For December 17-23, 2025

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, a roundup of the week's finest short humor pieces and funny articles, and a celebration of the fantastic writers who wrote them. Merry Christmas, if you’re celebrating! If not, hope you’re merry all the same. And if you’re not feeling the holiday spirit, well let’s just say a little surprise may be in store for you...

What We Enjoyed This Week

After Coming Down the Chimney, I Promise Not to Draw Your Feet While You Sleep by John Garvey (Points in Case) When you think about it, Santa’s whole deal is a little bit creepy (down to his very bones). John imagines if St. Nick were just a little more creepy, and just a little more honest. The toggling between admission and apology makes for some very fun moments.

It’s a Wonderful Life, Guy from It’s a Wonderful Life, Who Convinces Another Guy to Open the Gym Floor So Everyone Falls in the Pool by Dan McCoy (McSweeney’s) And speaking of “huh, there’s something slightly off here,” here comes a great piece zooming in on an odd moment from a classic film. The backstory that Dan imagines is very fun and heightened, and formatting it as a screenplay lets him work in more homage to the Capra film.

Network Notes on The Yule Log by Kevin Maher (McSweeney’s) And speaking of creepy and slightly off, the off-the-mark note is the bane of every writer’s existence, the Yuletide coal we reap all year ‘round. Kevin’s piece has some truly great bad notes—you can really picture the kind of people who might have these particular kinds of simultaneously over- and under-thought pitches. An amazing, subtle kicker here too.

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Points in Case is looking for a part time editor to temporarily take over some work at the site next year! If you think you might be a good fit, send an email to james@pointsincase.com with the subject “Temporary Editor” and include a few details about your background and what you’d bring to the role!

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An Old Favorite

A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner) by James Thurber (The New Yorker) Hemingway’s distinctive style has always invited parody—there’s even a yearly contest—and what’s remarkable is how quickly the satire happened. This Thurber classic is from 1927, before A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, or The Old Man and the Sea were published. Thurber nails the parody, both of Hemingway and of Clement Clarke Moore’s holiday poem. But the combination is something more interesting than the sum of its parts, a parody that’s more than just a formal game.

This one is great read aloud, too, if your friends and family are game!

Do you have an Old Favorite of your own? Let us know by filling out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter.

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

This is a little awkward, but we had an elaborate callback planned as a fun surprise for you, our readers, but I think we bit off more than we can chew and it’s really gone awry. Long story short, we’re stuck in your chimney. If you could jab a broom handle up there and dislodge us, that would be great.