Christmas Customs Around the World

Rating:
Summary: An okay little primer on Christmas worldwide.
Review: With the Christmas season coming in less than three months, it was time for me (a certifiable Christmas nut) to begin reading about my favorite holiday. In "Christmas Customs Around the World", author Herbert Wernecke produced a brief history of the holiday's observances throughout the world and its most cherished symbols. Writing in essence a religious book, Dr. Wernecke makes a good point of injecting a Christian perspective into Yuletide symbols of otherwise pagan origin, and his cheerful writing style gives you the impression that he took delight in writing the book. His coverage of Christmas celebrations in different countries appears to come from varied sources, his favorite being verbatim accounts from Protestant missionaries. Not unexpectedly, some countries are discussed in more detail than others, and information on some lands is quite dated. I also noticed in the narrative what appears to be a slightly condescending attitude towards non-Christians when mentioning Christmas celebrations in mission countries. Dr. Wernecke still succeeds in reassuring the reader of the spiritual joy and true meaning of Christmas amid the crass commercialization of the season. To top it off, he includes at the end of the book a series of interesting Christmas recipes from the different countries he profiled.