| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday. By Karal Ann Marling. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. xvi, 442 pp. $27.00, ISBN 0-674-00318-7.)

Merry Christmas! is an exuberant romp through the stuff of Christmas—wrapping paper, Christmas trees, candy and cookies, greeting cards, charity, Santa Claus, and television specials. Karal Ann Marling, a professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, examines the material culture of Christmas and much more. As she unpacks (and unwraps) the various rituals that mark the holiday season, she speculates about why Americans love Christmas. The book's intended audience is nonacademic, and so there is some latitude for asides and digressions; for example, the chapter on Christmas charity begins with an analysis of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843). Other parts of the book assess almost every prop associated with celebrating Christmas. . . .

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