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 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 The Encyclopaedia Britannica written by Hugh Chisholm and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 1016 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.
Download or read book History of Christmases Past written by Suzi Love and published by Suzi Love. This book was released on 2013-12-20 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of historical information about the traditions of Christmas through the centuries, including the religious aspects, decorations, games, food and plays.
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 Christmas Past written by Brian Earl and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behind every Christmas tradition is a story — usually, a forgotten one. Each year, as we decorate a tree, build a gingerbread house, and get ready for a visit from St. Nicholas, we’re continuing generations-old narratives, while being largely unaware of their starting chapters. But knowing how these traditions began adds a new level of depth to our Christmas spirit, as well as an arsenal of anecdotes to share at Christmas parties. Christmas Past: The Fascinating Stories Behind Our Favorite Holiday’s Traditions reveals the surprising, quirky, mysterious, and sometimes horrifying stories behind the most wonderful time of the year. With 26 short chapters, it’s a festive, digestible Advent calendar of a book. Covering traditions ancient and modern, Christmas Past is filled with stories of happy accidents, cultural histories, criminal capers (including tomb raiders and con artists), and hidden connections between Christmas and broader social, economic, and technological influences. How did the invention of plate glass forever change the Christmas season? What common Christmas item helped introduce fine art to the masses? Why do Americans typically spike their eggnog with rum, rather than the traditional brandy? And speaking of booze, does using the phrase “Merry Christmas” mark you as a drunken reveler? Christmas Past answers all of those questions, and many more.
Download or read book The Modern Christmas in America written by William Waits and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1994-10 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An historical survey of American Christmas that describes how the modern holiday emerged. It traces the evolution from years prior to 1880, when people presented one another simple, handmade presents, through the late 19th century when industrialization inundated the celebration with inexpensive "tawdry" trinkets, to today. Includes photographs of store and product advertising. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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: Presents a tour of Christmas holiday traditions from the original festival through today, touching on subjects ranging from gift wrap and the holiday parade to the first gag holiday gift book and the first official appearance of Santa Claus.
Download or read book A Christmas Memory written by Truman Capote and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reminiscence of a Christmas shared by a seven-year-old boy and a sixtyish childlike woman, with enormous love and friendship between them.
Download or read book O Christmas Tree written by Jacqueline Farmer and published by Charlesbridge Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the traditions and folklore surrounding the Christmas tree, including its origin, customs around the world, and the activities that take place on a Christmas tree farm.
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 Christmas Story written by Jean Shepherd and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film and the live musical on Fox. The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”? The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.
Download or read book The Twelve Days of Christmas written by Leigh Grant and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 1995 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains the holiday traditions described in each verse of the eighteenth-century Christmas carol
Download or read book A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 2023-03-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Just Say Noel written by David Comfort and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1995-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh for the holidays, this hilarious and warm-hearted review of the top holiday stories of the last two millennia (with a special focus on Christmas Present) sparkles with dozens of shiny, new Christmas tales and tidbits, including vital stats on eating, shopping and other manifestations of the Christmas spirit, the Santa controversy, and much more.
