Christmas Miscellany

Christmas Miscellany PDF Author: Jonathan Green
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1602397570
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
What is myrrh? Why do people kiss under the mistletoe? What is a Yule log? And much...

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks PDF Author: Keith Houston
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393064425
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Revealing the secret history of punctuation, this tour of two thousand years of the written word, from ancient Greece to the Internet, explores the parallel histories of language and typography throughout the world and across time.

Christmas Miscellany

Christmas Miscellany PDF Author: Jonathan Green
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510725709
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Discover the meaning of the season’s traditions! Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Christmas the way we do? In this whimsical book, Jonathan Green tells you all about the fascinating stories behind our most beloved holiday traditions. Make yourself cozy by the fireplace, open up this fully illustrated treasure trove, and learn: Why we sing carols Why we burn Yule logs Why we hang stockings Why we kiss under the mistletoe Why we send greeting cards Why there are twelve days of Christmas And what is figgy pudding? Each chapter explores a different custom and its history: when and where it started, how it has changed over the centuries, and why we still love to recreate it today. You’ll learn why holly and ivy are important symbols, who Good King Wenceslas was, and why we eat turkey for Christmas dinner. Additional fun facts and trivia are sprinkled throughout, accompanied by classic illustrations. This is the perfect gift or stocking stuffer for curious-minded friends and family this holiday season!

Round About the Christmas Tree

Round About the Christmas Tree PDF Author: Becky Brown
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1509899863
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Round About the Christmas Tree is the perfect Christmas gift for booklovers, as all facets of the festive season are represented here in one gorgeous volume. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition is introduced by Ned Halley and features the classic, charming illustrations of Alice Ercle Hunt. This anthology reveals the inspiration Christmas gives so many writers, whether as a time for celebration, for family, or as a chance to remember those in hardship. There are heart-warming stories from Charles Dickens and E. Nesbit, comic fun from G. K. Chesterton and Saki, touching whimsy from Hans Christian Andersen, and even crimes to solve from Arthur Conan Doyle.

Christmas Unwrapped

Christmas Unwrapped PDF Author: Amy Shields
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1616084693
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
Contains many facts about Christmas.

Schott's Original Miscellany

Schott's Original Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
ISBN: 9781582343495
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Impossible to read at one sitting, but utterly unputdownable, Schott's Original Miscellany is a unique collection of fabulous trivia. What other book boasts an index that includes shoelace lengths, sign language, and the seven deadly sins; dueling and dwarves; the hair color of Miss America and the Hampton Court maze? Where else can you find, packed onto one page, the names of golf strokes, a history of the Hat Tax, cricketing dismissals, nouns of assemblage, an unofficial motto of the US Postal Service, and the flag of Guadeloupe? Where else but Schott's Original Miscellany will you stumble across John Lennon's cat, the supplier of bagpipes to the Queen, the labors of Hercules, and the brutal methods of murder encountered by Miss Marple? A book like no other, Schott's Original Miscellany is entertaining, informative, unpredictable, and utterly addictive.

The Writer

The Writer PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description


The Modern Christmas in America

The Modern Christmas in America PDF Author: William Waits
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814792847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
An historical survey of American Christmas that describes how the modern holiday emerged. It traces the evolution from years prior to 1880, when people presented one another simple, handmade presents, through the late 19th century when industrialization inundated the celebration with inexpensive "tawdry" trinkets, to today. Includes photographs of store and product advertising. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Christmas in America

Christmas in America PDF Author: Penne L. Restad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199923582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
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. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. 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. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. 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. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising 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. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.

The Children's Miscellany

The Children's Miscellany PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description


The Index

The Index PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pennsylvania
Languages : en
Pages : 642

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Book Description