Elentarri's Book Blog

TITLE:  A Christmas Cornucopia: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions

AUTHOR:  Mark Forsyth

DATE PUBLISHED:  2016

FORMAT:  ebook

ISBN-13:  9780241977552

_____________________

DESCRIPTION:

"The unpredictable origins and etymologies of our cracking Christmas customs

For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas.

We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas, etymologically speaking, means 'Go away, Christ'. Nor do we know that Christmas was first celebrated in 243 AD on 28 March - and only moved to 25 December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularizing sweet wrappers.

Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way."

_____________________________

Entertaining, informative, interesting, irreverant, amusing and fun reading about the Christmas.  I would have liked more indepth research though.  But this book is short and fun to read.