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Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh: A Christmas Chrestomathy
For over thirty years, Joseph Bottum has been writing widely acclaimed Christmas essays, columns, short stories, and carols for American magazines and newspapers. Now, for the first time, St. Augustine’s Press has gathered a selection of these classic pieces—with a vast range across the Christmas spectrum.
There’s the “Tinsel. No one needs tinsel. Even the word is a tinselly kind of word.” There’s the “Her hair was the same thin shade of gray as the weather-beaten pickets of the fence around her frozen garden.” There’s the “Christmas was books, and books Christmas, in those days now mostly washed down to the cold sea.” Along the way, there’s the theological, the learned, the mystical, and the musical.
“Tastefulness is just small-mindedness pretending to be art,” he writes in praise of mad and cluttered holidays. “Christmas will not be defined by our failures to apply its lessons and carols,” he explains about Yuletide poetry. To see these essays and short stories gathered in one place—in a beautiful illustrated edition from St. Augustine’s Press—is to see the whole of the vision that Joseph Bottum has been painting for a picture of Christmas as a thin place in the wall between the natural and the numinous, where a burning grace slips into a cold winter world.
There’s the “Tinsel. No one needs tinsel. Even the word is a tinselly kind of word.” There’s the “Her hair was the same thin shade of gray as the weather-beaten pickets of the fence around her frozen garden.” There’s the “Christmas was books, and books Christmas, in those days now mostly washed down to the cold sea.” Along the way, there’s the theological, the learned, the mystical, and the musical.
“Tastefulness is just small-mindedness pretending to be art,” he writes in praise of mad and cluttered holidays. “Christmas will not be defined by our failures to apply its lessons and carols,” he explains about Yuletide poetry. To see these essays and short stories gathered in one place—in a beautiful illustrated edition from St. Augustine’s Press—is to see the whole of the vision that Joseph Bottum has been painting for a picture of Christmas as a thin place in the wall between the natural and the numinous, where a burning grace slips into a cold winter world.
160 pages, Paperback
Published November 22, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 19, 2024
Really nice collection of short stories and essays. I especially enjoyed the essays, thinking each was better than the last. They cover a wide range of Christmas-y topics, including regret, Dickens, the Magi, Advent, books...
It's a quick read and definitely worthwhile. I'll likely re-read some of the essays next year.
Note: a chrestomathy is a collection of work first published elsewhere. Glad they decided to gather these together.
It's a quick read and definitely worthwhile. I'll likely re-read some of the essays next year.
Note: a chrestomathy is a collection of work first published elsewhere. Glad they decided to gather these together.
January 1, 2025
So great. I plan on rereading every year. Printed out a couple for the poems referenced and I stuck them in the book to read with next year.
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January 14, 2025Three sort stories. 12
December 31, 2025
This book is so beautiful. I'll return to it year after year.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews