Printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors an enterprising In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as ''Twas the Night Before Christmas,' virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed-and grew in popularity. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event-if it was celebrated at all. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness.

Christmas in America by Penne L. Restad