Michael Taube:
There are many reasons to enjoy the Christmas season. Beautiful trees with tinsel and ornaments. Colourful lights inside and outside our homes. Presents wrapped for family and friends. Movies and television shows for the young – and young at heart. Music and carols heard on the streets and inside churches. And, of course, families, food and faith.
Christmas should also be a time for reading and learning. Part of the enjoyment is sharing in the traditions we hold near and dear to our hearts, but it’s equally important to educate ourselves and gain a greater appreciation of what this holiday represents. History, religion, literature, and children’s stories help open new worlds of self-discovery and awareness about the reasons to love this season even more.
I own a fair number of Christmas-themed books and anthologies covering a wide variety of topics. Here are a few suggestions to help build a small library of your own.
When it comes to the history of Christmas in North America, two books have always stood out for me. One of them is Penne L. Restad’s Christmas in America: A History. It’s an exceptional volume that I’ve referenced in past columns and op-eds. She covers an astonishing amount of detail in this thin book related to the “holiday’s rich and changing spiritual, social, material, and personal meanings.” This includes the importance of faith during Christmas in the young nation, how Christmas was celebrated in the American South during slavery, traditional customs, and the gradual shift to modern Christmas celebrations. The other title is Mary Barber and Flora McPherson’s Christmas in Canada. It’s a nice accompaniment to Restad’s, but was constructed in a different fashion. Barber and McPherson included book passages, essays, magazine and newspaper articles, poems, and short stories that examine Canadian Christmases from different perspectives and time periods. Selections include the explorer Jacques Cartier’s first Christmas in Canada in 1535, an article from The Beaver about Christmas during the fur trade, Frederick B. Watt’s poem Boarder’s Christmas and a Stephen Leacock short story, Hoodoo McFigin’s Christmas.
I’m also going to recommend two additional books that look at different topics related to the history of Christmas. Stanley Weintraub’s Silent Night: The Story of The World War I Christmas Truce is a remarkable analysis of the unofficial Christmas Eve truce during the Great War. While some believed it was either a myth or (ahem) an old Santa’s tale, soldiers on both sides actually laid down their arms, sang songs, exchanged gifts, and played a game of soccer in No Man’s Land on Christmas Eve. Weintraub, a superb historian, recreated this incredible war story with photos and personal accounts that will surely amaze most readers. Jody Rosen’s White Christmas: The Story of an American Song, on the other hand, is a fascinating account of Irving Berlin’s self-perceived “throwaway” piece of music that turned into a big hit for singer Bing Crosby. The Russian-Jewish songwriter/composer, a “refugee from a pogrom-scourged corner of Siberia” who became an American patriot and loyal Republican, wrote a song that largely encapsulated the true spirt of Christmas and those who celebrate it.
Christmas anthologies are always a pleasure to read during the holidays with family and friends. First and foremost, Charles Dickens’s Five Christmas Novels. It features five of the brilliant author’s seasonal tales: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Haunted Man and The Battle of Life. This collection has been reprinted by several publishers, but if you can get your hands on an original 1939 Heritage Press edition (as I did), you can’t go wrong. Sian Handy’s The Kingfisher Treasury of Christmas Stories is a nice anthology of stories written by Alf Proysen (The Mice and the Christmas Tree), Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Fir Tree), Joel Chandler Harris (Brer Rabbit’s Christmas), and more. There’s also D.B. Wyndham Lewis and G.C. Heseltine’s A Christmas Book: An Anthology for Moderns. It’s a traditional and masterful collection published in 1928 that includes everything from stories to music. There are selections by William Shakespeare (Twelfth Night, Hamlet), John Milton (Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity) and G.K. Chesterton (Sonnet, The Fight for Christmas). You can sing The First Noel and the French-Canadian carol From the Province of Quebec from a sheet of music. There are recipes for turkey and Christmas sweets, too!
Christmas is also a time for faith and family. Here are two appropriate titles you may not be familiar with. Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe’s God With Us: Rediscover the Meaning of Christmas looks at this holiday through the eyes of early Christians. The use of prayer, Scripture and great works of art are emphasized throughout. I’d strongly recommend Rev. Richard John Neuhaus’s stunning analysis of the First Week of Advent as well as Kathleen Norris’s Fourth Week of Advent. Similarly, chapters by the book’s other contributors (Scott Cairns, Emilie Griffin, Eugene Peterson, Luci Shaw and Beth Bevis) are exceptionally done. Peter Marshall’s sermon, Let’s Keep Christmas, was published as a small book in 1953. A pastor at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., he wanted to keep Christmas simple and “in all the loveliness of its ancient traditions.” This passage in Marshall’s sermon struck me profoundly when I first read it, and still does: “When Christmas doesn’t make your heart swell up until it nearly bursts…and fill your eyes with tears…and make you all soft and warm inside…then you’ll know that something inside of you is dead.” Words to live by, indeed.
Finally, here are some fun recommendations for the young and old alike.
L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus remains one of the great children’s author’s crown jewels of writing. Santa Claus is discovered as a baby in the magical Forest of Burzee. We learn about his adventures in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, living among wood nymphs, immortals, and the evil Awgwas, and how he created toys and dolls for the young’uns. Thomas Nast St. Hill’s Thomas Nast’s Christmas Drawings is a lovely tribute to the incredible work of the legendary editorial cartoonist by his grandson. Nast, who created the images of the modern version of Santa Claus and his workshop, was a master of his craft who deserves to be admired each Christmas. Finally, Craig Yoe’s The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories reprints the lushly drawn holiday tales by great illustrators and cartoonists like Richard Scarry, Walt Kelly, Alberto Giolitti, and John Stanley. Eloquent tales like “How Santa Got His Red Suit,” “Christmas Comes to the Wood Land,” “The Shoemaker and the Elves” and, of course, “The Christmas Story” will bring delight to readers of all ages.
When I read and re-read these wonderful books on Christmas, I often find an additional kernel of truth, nugget of information, or turn of phrase that stays with me permanently. That’s the mark of a good book, in my opinion, and makes the process of learning and enjoying a worthwhile experience. I hope you’ll do the same with your families and loved ones.
