In the nineteenth century, Christmas became a "fluid mix of sacred, secular, and profane" (p. While skillfully navigating the current of scholarship connecting the meaning of Christmas to the rise of a consumer society, Restad argues instead that the widespread adoption of certain Christmas practices and beliefs represented the efforts of a new, urban middle class to forge a national identity in the face of increasing cultural pluralism. Using an impressive array of diary and journal entries, newspaper accounts, and promotional literature, Penne Restad outlines the changing meaning of Christmas in American culture. Reviewed by Julie Longo (Wayne State University)Ĭhristmas in America: Origins and Evolution of SantaĪn ambitious and eclectic history of America's most important holiday, Christmas in America not only traces the origins of American Christmas practices, but explores the nineteenth-century "invention" of the modern holiday.
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