{"product_id":"9780679740384","title":"The Battle for Christmas","description":"\u003cb\u003ePULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • Drawing on a wealth of research, this \"fascinating\" book (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review)\u003c\/i\u003e charts the invention of our current Yuletide traditions, from St. Nicholas to the Christmas tree and, perhaps most radically, the practice of giving gifts to children. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnyone who laments the excesses of Christmas might consider the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts: they simply outlawed the holiday. The Puritans had their reasons, since Christmas was once an occasion for drunkenness and riot, when poor \"wassailers  extorted food and drink from the well-to-do. In this intriguing and innovative work of social history, Stephen Nissenbaum rediscovers Christmas's carnival origins and shows how it was transformed, during the nineteenth century, into a festival of domesticity and consumerism. \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003eBursting with detail, filled with subversive readings of such seasonal classics as \"A Visit from St. Nicholas” and\u003ci\u003e A Christmas Carol\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Battle for Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e captures the glorious strangeness of the past even as it helps us better understand our present.  ","brand":"Stephen Nissenbaum","offers":[{"title":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  1997-10-28","offer_id":47614888640767,"sku":"9780679740384","price":24.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_288feb8b-950e-4b76-8c95-ca03ca256c4b.jpg?v=1764618084","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780679740384","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}