Merry Christmas Celebrating Americaos Greatest Holiday

It wouldn't be Christmas without the "things." How they came to mean so much, and to play such a prominent role in America's central holiday, is the tale told in this delightful and edifying book. In a style characteristically engaging and erudite, Karal Ann Marling, one of our most trenchant observers of American culture, describes the outsize spectacle that Christmas has become.

A New Edition of Peter Guttman's Dazzling Photographic Treasury of Holiday Lights and Celebrations Nothing reminds us of the good things in life—family, friendship, food, and good cheer—more than Christmas. With stunning images and illuminating text, award-winning photographer Peter Guttman offers a dazzling overview of the wintry landscapes, traditions, ceremonies, spectacles, and pastimes of the holiday season throughout the United States. Delve into the landscapes and streetscapes of Christmas in America and you can almost smell the frosted scent of snow-covered pines, of chestnuts roasting, and of family meals being shared. In the East, we find the spirit of the season in a cozy Vermont country inn, or an “army of elves” in a Philadelphia parade, or the sweeping grace of the sugar plum fairies in the Nutcracker Suite. In the heartland, we dogsled through a crystal wilderness in Minnesota and discover blazing bonfires in Louisiana. The snowy cliffs of the Grand Canyon, steam trains weaving high amongst the Rockies, the textured pueblos of New Mexico, the almost heavenly night sky of Utah’s Monument Valley, and the indescribable glazed beauty of Yosemite reflect the West. Like the holiday season itself, Christmas in America is a treasure.

When Bing Crosby’s "White Christmas" debuted in 1942, no one imagined that a holiday song would top the charts year after year. One of the best-selling singles ever released, it remains on rotation at tree lighting ceremonies across the country, in crowded shopping malls on Black Friday, and at warm diners on lonely Christmas Eve nights. Over the years, other favorites have been added to America’s annual playlist, including Elvis Presley’s "Blue Christmas," the King Cole Trio’s "The Christmas Song," Gene Autry’s "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Willie Nelson’s "Pretty Paper," and, of course, Elmo & Patsy’s "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." Viewing American holiday values through the filter of familiar Christmas songs, Ronald Lankford examines popular culture, consumerism, and the dynamics of the traditional American family. He surveys more than seventy-five years of songs and reveals that the “modern American Christmas” has carried a complex and sometimes contradictory set of meanings. Interpreting tunes against the backdrop of the eras in which they were first released, he identifies the repeated themes of nostalgia, commerce, holiday blues, carnival, and travesty that underscore so much beloved music. This first full-length analysis of the lyrics, images, and commercial forces inextricably linked to Yuletide music hits the heart of what many Americans think Christmas is--or should be.

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.

The Greatest celebration in American History. Best seller on BN. Com. Sells all year..

For two decades, from the Bronx to L.A., Patoski has been taking pictures of holiday-decorated front yards. In this fascinating collection of displays ranging from the conventional to the bizarre, Patoski offer something for everyone--an enchanting view of the holidays that could tempt even Scrooge to put a light in the window! 100 color photos.

Captioned photographs depict Christmas time throughout the United States.

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?

A History of the American Christmas and Its Traditions - Discover Our Most Cherished Christmas Traditions We Celebrate in America - Christmas may be a time for celebration across the us. Families and friends gather for each day of festive merry making. Christmas: Where It All Began Christmas. The word itself inspires feelings of joy and good will towards our fellow man. each day when the best gift altogether the planet was bestowed upon us from Heaven. When you consider the name "Christmas", what immediately involves your mind? The birth of Jesus? Yes, traditionally, that's what we believe is that the reason behind the Christmas holiday and celebration. The birth of Jesus. I mean, goodness’s sake! His name is within the word itself! But is that basically where the start of the Christmas holiday comes from? Or is it somewhere else? Would you think that it's indeed rooted somewhere else?! Let's return though to the time before Jesus Christ's birth, and see if we can't add up of this. Centuries BC was born there was a gaggle of individuals who celebrated something they called "The Winter Solstice". In this celebration, early Europeans would gather and rejoice that the worst a part of the Winter Season was passing which that they had managed to survive another harsh, cold Winter. And, that they might begin enjoying longer days. In other words, this was a celebration of sunshine itself. And life also. This celebration of sunshine and survival would happen around December 21st or the 22nd per annum . And, counting on the calendar shift, it could occur anywhere between December 20th to the 23rd. Pretty on the brink of the time once we traditionally celebrate our Christmas holiday, wouldn't you agree? Indeed, across the ecu countryside, the top of December was an ideal time to possess a celebration due in most part because cattle were slaughtered in order that they might not need to be fed throughout Winter. And for many people, this is able to be one among the sole times throughout the entire year that they might have access to fresh meat. Not only this, but most beverages consumed, like beer and wine, cultivated throughout the year had finished the fermentation cycle and were able to be consumed. Beer and burgers? Now if that aren’t a celebration, I don't know what is! One last item to say is that in Germany, during this point, many people would pay tribute to the pagan god Oden. Now, long ago, many Germans who believed during this god were extremely scared of him. The reason for this is often because they believed that Oden would make "nightly rounds" to see abreast of his people, deciding who would thrive and who would, well, not. thanks to this, many German people would stay indoors with their families.