Christmas Comes but Once a Year

Christmas brings out the worst in the worst people, and John Leighton documents every excruciating moment. Soavo Spohf, organist at St. Stiff the Martyr, possesses extraordinary musical talent but has been cursed with an unfortunate face and absolutely no luck in love. As Christmas approaches, he must endure the Brown family's insufferable snobbery and Captain Bonaventure de Camp's dubious crew, all descending on the festive season to display their petty cruelties and social pretensions. The humor is gentle but pointed: these well-to-do households reveal their true colours when the mistletoe goes up, and poor Soavo is caught in the middle, piping away while chaos erupts around him. It's a slice of Victorian life that captures the particular horror of forced holiday cheer with people you cannot stand. The prose won't shatter you, but the observations on family dysfunction and social climbing have aged surprisingly well. For readers who find modern Christmas gatherings exhausting, Leighton offers the comforting reminder that things have always been this ridiculous.