Christmas

Much of what most people believe about the holiday turns out to be mistaken. Is the so-called war on Christmas a modern invention? Did Santa start out as a Dutch figure, and did Coca-Cola really give him his red suit? Perhaps you long for a Christmas like the one from your childhood. You are in good company. In the fourth century, a bishop was already grumbling that his congregation spent the festival dancing and feasting rather than worshipping, and in 1616 the playwright Ben Jonson was looking back fondly on the far better Christmases of earlier days.

Some customs are surprisingly recent. Few would guess that gift wrap belongs to the twentieth century, or that the first holiday parade was held somewhere other than Macy's in New York, and outside the United States. Other traces run much further back. A gag gift book called The Boghouse Miscellany was advertised in the 1760s, and in 1805 the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition swapped presents of underwear and socks, a choice that would have pleased nobody's idea of festive gifting.

The holiday means different things to different people: for some a sacred observance, for others a gathering of family, and for many simply an excuse for rich food and drink. Judith Flanders, a British social historian, sets out to separate the myths and legends from the documented past, examining how the season has been shaped over the centuries and showing it as it actually developed, rather than as it is commonly remembered.