What is it about this holiday season that brings out the best and the worst in all of us? In the final volume of the Better Next Year collection of true stories, contributors share hilarious stories of holiday mishaps that still pack a punch. In this final volume of the Better Next Year collection of true stories, contributors from many cultures overcome holiday mishaps to salvage the spirit of the season. Collected by acclaimed memoirist and editor JJ Lee, these moving, heartfelt and occasionally hilarious stories speak to the true heart of Christmas JJ Lee is the author of The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son and a Suit (2011), a finalist for the Governor General’s, Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust and Charles Taylor prizes for non-fiction. His essays have appeared in publications including Elle, Montecristo, The Georgia Straight, Canadian Architect and more. He currently mentors a non-fiction workshop at Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio and has edited all three volumes of the Better Next Year series. He lives in New Westminster, BC. Dating disasters, bad breakups, lonesome drives, worst-ever work shifts, wild horses, incoming nuclear strikes, terrible tantrums, homelessness, child abandonments, yearnings for love, sex, drugs, and even Polish ham. Including this year’s edition, this anthology series of true holiday memories has collected thirty-five stories that seem to cover a wide gamut of what a person can experience in the months leading up to December 25th. But don't be fooled. Despite the varied wrappings, velvet ribbons and bows, they all arrive under the tree hiding only one thing beneath their packaging: the unifying theme of family. It took me a long time to figure that out. It was three years ago that Lynn Duncan and Kilmeny Jane Denny approached me about the first volume, Better Next Year. And then it took me three years of putting out the call, awaiting first drafts to settle like so many Dark-eyed Juncos in the brush, and working with writers as they lay bare the follies, frictions, and setbacks that come with family during the holidays until I got the message. What I finally came to understand was how determined each and every contributor was to make the season bright, no matter how dire the circumstances, with the people they loved the most. It is as if right after Remembrance Day family stops being a noun and becomes more of an activity or a full-blown verb, like ‘partying’. Here in this volume, contributors remember and reflect on how, for good or ill, they attempted to hold close to their mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, friends, antagonists, and lovers in the days leading to Christmas. And their stories invite you to do the same, to summon your own Christmas pasts and ruminate, to gather those you love or wished you could love, and laugh and cry in their company or their memories. It’s time to family. - JJ Lee, August 2025