to an episode of This American Life on public radio, but more complex. The book is well written and compelling. I found myself caring what happened to these people. My only regret is that we won't have any more updates.

This is the story of a writer for the Washington Post, Hank Stuever, who takes a leave of 14 months to do an in depth story of how Christmas is celebrated in one fast growing Dallas suburb called Frisco, Texas. . The story takes place primarily in 2006 but also includes glimpses into the following years up to the beginning of 2009. He focuses mainly on three families, striving to create the perfect Christmas. At first they all seemed like over-the-top eccentrics and I did some of eye rolling while reading about some of their actions which seemed a little crazy to me. One lives in a McMansion and has a Christmas decorating business in her high end neighborhood and those nearby that promises to bring a "phenomenal" Christmas to her clients, even if they don't have the time to decorate themselves. Another is a single mom with 3 kids who has worked to pay off her home who stands in lines before sunrise on "Black Friday" at Best Buy with her kids and is very involved in the local mega-church and all it's goings on. The third are the inhabitants of a more modest home which have the huge Christmas light display coordinated with music that has people backed up for blocks in their cars to drive by for the yearly viewing ritual. I thought this was going to be strictly a lighthearted look at some of the outrageous lengths many of us go to in order to have a happy holiday and recapture the feelings of Christmases past, which somehow are always magnified in our memories. While there were some moments that had me laughing out loud, much of it had me thinking deeply about what it is to search for that perfect holiday and why we do it. I found myself beginning to understand what these people were trying to find and I ended up feeling like I had actually been invited into their homes and was able to see things through their eyes. Stuever has a way of introducing you and then drawing you into the lives of the people he writes about as he became closer and more involved with the families. While their holiday is quite a bit different than what I experience here, in California, I found myself looking up the light displays for Frisco on youtube and looking up the mega church site to see actual photos and videos of things Stuever writes about both in the past and present. (There are some great videos of these light and music productions of the characters on youtube!) It's not often that a book draws me in to that extent. I expected this to just be an interesting, funny, social commentary. It was all of that, but also some sad and introspective parts. It caused me do some serious thinking and wondering about why we do the things we do in our pursuit of happiness, be it the holidays or other times of the year. I felt a closeness to the families he writes about and found myself liking them. Although he goes back and writes a little about what happens in the following two seasons I hope that he'll write another book and let us know how their lives a