Christmas: A Social History

This book provides an original perspective on the West's most enduring social and cultural institution. The author covers all the vital themes contributing to the modern Christmas: its Anglo-German origins and the idea of the bourgeois Christmas expressing family virtues; the need for a touchstone with the past in an age of rapid expansion and thus the myth of Merrie England; and the revival of English music: in short, all the elements making up the modern Christmas.