Plano East alum Matthew Tolzmann is releasing a memoir, Feces Navidad: Pile After Pile of 1988 Holiday Magic, on Oct. 1, detailing an eventful Christmas he had while a sophomore at Clark High School in 1988.
While Tolzmann may not be a Planoite anymore, his history is cemented in the city. He grew up in Plano ISD through Christie Elementary, Carpenter Middle School, Clark High School and Plano East Senior High (’91). According to him, Tolzmann was also Plano East’s first homecoming king in 1990.
Several figures from this time are mentioned in the book: Plano ISD’s then-coordinator for instrumental music, Jeremy Kondrat; then-band directors Jerry Thomas and Evelio Villarreal; Collin Creek Mall and his father, Rev. Arlyn Tolzmann, who started Resurrection Lutheran Church and was part of a district think-tank aimed at addressing the 1990s Plano suicide epidemic.
The book details “the most magical Christmas of [his] childhood,” while navigating the pressure of growing up in Plano in the ’80s.
“Feces Navidad has everything you’ve never asked for in a holiday classic: The origin story of the “Die Hard of Christmas carols,” the role Pee-wee Herman played in a Christmastime rite of passage into adulthood, a Texas State Trooper who was packing a lot more than his sidearm, a Five-step Program for a Band Dork’s Path to Self-actualization, the secret love for a musical instrument that has to be hugged to be played, and the reason why the word feces is in the title. These stories are all based on real events, but be warned: not only does the author think that Gremlins is “the most interesting Christmas movie” he’s ever seen, but he also, at one point, thought it was the best “Muppet movie. “” – Barnes & Noble
Feces Navidad is available for presale now and will be released Oct. 1, 2025.
