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Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Collection for the Trivia Buff
Review: As a fan of trivia, I found the scientific and historical accounts contained within fascinating. It gives, as a whole, a sort of evolution of Christmas and it's traditions, interesting scientific information, and riduculously unimportant facts that are still a lot of fun to read. Also, the book is wonderful coffee table reading because it is not required, or even recommended, to read it from cover to cover. It is essentially a compendum of interesting essays, and a good buy.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Collection for the Trivia Buff
Review: As a fan of trivia, I found the scientific and historical accounts contained within fascinating. It gives, as a whole, a sort of evolution of Christmas and it's traditions, interesting scientific information, and riduculously unimportant facts that are still a lot of fun to read. Also, the book is wonderful coffee table reading because it is not required, or even recommended, to read it from cover to cover. It is essentially a compendum of interesting essays, and a good buy.
Rating:
Summary: Fun book!
Review: Bought this book for my husband & he loves it. So I bought a few more for presents for other people. Not deep "boring" science, but good for those who lean a bit that way in their interests.
Rating:
Summary: The Magic Explained and Retained
Review: For those who believe curiosity killed the cat, this book proves such cliches to be incorrect. Dr. Highfield has done well to organize the massive amounts of research in sociology, psychology, chemistry, physics etc. in such a way as to explain much of the mysteries and associations of the holidays. Despite such "debunking", Highfield somehow manages to retain much of the mystery and joy of Christmas in his writing, which balances humor and academic rigor nicely. This is a must read for the perpetually curious, and holiday revelers of all sorts.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read, fascinating science, great history
Review: If you are one of those people who has to ask "Why" about everything then you will find this a fascinating book. It is indeed centered around Christmas and all the traditions and expectations of that season, but it is much more than another historical or anthropological book about the holiday. It does have a lot of historical information and makes a fascinating read just for that fact. But in addition it has scientific information from many disciples that just builds more fascination into the subject.
Each chapter stands alone and so you can pick one that sounds interesting and read it. Each deals with a different aspect of the season and so does not build on a previous chapter. Read it in the order of your interests. Chapters cover such areas as Santa, reindeer, Christmas trees, food, snow and seasonal moods.
The writing style is easy flowing and fun to read. You don't need to know anything about physics, or any other science for that matter, to follow and understand the book. It is a unique style of writing because the book is easy and fun to read like a novel and yet packed so full of information that it is more like a science book. So, which is it? I'm not sure, but if regular science books were this interesting and fun instead of full of dry examples then perhaps science scores in schools would climb.
Rating:
Summary: The Magic Explained and Retained
Review: If you are one of those people who has to ask "Why" about everything then you will find this a fascinating book. It is indeed centered around Christmas and all the traditions and expectations of that season, but it is much more than another historical or anthropological book about the holiday. It does have a lot of historical information and makes a fascinating read just for that fact. But in addition it has scientific information from many disciples that just builds more fascination into the subject.
Each chapter stands alone and so you can pick one that sounds interesting and read it. Each deals with a different aspect of the season and so does not build on a previous chapter. Read it in the order of your interests. Chapters cover such areas as Santa, reindeer, Christmas trees, food, snow and seasonal moods.
The writing style is easy flowing and fun to read. You don't need to know anything about physics, or any other science for that matter, to follow and understand the book. It is a unique style of writing because the book is easy and fun to read like a novel and yet packed so full of information that it is more like a science book. So, which is it? I'm not sure, but if regular science books were this interesting and fun instead of full of dry examples then perhaps science scores in schools would climb.
Rating:
Summary: The Physics of Christmas
Review: The Physics of Christmas is a collection of short, bright essays that attempt to explain by means of science - not only physics, but very broadly defined to include anthropology, psychology and sociology as well chemistry and biology - all the wacky things people do during the holidays. No subject is too small for Highfield's enthusiastic scrutiny. He devotes one essay to the reasons Brussels sprouts are bitter; another to the architecture of snowflakes; yet another to the biology of reindeer. Sampled in small doses, these essays can be fascinating. You may have some dim notion that Santa Claus harks back to St. Nicholas, a holy man from the coast of Turkey. It is less well known that some academics posit that his suit is red because people liked to ingest psychedelic toadstools - "the recreational and ritualistic drug of choice in parts of northern Europe before vodka was imported from the East." Santa's vivid robes, Highfield writes, are thought by some to "honor the red-and-white dot color scheme of this potent mind-altering mushroom." It will be a long time before I forget that the Lapps of northern Scandinavia - who pulverize reindeer horns and market the stuff as an aphrodisiac - actually have a genetic mutation rendering some of the men "unusually virile." Or that a cancer research organization has found that Christmas is the only meal of the year at which most British children eat sufficient amounts of vegetables. But read more than one or two of Highfield's pieces at a time, and you may find yourself reaching anxiously for another egg nog. Highfield is an engaging writer, with an obvious and endearing passion for his subject. But what he has assembled in this pretty volume is an intimidating mountain of random scientific trivia. Taken as a whole, it is more exhausting than explanatory. Like Christmas cheer - "the fermentation of fruit and grain by the activity of fungi called yeasts" - The Physics of Christmas is enjoyable and delightful science for adults and teens.
Rating:
Summary: A very amusing book.
Review: The title is a bit misleading. This book is light on the physics while covering many other disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, chemistry (the author is a chemist), biology, and physiology. However, the broad range of topics keeps the reader's interest. The author was also able to keep everything on such a level that a reader with a minimal background in science can appreciate the book.
Rating: 
Summary: very misleading!
Review: Well, it is not about Physics. Unfortunately, my physics teacher recommended this book to us, thinking it was about physics, we have to read a physics book, and I started it. I was very unsure that it was about physics, and now I realize that it has sooooooo little to do with physics. What will I do now? It is a pretty good book, although i have read almost 150 pages of it.. it is very interesting, it give a large view on christmas, explanining it. Although a lot of it is obvious, it introduced some ideas and things that I would have never even though of before. THis is definently not a physics books. Now I just have to figure out what to do for my physics book project due next week, any ideas?lol:-)
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