Download or read book Christmas Ideology and Popular Culture written by Sheila Whiteley and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-26 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we understand Christmas? What does it mean? This book is a lively introduction to the study of popular culture through one central case study. It explores the cultural, social and historical contexts of Christmas in the UK, USA and Australia, covering such topics as fiction, film, television, art, newspapers and magazines, war, popular music and carols. Chapters explore the ways in which the production of meaning is mediated by the social and cultural activities surrounding Christmas (watching Christmas films, television, listening or engaging with popular music and carols), its relationship to a set of basic values (the idealised construct of the family), social relationships (community), and the ways in which ideological discourses are used and mobilised, not least in times of conflict, terrorism and war.
Download or read book Holly Jolly written by Mark Voger and published by Two Morrows Publishing. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Break out the candy canes! Holly Jolly is a colorful sleigh ride through the history of Christmas, from its religious origins to its emergence as a multimedia phenomenon. This full-color Hardcover explores movies (Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life), music (White Christmas, Little St. Nick), TV (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), books (Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol), decor (1950s silver aluminum trees), comics (super-heroes meet Santa), and more! Featuring interviews with Charles M. Schulz (A Charlie Brown Christmas), Andy Williams (TV's "Mr. Christmas") and others, the story behind Darlene Love's perrennial hit song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), and still more holiday memories! Written and designed by Mark Voger (author of the TwoMorrows' books Monster Mash and Groovy), the profusely illustrated Holly Jolly takes readers on a time-trip to Christmases past that you will cherish all year long!
Download or read book Sleigh Rides Jingle Bells and Silent Nights written by Ronald D. Lankford and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Bing Crosby’s "White Christmas" debuted in 1942, no one imagined that a holiday song would top the charts year after year. One of the best-selling singles ever released, it remains on rotation at tree lighting ceremonies across the country, in crowded shopping malls on Black Friday, and at warm diners on lonely Christmas Eve nights. Over the years, other favorites have been added to America’s annual playlist, including Elvis Presley’s "Blue Christmas," the King Cole Trio’s "The Christmas Song," Gene Autry’s "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Willie Nelson’s "Pretty Paper," and, of course, Elmo & Patsy’s "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." Viewing American holiday values through the filter of familiar Christmas songs, Ronald Lankford examines popular culture, consumerism, and the dynamics of the traditional American family. He surveys more than seventy-five years of songs and reveals that the “modern American Christmas” has carried a complex and sometimes contradictory set of meanings. Interpreting tunes against the backdrop of the eras in which they were first released, he identifies the repeated themes of nostalgia, commerce, holiday blues, carnival, and travesty that underscore so much beloved music. This first full-length analysis of the lyrics, images, and commercial forces inextricably linked to Yuletide music hits the heart of what many Americans think Christmas is--or should be.
Download or read book Religion and Popular Culture in America Third Edition written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The connection between popular culture and religion is an enduring part of American life. With seventy-five percent new content, the third edition of this multifaceted and popular collection has been revised and updated throughout to provide greater religious diversity in its topics and address critical developments in the study of religion and popular culture. Ideal for classroom use, this expanded volume gives increased attention to the implications of digital culture and the increasingly interactive quality of popular culture provides a framework to help students understand and appreciate the work in diverse fields, methods, and perspectives contains an updated introduction, discussion questions, and other instructional tools
Download or read book Cards Carols Claus written by Rex A. E Hunt and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The festival called Christmas is a celebration still 'under construction'. It is a weaving of story, myth, customs and ritual. Since its inception, it has been debated, ignored, celebrated, banned, and from the mid 1800s, reinvented. As such, it is the most human and lovable, and easily the most popular season of the year involving nearly all the population. The Christmas customs bring to the surface a kind of public 'everyday secular' spirituality that is beyond the power of Christianity or the institutional church to define or control. While it seems there will always be people for whom Christmas is a pious devotion rather than a festival or carnival -- often interpreting the biblical nativity narratives literally as the 'real Christmas story' -- such people have always been in the minority. Indeed it may not be going too far to say that Christmas has always been an extremely difficult holiday to Christianise! In this exploration by one of the leaders of 'progressive Christianity' in Australia, author Rex Hunt shares a brief story of the celebration of Christmas as a global and hybrid celebration; focuses on the Australian celebrations of Christmas as expressed through such popular culture events as: (a) participation in Carols by Candlelight, (b) the sending and receiving of Christmas Cards and (c) the popularity and traditions around the 'red-and-white' Santa Claus; and offers some of the suggestions and results from progressive biblical criticism of the birth narratives of Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth and resulting doctrines from those narratives.
