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 Christmas Literature Through the Centuries written by Walter W. Schmauch and published by . This book was released on 1938 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christmas Past written by Thomas Ruys Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past. From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family life, to the realists who looked to reshape American letters in the wake of the Civil War, and beyond: all varieties of American writers turned to Christmas as an inevitable and potent subject during this deeply formative period in the history of American literature. In Christmas Past, Thomas Ruys Smith brings together a diverse range of voices to showcase the many ways in which Christmas was imagined across the nineteenth century, offering images that echo down to the present. The introduction that frames the anthology provides a new literary history of Christmas, contextualizing the selections and making clear the links both between them and to the wider trajectory of American literature.
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 A Century of Christmas Memories written by Peter Pauper Press Staff and published by Peter Pauper Press, Inc.. This book was released on with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Make a cup of tea, curl up by the fire, and take a nostalgic journey to Christmases past with this merry little Keepsake book! A Century of Christmas Memories celebrates 100 years of seasonal firsts and favorites decade by decade, from the 1900s through the 1990s, including movies, songs, events, traditions, toys, and games . . . from the first electric tree lights, first Macy's parade, Bob Hope's USO shows, Bing Crosby's Christmas Special, and It's a Wonderful Life to Etch-A-Sketch, Mr. Potato Head, Cabbage Patch Dolls, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Includes summaries of each decade and listings of firsts and favorites year by year. Packed with historic photographs and illustrations, many rarely seen, including magazine covers, Christmas cards, news photos, movie and TV scenes, and more. Get a glimpse of what Christmas was like when you, your parents, or grandparents, were born!
Download or read book The History of Christmas written by Heather Lefebvre and published by CF4Kids. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Christmas from Bethlehem to today Bible readings, questions, recipes and activities Beautiful colour illustrations
Download or read book The World Encyclopedia of Christmas written by Gerry Bowler and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2012-10-23 with total page 1075 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At last, a truly comprehensive look at Christmas and all of its customs with its long history around the world. The World Encyclopedia of Christmas contains articles on the history of Christmas baking, drinking, and merrymaking, and Christmas dramas, music, literature, art, and films. It includes entries on the evolution of the Christmas tree and the Christmas card, gift-giving, and decoration of church and home. There are profiles of the many gift-bringers, from Santa Claus to Babouschka, and miraculous tales of the numerous saints associated with the season. And there are histories of seasonal celebrations and folk customs around the world, from the United States to Japan, from Egypt to Iceland. Who, for example, knew the links between the Punch and Judy show and Christmas? That the medieval Paradise tree hung with tempting apples was the forerunner of the Christmas tree? About the Peerie Guizers, who terrorized the Shetland Islands, going door-to-door for Christmas charity? Or what Freudians make of our interest in Christmas stockings and Santa’s entrance through the chimney? There are detailed accounts of Wren Boys and Star Boys, mumming and wassailing, the Feast of Fools and the origins of eggnog. And of course stories of the Nativity and legends of the Magi. With beautifully illustrated accounts ranging from the pagan roots of Yuletide, through the birth of Christ, and the long and fascinating history of the festival ever since, The World Encyclopedia of Christmas, is a rich and continually surprising array of religious and secular history, trivia, literature, and art. This wonderful book deserves to find a home with every family that celebrates Christmas.
Download or read book A Merry Christmas written by Louisa May Alcott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-08 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of five beloved Christmas classics A Merry Christmas collects the treasured holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott, from the dearly familiar Yuletide benevolence of Marmee and her “little women” to the timeless “What Love Can Do,” wherein the residents of a boarding house come together to make a lovely Christmas for two poor girls. Wildly popular at the time of their publication—readers deluged Alcott with letters demanding sequels—and drawing on Alcott’s family and experiences in the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements, these stories have the authentic texture and detail of Christmas in nineteenth-century America, while their emphasis on generosity and charity make them timeless embodiments of the Christmas spirit. Penguin Christmas Classics Give the gift of literature this Christmas. Penguin Christmas Classics honor the power of literature to keep on giving through the ages. The five volumes in the series are not only our most beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. A Christmas Carol revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott shaped the ideal of an American Christmas. The Night Before Christmas brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And The Nutcracker inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year. Collect all five Penguin Christmas Classics: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Christmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope A Merry Christmas: And Other Christmas Stories by Louisa May Alcott The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann
Download or read book Christmas written by Judith Flanders and published by Thomas Dunne Books. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published: Great Britain: Picador, 2017.
Download or read book Christmas Memories Book written by Applewood Books and published by Applewood Books. This book was released on 2008-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 20 year diary has fine calligraphy and drawings by Lynn Anderson. Each year features a pen and ink drawing of a different 19th century tradition, accompanied by an explanation of the holiday custom featured. Record visitors, special Christmas cards, family photographs and other memories.
