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Christmas Unwrapped: Consumerism, Christ, and Culture

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Theologian Richard Horsley (e.g., Jesus and Spiral of Violence (Facets); The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context) and James Tracy have put together a diverse and stimulating volume of essays on various aspects of Christmas and its effects on modern culture.

Sections include "The Formative History of American Christmas," "The Culture of American Christmas," "Saviors and Messiahs, Biblical and Other," and "Theoretical and Theological Reflections" by a wide variety of contributors. The Lynch v. Donnelly case (about a nativity display on public property) is covered in detail in one of the essays.

This is not simply the usual critique of the modern Christmas holiday on the grounds of "consumerism," etc.; the essays are filled with penetrating insights such as:

"The larger civil rights movement did not take note of (Maulana) Karenga's invention (of Kwanzaa). Martin Luther King Jr., for example, never celebrated it ... Moreover, after King's assassination in 1968, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, also of SCLC, was demanding that department stores hire more Black Santas." (This same essay also notes that Karenga was sent to prison for assaulting two women he believed were trying to poison him.)

"Interestingly enough, the mystification of Santa Claus penetrated even this realm of charity, when organizations such as the Salvation Army began to use men dressed as Santa Claus to solicit contributions on the street. Indirectly, this fed into and reinforced the image of Santa Claus as the gift giver mediating between superior and inferior groups."

This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone wanting to know more about Christmas, and the culture of the modern holiday.