Download or read book Cards Carols Claus written by Rex A. E. Hunt and published by Wipf and Stock. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The festival called Christmas is a celebration still 'under construction'. It is a weaving of story, myth, customs and ritual. Since its inception, it has been debated, ignored, celebrated, banned, and from the mid 1800s, reinvented. As such, it is the most human and lovable, and easily the most popular season of the year involving nearly all the population. The Christmas customs bring to the surface a kind of public 'everyday secular' spirituality that is beyond the power of Christianity or the institutional church to de ne or control. While it seems there will always be people for whom Christmas is a pious devotion rather than a festival or carnival--o en interpreting the biblical nativity narratives literally as the 'real Christmas story'--such people have always been in the minority. Indeed it may not be going too far to say that Christmas has always been an extremely difficult holiday to Christianise! In this exploration by one of the leaders of 'progressive Christianity' in Australia, author Rex Hunt shares a brief story of the celebration of Christmas as a global and hybrid celebration; focuses on the Australian celebrations of Christmas as expressed through such popular culture events as: (a) participation in Carols by Candlelight, (b) the sending and receiving of Christmas Cards and (c) the popularity and traditions around the 'red-and-white' Santa Claus; and o ers some of the suggestions and results from progressive biblical criticism of the birth narratives of Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth and resulting doctrines from those narratives. Rex A. E. Hunt is a retired minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. He was Founding Director and Life Member of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, and Chair of The Common Dreams Conference of Religious Progressives, Australia and South Pacific. His web site of Liturgies and Sermons is visited regularly, by people from thirty five countries around the world.
Download or read book Christmas in America written by Penne L. Restad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-12-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.
Download or read book Merry Christmas written by Karal Ann Marling and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001-12-20 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christmas wouldn't be the same without the "things". This book examines why the trees, cards, wrapping paper, toy villages and Macy's holiday parade play such an important role in the festivities. Through the medium of mass culture, Christmas is here primarily defined as a secular celebration.
Download or read book Christmas written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-10-10 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for everyone who loves and is simultaneously driven crazy by the holiday season, Christmas: A Candid History provides an enlightening, entertaining perspective on how the annual Yuletide celebration got to be what it is today. In a fascinating, concise tour through history, the book tells the story of Christmas—from its pre-Christian roots, through the birth of Jesus, to the holiday's spread across Europe into the Americas and beyond, and to its mind-boggling transformation through modern consumerism. Packed with intriguing stories, based on research into myriad sources, full of insights, the book explores the historical origins of traditions including Santa, the reindeer, gift giving, the Christmas tree, Christmas songs and movies, and more. The book also offers some provocative ideas for reclaiming the joy and meaning of this beloved, yet often frustrating, season amid the pressures of our fast-paced consumer culture. DID YOU KNOW For three centuries Christians did not celebrate Christmas? Puritans in England and New England made Christmas observances illegal? St. Nicholas is an elf in the famous poem "The Night Before Christmas"? President Franklin Roosevelt changed the dateof Thanksgiving in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season? Coca-Cola helped fashion Santa Claus's look in an advertising campaign?
