Christmas: A History

This is a study of the themes which have contributed to the modern Christmas as an icon of cultural and social history. Among those themes are its Anglo-German origins and the idea of the bourgeois Christmas expressing family virtues; the liberal values at the heart of Anglo-American political, cultural and social life; the need for a touchstone with the past in a age of rapid expansion, and thus the myth of Merrie England; the link with imperial expansion and the position of the mother country; the revival of English music - perhaps the greatest age of church music and carols since the 14th century; printing and publishing and the increase in literacy; shopping and consumerism; and broadcasting.