Customer Reviews

Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas (Stories Behind Books)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

How does Ace Collins manage to slap together a bunch of fairytales and call it history? His book on Christmas carols has a totally fictitious account of the history of "Silent Night" and this Christmas book has a completely fabricated version of the Nativity scene set up by St. Francis of Assisi. Collins wonders if the figures in Francis' Nativity were clay or carved wood. Collins supposes that Francis had figures of shepherds but probably skipped having any animals.

What?!?!?!? According to the two biographers of St. Francis (St. Bonaventure and Thomas of Celano) there were no clay or wooden figures of Mary and Joseph. There were neither shepherds nor kings in the Nativity at Greccio, Italy in 1223. There was a feeding trough (manger), a live ox, and a live ass. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.

It's time for Ace Collins to do some real research and rewrite his Christmas books instead of foisting fairytales on an unsuspecting public.

I really wonder what kind of research Mr. Collins did.

Granted the only selection that I read had to do with the Nutcracker.

I have a feeling that Mr. Collins never read E.T.A. Hoffman's (sic) original story, (it was Hoffmann, not Hoffman as is indicated by Mr. Collins), even though Mr. Collins recounts it. All in all, he makes some very erroneous comments about that story.

For the last 30 years or so, it has been a family tradition to read Hoffmann's story in English and in German during the month of December. We use "E.T.A. Hoffmann Nutcracker," Pictures by Maurice Sendak, Translation by Ralph Manheim, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984, for the English version. For the German, we use "E.T.A. Hoffmann Werke, Zweiter Band," Insel Verlag, 1967. (Manheim did a wonderful job with the translation and, of course, Sendak did outstanding work with the illustrations.)

Mr. Collins writes, "Marie was a child who lived in a home devoid of love." Nonsense.

Then Mr. Collins writes of a "fairy tale that would hardly appeal to anyone except the most cynical of readers." Again, nonsense: the story ends with a "happy ever after" note.

Most of Mr. Collins other comments are stuff and nonsense, stuff and nonsense.

I didn't bother to read any of the other selections.

I would have rated this book with a "no star" rating, but it wouldn't let me....

In this book, author Ace Collins traces the history behind various popular Christmas traditions, from caroling and ornaments to mistletoe and yule logs. Collins provides various theories on the origins of each tradition, some of which date back to even before Christ's birth. He also does a nice job of explaining the rise in popularity of each activity as it moved into the mainstream of Christmas celebrations. Finally, the book carries a strong Christian message, as Collins talks about connecting each modern tradition back to its original roots in commemorating Christ's birth. This is a perfect little book to teach children about the history behind Christmas or for adults looking to find greater meaning in this much-commercialized holiday.

This is my wife's book. She has informed me that the stories/anecdotes are very well written and informative. She stated that if one is interested in the background of theses various traditions and customs about Christmas, they should read this book.

I heard about this book on a 700 Club show before Christmas and decided to get it. The book is very informative and fun to read. So many of our traditions about Christmas have been lost with the commercialization of this most holy day and the book helped me to realize where I needed to get back on track.

Just another tradition that completes the Christmas season is to read Christmas themed stories and the history or traditions of Christmas. Now I don't have to search libraries to find this type of book.

Ace Collins has written many, many books (e.g., Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (Stories Behind Books), More Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, 25 Days, 26 Ways to Make This Your Best Christmas Ever, etc.).

He writes in the Introduction to this 2003 book, "Before we brood and protest too much over the ruin of what we think Christmas must have been like in generations long past, we might actually feel encouraged about the season we celebrate today when we consider what Christmas was REALLY like in the days of old."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"By the fourth century, the Roman Empire finally began to convert to Christianity. When this happened, Easter became one of the most celebrated holidays in the realm. Yet as many in the empire came to worship Jesus, the old traditions and holidays continued." (Pg. 13)
"In early sixteenth century Germany, Martin Luther embraced carols, thereby winning over many German Christians to the songs. Luther sang them with his children and encouraged his growing following to come together and sing them as a congregation." (Pg. 49)
"In an effort to bring some of the magic of the evergreen tree into their lives, Vikings would chop down a fir and place it in their homes. Having a tree in the house was said to bring the gift of strength to live through the worst stretches of winter." (Pg. 70-71)
"In Luke 2:16, it is clear that the shepherds traveled to the manger to see Jesus. Yet the Magi did not arrive in time to visit Jesus in his birthplace, nor, evidently, did they meet the shepherds." (Pg. 139)
"Most people today believe that the twelve days of Christmas start on December 12th or 13th and run through Christmas Eve or Christmas day. But in fact, the first day of Christmas is December 25th and the final day is January 5th." (Pg. 179)
"The Greek for Christ's name is Xristos (pronounced Christos). While it is well known that a fish was often used as a symbol to denote churches and Christian gathering places during the ancient days of the church, many Greeks also used the letter X .. as their symbol of faith... Therefore, the use of the letter X for Christ is one of the oldest traditions of the Christian faith." (Pg. 184)

gave this to my mom as a christmas gift, she likes it, she said there are a lot of interesting stories and facts

This book has a lot of interesting stories in it. It is written in blue ink, so it can be a little hard to read, but it works great for a coffee table book.

Not much here to comment on. It appears that very little research was done on these Christmas traditions to write the book, or if there was, the author chose not to let the readers in on it. It book is small and cheaply made.