This was a fun little road through the history of Christmas.
Most interesting to me was the holiday's almost-complete detachment from religion. In fact, various churches (including the Church of England) at various times banned members from celebrating Christmas because it's not actually mentioned in the Bible.
A central theme of the book is Christmas' malleability over the centuries. Almost all aspects of the holiday have evolved, many quite shockingly.
For example, at one point in early American history a major aspect of Christmas celebration was sneaking up on your friends at home in the middle of the night and firing gunshots to scare them and wake them up! My how traditions can change in a short period of time.
Another central theme is how Christmas traditions always look backwards - never forwards - towards a "better" time. But in most cases it's a feigned nostalgia, as the things-remembered are almost always invented, or at best a modified version of the way things used to be. Christmas stories, books, films, television specials and more tell us of the "traditions of yore" with an incredible lack of accuracy. They simply made them up to seem like what we remember.
It seems as if Christmas is our annual attempt to "remember" - even if those memories are colored with a rosy hue. And that's ok. Perhaps that persistent striving towards something better helps transform us into the people we want to be.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment