The Battle for Christmas
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Anyone who laments the excesses of Christmas might consider the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts: they simply outlawed the holiday. The Puritans had their reasons, since Christmas was once an occasion for drunkenness and riot, when poor "wassailers extorted food and drink from the well-to-do. In this intriguing and innovative work of social history, Stephen Nissenbaum rediscovers Christmas's carnival origins and shows how it was transformed, during the nineteenth century, into a festival of domesticity and consumerism.
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Drawing on a wealth of period documents and illustrations, Nissenbaum charts the invention of our current Yuletide traditions, from St. Nicholas to the Christmas tree and, perhaps most radically, the practice of giving gifts to children. Bursting with detail, filled with subversive readings of such seasonal classics as "A Visit from St. Nicholas and A Christmas Carol, The Battle for Christmas captures the glorious strangeness of the past even as it helps us better understand our present.
Liked The Battle for Christmas? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Battle for Christmas. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Christmas: A Candid History Shares nonfiction, Christmas, history -
Peace on Earth: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Shares history, Christmas, nonfiction
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The History of the Snowman: From the Ice Age to the Flea Market Shares nonfiction, Christmas, history -
Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970 Shares Christmas, nonfiction, history
