Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author explores the Christmas holiday, from the original festival through present day traditions.

Christmas has always been a magical time. Or has it? Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, one archbishop was already complaining that his flock was spending the day, not in worship, but in dancing and feasting to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically remembering the Christmases of the old days, certain that they had been better then.

Other elements of Christmas are much newer - who would have thought gift-wrap was a novelty of the twentieth century? That the first holiday parade was neither at Macy's, nor even in the USA?

Some things, however, never change. The first known gag holiday gift book, The Boghouse Miscellany , was advertised in the 1760s 'for gay Gallants, and good companions', while in 1805, the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition exchanged-what else?-presents of underwear and socks.

Christmas is all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a period of eating and drinking. In Christmas , bestselling author and acclaimed social historian Judith Flanders casts a sharp eye on its myths, legends and history, deftly moving from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire, through the first appearance of Christmas trees in Central Europe, to what might be the origins of Santa Claus - in Switzerland - to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Flanders (The Making of Home) dispenses with cherished trappings and traditions in this investigation of Christmas, drawing a short line from Christmas's religious origins to its secular celebration. She begins by reporting on the ecclesiastical warning against excessive frivolity, which was issued by the Archbishop of Constantinople only 30 years after Christmas became a church festival in the late fourth century. Then she makes the case that Christianity slowly made itself a consumer product. Mythologizing Christmas by selling it, she argues, didn't start with the miniature ceramic Christmas villages of the 1970s or Coca-Cola ads in the '30s or even department store parades of the '20s, but has been a slowly building process that began almost as soon as Christmas became a widely practiced tradition. Although Flanders's voice sometimes disappears amid the cascade of facts, her well-structured argument lays to rest the idea that the celebration of Christmas is solely religious. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Christmas evokes both memories of the past and expectations for future celebrations, but Flanders (The Making of Home, 2015) posits that the holiday never was the quiet, thoughtful, religious observance we think it was. Separating fact from myth and traditional practice, Flanders provides a well-researched biography of how Christmas came to be observed through the ages and in various cultures. Elements of celebration included feasting, attending plays (both sacred and profane), and participating in revelry like the disguise-wearing mummers' parades. Her rambling study includes historical and popular culture references, so readers can expect to learn more about Saint Nicholas of Myra, understood to be the precursor to Santa Claus, along with movies like Holiday Inn and It's a Wonderful Life. Gift-giving traditions and the origins of gift wrapping are just two of many highlights in the book. Extensive and highly readable footnotes and end notes make this a pleasurable read. A calendar of important holidays is included, and readers are directed to more resources online.--Curbow, Joan Copyright 2017 Booklist