Author Description

What is the meaning of Christmas? Quiz a variety of individual persons on their notions of Christmas and the answers may reveal a kaleidoscopic variety of perspectives and opinions, memories and traditions. Although few may have occasion pause to discuss such a profound question amidst a busy season of holiday parties and concerts and gift-shopping and tree decorating, this book, ¿A Literary Christmas,¿ provides some food for thought. These descriptive accounts and reflective discussions are drawn by the pens of American authors or published in the pages of American and English magazines. The cultural traditions of Christmas in America and those borrowed from Europe, in wartime or in times of peace, in religious and secular life, show the deep roots of Christmas within the social fiber of American and English life.