Download or read book 4000 Years of Christmas written by Earl W. Count and published by Ulysses Press. This book was released on 2000-09-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if our entire civilization could write its own memoirs and tell the complete story of Christmas past? Surprisingly, the tale would begin not in Bethlehem, but two thousand years earlier in the cradle of civilization. It would be a nostalgic story involving Christians and non-Christians alike. Babylonians Greeks, and Romans - whose ancient customs became part of the Christmas celebration - would people its pages. We would see early Europeans hanging fir sprigs and winter greenery to renew life and protect against the cold blasts of Arctic wind. People who had not yet learned of the Christ child would be burning Yule logs. Of course, the most important chapter in these memoirs would take place in a manger surrounded by Wise Men and marked with a brilliant star. But the tale would continue on for another two thousand years as generation after generation added to the customs of Christmas.
Download or read book The Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume Illustrated written by Johanna Spyri and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2024-01-09 with total page 2737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "The Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume (Illustrated)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum) Christmas-Tree Land (Mary Louisa Molesworth) The Little City of Hope (F. Marion Crawford) Peter Pan and Wendy (J. M. Barrie) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (L. Frank Baum) A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Christmas with Grandma Elsie (Martha Finley) Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery) The Christmas Angel (Abbie Farwell Brown) At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald) Black Beauty (Anna Sewell) The Christmas Child (Hesba Stretton) Granny's Wonderful Chair (Frances Browne) The Romance of a Christmas Card (Kate Douglas Wiggin) Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame) The Birds' Christmas Carol (Kate Douglas Wiggin) The Wonderful Life - Story of the life and death of our Lord (Hesba Stretton)
Download or read book Christmas Past written by Thomas Ruys Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past. From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family life, to the realists who looked to reshape American letters in the wake of the Civil War, and beyond: all varieties of American writers turned to Christmas as an inevitable and potent subject during this deeply formative period in the history of American literature. In Christmas Past, Thomas Ruys Smith brings together a diverse range of voices to showcase the many ways in which Christmas was imagined across the nineteenth century, offering images that echo down to the present. The introduction that frames the anthology provides a new literary history of Christmas, contextualizing the selections and making clear the links both between them and to the wider trajectory of American literature.
Download or read book The Snow Storm written by Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances) and published by . This book was released on 1845 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Literary Christmas written by British Library and published by . This book was released on 2018-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seasonal compendium collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens's ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new--from John Donne's Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Benjamin Zephaniah's "Talking Turkeys," from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to P. G. Wodehouse's wry story about Christmas on a diet. Enjoy a Christmas Day as described by Samuel Pepys, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, or Nancy Mitford. Venture out into the snow in the company of Jane Austen, Henry James, and Dickens's Mr. Pickwick. Entertain the children with the seasonal tales of Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Grahame, and Oscar Wilde.
Download or read book A Vintage Christmas written by Louisa May Alcott and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautiful, giftable Christmas collection features old-fashioned works from classic authors who invite you to a feast of holiday nostalgia. Filled with stories that have been part of the Christmas season for generations, A Vintage Christmas is a unique collection of lesser-known Christmas tales, reflections, and poems from beloved authors across the centuries and makes the perfect gift for the reader in your life. This beautiful treasury will take you back to firesides, simple gifts, and warm family moments of Christmases past as you cherish the timeless truths and joys of the season. Discover a charming story from L. M. Montgomery about love and sacrifice in a little log house. See Christmas through the eyes of a child in a New England colonial village with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Remember the reason Christ came to earth in the poetry of Anne Brontë. Share with your family the delightful letter Mark Twain wrote as Santa Claus to his three-year-old daughter. A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Ralph Henry Barbour, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, L. M. Montgomery, and William Dean Howells, as well as poems from Eliza Cook, Christina Rossetti, William Makepeace Thackeray, Joyce Kilmer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A Vintage Christmas is a timeless reminder that the heart of the holiday never changes. Hardcover, giftable size Perfect as a stocking stuffer and host or hostess gift Filled with hopeful and encouraging Christmas stories Makes a lovely keepsake companion to A Classic Christmas and A Timeless Christmas
Download or read book The Christmas Story written by Jane Werner Watson and published by Golden Books. This book was released on 2013-11-27 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Share the true meaning of Christmas with your children this holiday season. This simple but poetic text brings to life the story of Jesus' birth in a stable in Bethlehem. First published in 1952, this Little Golden Book adaption of the Christmas story was illustrated by beloved artist Eloise Wilkin. This classic picture book retelling of the Christmas story is a perfect gift for the holidays.
