Customer Reviews

Inventing Christmas: How Our Holiday Came to Be

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Almost all Americans celebrate Christmas but so few of us really know its deep-rooted and ancient origins as well as the origins of so many of the traditions we hold so dear.

In his wonderful book called, Jock Elliott has charted all of this story (and more) with care and good cheer. He reminds us of how recent the Christmas "tradition" is, and how ancient. He tells us, for example, that the Christmas tree is basically a product of the second half of the American 19th century, and can be traced to England. The British royal family - themselves imports from Germany - first pitched such trees in their palatial homes. But the trees, and the rituals of winter celebrations, could themselves be traced all the way back to pagan times and the celebrations of the winter solstice.

We learn about the men who defined Santa claus Including Clement Moore who wrote the "Night Before Christmas", and Thomas nast. Nast was the greatest political cartoonist of the 19th century, perhaps of any American century. During the holiday season of 1862-63, Nast put visual flesh on the poetic bones provided by Moore. In the Jan. 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly, he showed Santa Claus cheering up the battered Union troops. He's wearing striped pants and a shirt spangled with stars. Nast would do a year-end drawing of Santa Claus for each of the following 25 years.

From giving gifts to misletoe, Elliots great book fills us in on the origins of Everything Christmas. Highly Recommended

This book is such an amazing find! It tells the whole celebration of the Christmas holiday, from it's pre-Christian pagan celebrations, through the 20th century. Particularly interesting is how it became a Christian Holiday a few hundred years after the birth of Christ. But the book also covers how Santa Claus came to be, the history of the Christmas Tree, carols, and a pretty extensive article on Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol.'
The author, Jock Elliott, is probably the foremost collector of Christmas memorabelia, and through many color photos has shared some of his extensive collection with us. The man even has his letters to Santa from the 1920's! But, most impressive of all (to me!) is his 'A Christmas Carol' collection. He has a copy of the original first edition from 1843, as well as the original newspaper advertisement for the book from that same year! And, yes, Mr. Elliott shares this with us, too.
I've compared his history of the holiday with other books I own and I feel I can safely say that Mr. Elliott has done his research. His writing style is very entertaining and easy to follow, so the younger set can enjoy this book, too.
All in all, this is one of the most entertaining books I've read on the Christmas holiday. I guess if I had one complaint it would be for Mr. Elliott to maybe add a bit about the Reason for the Season - Jesus Christ.
Very highly recommended.

Saw this book when it was listed with a book I wanted to buy about Christmas and the history of our American traditions. It is a beautiful book with lots of pictures- not alot of written information. Still find it interesting and informative.

This large-sized book is lavishly-illustrated (particularly with many "period" reproductions). The author writes in the Introduction to this 2002 book, "For most people Christmas comes but once a year. Not so for me. I have collected Christmas books for the past fifty years---books of stories, poems, and carols, books about the customs and traditions of Christmas, books of Yuletide illustrations, light hearted books for children and heavy books for scholars, even medieval illuminated manuscripts---all qualify."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Did you know that when George Washington became president, there was no such thing as Christmas shopping, Christmas trees were virtually unheard of, it would be another quarter of a century before Santa Claus appeared on the scene, and the first Christmas card would have to wait for fifty years? All of these 'traditions' had yet to be invented." (Pg. 12)
"The early Christian Church struggled to become established. Its leaders understood the powerful hold the midwinter festival had on pagan worshippers. December 25 was celebrated in honor of Mithra, the sun-god... Mithraism posed a real threat to Christianity; it is not surprising that, in the middle of the fourth century, the Church decreed that henceforth the 25th of December would be recognized as the Day of Christ's Nativity. The Church hoped to draw the pagans from worship of the sun-god to worship of the Son of God." (Pg. 20)
"It is surprising that Santa Claus is always associated with 'The Night Before Christmas,' yet Santa Claus is never mentioned in the poem! In captions to his pictures, Thomas Nast always referred to Santa Claus and never to St. Nick, further enriching Santa in our culture." (Pg. 47)
"'A Visit from St. Nicholas' was the first work of any consequence written purely for the enjoyment of children. Suddenly, Christmas was for children." (Pg. 50)

The most wonderful thing about this book is all the photos. Jock Elliott has an amazing collection of Christmas books. I'd be salivating to actually see and browse the real collection. This book is really fun to read. As soon as I saw the actual letters that he wrote to Santa as a little boy I was hooked. One thing I learned was how people used to give each other Christmas/New Year books. I had never heard of those before. Too bad the tradition stopped!

Jock Elliott captures and relates all of the building blocks that went into making our Christmas holiday what it is--in terms of the way in which we celebrate.

As an ad man, he's got a unique perspective.

Fascinating reading.