Download or read book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture written by John Storey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this eighth edition of his award-winning Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, John Storey presents a clear and critical survey of competing theories of and various approaches to popular culture. Its breadth and theoretical unity, exemplified through popular culture, means that it can be flexibly and relevantly applied across a number of disciplines. Retaining the accessible approach of previous editions, and using appropriate examples from the texts and practices of popular culture, this new edition remains a key introduction to the area. New to this edition: revised, rewritten and updated throughout brand new chapter on class and popular culture updated student resources at www.routledge.com/cw/storey. The new edition remains essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of cultural studies, media studies, communication studies, the sociology of culture, popular culture and other related subjects.
Download or read book The Guide to United States Popular Culture written by Ray Broadus Browne and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 1030 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To understand the history and spirit of America, one must know its wars, its laws, and its presidents. To really understand it, however, one must also know its cheeseburgers, its love songs, and its lawn ornaments. The long-awaited Guide to the United States Popular Culture provides a single-volume guide to the landscape of everyday life in the United States. Scholars, students, and researchers will find in it a valuable tool with which to fill in the gaps left by traditional history. All American readers will find in it, one entry at a time, the story of their lives."--Robert Thompson, President, Popular Culture Association. "At long last popular culture may indeed be given its due within the humanities with the publication of The Guide to United States Popular Culture. With its nearly 1600 entries, it promises to be the most comprehensive single-volume source of information about popular culture. The range of subjects and diversity of opinions represented will make this an almost indispensable resource for humanities and popular culture scholars and enthusiasts alike."--Timothy E. Scheurer, President, American Culture Association "The popular culture of the United States is as free-wheeling and complex as the society it animates. To understand it, one needs assistance. Now that explanatory road map is provided in this Guide which charts the movements and people involved and provides a light at the end of the rainbow of dreams and expectations."--Marshall W. Fishwick, Past President, Popular Culture Association Features of The Guide to United States Popular Culture: 1,010 pages 1,600 entries 500 contributors Alphabetic entries Entries range from general topics (golf, film) to specific individuals, items, and events Articles are supplemented by bibliographies and cross references Comprehensive index
Download or read book Encyclopaedia Britannica written by Hugh Chisholm and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 1090 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.
Download or read book Christmas in Germany written by Joe Perry and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Perry's work is original, comprehensively researched, and a major contribution to understanding the central importance of the evolution of a consumer culture in modern Germany. The scholarship is sound, impressive, and provocative."ùRudy Koshar, University of Wisconsin-Madison --
Download or read book The Magic of Christmas written by Meredith Premium Publishing and published by Time Home Entertainment. This book was released on 2021-11-19 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's the most wonderful time of the year! This special edition covers Christmas in all its beauty, warmth and spirit. By revisiting the reason for the season, back to the manger in Bethlehem, and then tracing the holiday traditions through the years and across the land, right up to today, this issue explores and celebrates Christmas like no other. Learn about the origins of Santa Claus, the development of gift-giving and the emphasis on fellowship that defines this extraordinary day. And don't forget the countless pop culture incarnations: The stories, the movies, the songs. The Magic of Christmas is built around stunning photography from all corners of the globe, beautiful writing, and a treasure of special treats (secrets to the finest gingerbread and egg nog; glimpses of the most exceptional trees) along with a visiting of Christmas miracles past and present.
Download or read book Christmas in the Crosshairs written by G. Q. Bowler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a War on Christmas? This book surveys the history of the world's most popular festival and the never-ending battles it has engendered ever since its hotly-contested invention in the Roman Empire.
Download or read book A Special Place for Santa written by Jeanne Pieper and published by Roman Incorporated. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A story centered around a brief history of the legends of St. Nicholas, leading to his modern counterpart Santa Claus, who pays tribute to the birth of Christ on Christmas.
Download or read book Christmas written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-10-10 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In a fascinating, concise tour through history, the book tells the story of Christmas-from its pre-Christian roots, through the birth of Jesus, to the holiday's spread across Europe into the Americas and beyond, and to its mind-boggling transformation through modern consumer culture."--Page 2 of cover.
