Book Review: Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas (Stories Behind Books) by Ace Collins

A lot of people celebrate Christmas, but just as it is interesting to learn on how other countries celebrate the holiday because it teaches us something about the origin of the various traditions and also about how Christmas came about as a holiday season. This book will teach you about the history of Christmas from a truly historical perspective. Touching on items like the nativity scene and the extension of Christmas to begin now in November, this book covers a broad spectrum of items that we are now taking for granted as belonging to Christmas. A lot of the "traditions" came about recently, while some, like the use of live nativity scenes, go back centuries. Also the commercial aspects of Christmas, such as starting Christmas shopping right after Thanksgiving had initial reasons that were not that commercial, but are now seen as being driven by purely commercial goals. While some consider the stories just trivia, to me the historical origins of the holiday are interesting because they teach you about how we as people developed and why some traditions evolved and still stick around, while maybe others have been long forgotten.

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The opinion expressed in this post is solely my own and has not been influenced by any third party.