I really disliked all of the characters in this story, and the story itself. The twins acted very immature. A few pages in, I had to double check that this was indeed a Twins book and not a younger Sweet Valley Kids book. Jessica acts like a spoiled two-year-old, and I mean that without exaggeration. She is incredibly whiny and illogical - not understanding basic cause and effect or having a shred of empathy. All of the other characters are extreme stereotypes, like Elizabeth the serious yet incredibly dull twin, or Steven the prankster older brother, or Mom and Dad the parents who don't understand anything.

Without too many spoilers, the entire story is based on the concept that Jessica and Elizabeth want to host a Christmas party for their friends that includes a Secret Santa gift exchange, but in her extreme self-obsession (and later passive aggression), Jessica doesn't get a present for her recipient and ruins the party. She keeps reliving the day of the party until she rights all her wrongs on that day. She doesn't exactly learn to be generous and caring; she just learns to change what she does enough to stop reliving the same day over and over again (and she has so many damn do-over days that I cannot believe she is an intelligent 12-year-old - so ridiculous!).

I had not previously read this book at a kid, and now that I am an adult, I thought maybe my old age was clouding my judgement, but I'm now re-reading Sweet Valley Twins The Magic Christmas, and I'm loving that one, so this really is just a terrible book. ( )

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I love the story very much. ( )

One of those books you probably shouldn't admit to reading, but in my defense, my daughter has it out from the library. Remembering how I loved them as a kid I picked it up. And all I can say is - wow! Were they always this mean to each other? Jessica and her friends are awful, and her older brother is not much better! If these are the kinds of books preteens are reading, it's no wonder kids around that age get a reputation for having bad attitudes. I remember loving this series so much when I was around ten to twelve, and now it's very hard to see why. Well, maybe I wished my family did the cool activities theirs does, or that I had a twin sister, or half the shopping budget either twin appears to have. But if I had to act like them, I think it wouldn't be worth it. I hope my daughter doesn't actually grow to like this series. There are so many good books out there that there's really no excuse for wasting your time with this one.

Ok, the ending was ok. It's all very A Christmas Carol meets Groundhog Day. But it's too bad that Jessica appears to be such a basically mean person that she has to be completely motivated by selfishness and the positive effect it's going to have on HER to ever do the right thing in any situation. ( )