The Philosophy of Christmas (15)

by Caroline Taggart

Genres: Christmas, Nonfiction, Philosophy

112 pages, Hardcover

Published October 7, 2025

About the author

I was an editor for 30 years before Michael O’Mara Books asked me to write what became I Used to Know That. I think its success took everyone by surprise – it certainly did me – but it led to my writing a lot of other books and finally, after about three years, feeling able to tell people I was an author. It's a nice feeling.

Until recently the book I was most proud of was The Book of London Place Names (Ebury), partly because I am passionate about London and partly because, having written ten or so books before that, I finally felt I was getting the hang of it.

Now I have to confess I’m really excited by my first venture into continuous narrative. For A Slice of Britain: around the country by cake (AA) I travelled the country investigating, writing about and eating cake. From Cornish Saffron Cake to Aberdeen Butteries, I interviewed about 25 people who are baking cakes, biscuits and buns that are unique to their region, part of their heritage – and pretty darned delicious. The Sunday Times reviewed it and described me as ‘engaging, greedy and droll’, which pleased me enormously.

Reviews

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 A lovely little gem of a book! From the beautiful cover with gold accents and wonderful vintage artwork reproductions to the perfect size and construction, The Philosophy of Christmas was a joy to read!

For such a slim, pocket-sized volume, this book was jam-packed with intriguing information about everything related to Christmas. I learned so much! It was such a treat to have something to look forward to after Christmas was over.

The only thing that felt out of place was that the cover is more traditional looking (which goes well with the historical information and vintage illustrations included on half-to-full page spreads), while Caroline Taggart's writing style is informal, modern and tends to be slightly sarcastic in places. Although this book was very fun to read and much more approachable that I imagined, I feel like the cover didn't really match the content. (But, this is a very minor thing and personal preference, of course.)

Overall, I was thrilled with this book and I'm so happy to have it as part of the non-fiction section of my Christmas book collection. Many thanks to the British Library for sending along a copy for me to review!!

[Nasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πώς το γεγονός ότι μια βόλτα στο μεγάλο βιβλιοπωλείο της Bordeaux έκανε αυτό το βιβλίο να πέσει στα χέρια μου, είναι μόνο ένα ευτύχημα, γιατί κατέληξε να είναι Christmas favourite.
Μικρό, με εξώφυλλο λίγο παλαϊκο, αλλά ξεφυλλίζοντάς το κανείς ανακαλύπτει ότι πρόκειται για κάτι παραπάνω από ένα χριστουγεννικάτικο βιβλίο, είναι ένα βιβίο για τα ίδια τα Χριστούγεννα. Πρόκειται για μια συλλογή στοιχείων για τα Χριστούγεννα, δοσμένα όμως με πολύ cute τρόπο και σε τόσο όσο βαθμό, ώστε να μην είναι βαρετό αλλά δίνει τυράκια στον αναγνώστη για να "σκαλίξει" παραπάνω ο,τι εγείρει την περιέργειά του. Μάλιστα συνοδεύονται τα facts αυτά με λογιών λογιών εικόνες από πίνακες ή γραβούρες ή καρτ ποσταλ που να σχετίζονται με όσα αναφέρονται,πχ από το πώς κατέληξαν τα Χριστούγεννα να γιορτάζονται 25 Δεκέμβρη μέχρι γιατί οι Γάλλοι πχ τρώνε την εποχή αυτή τον λεγόμενο Bûche de Noël. :D
Βρήκα έξυπνο και τον επίλογο, μιας και κανείς δεν ξέρει από εδώ και πέρα τι νέες συνήθειες θα ξεκινήσουν από τον κόσμο τις μέρες αυτές και πώς παλιότερες παραδόσεις θα ενσωματωθούν σιγά σιγά στα έθιμα των Χριστουγέννων ανά τον κόσμο.
Fun fact: ότι οι Ιάπωνες παραδοσικά τρώνε τα Χριστούγεννα KFC το είχα ακούσει ξανά, αλλά παραμένει αστείο fact!

[Noll · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little 100 page illustrated book is a very quick read. It's a whistle stop tour of the basic roots and connections of many Christmas traditions, including trees, plants, feasting, food types, crackers, cards, robins on cards, and the transition of St Nick to Santa Claus. It's filled with colour illustrations of various Christmas cards, newspapers, song sheets, book illustrations, and more which are quite lovely to see, even if they are often fairly unrelated to the surrounding text.

The authors tone is sometimes very casual which irked me as it was sporadic and often fell flat - attempted wisecracks that really added nothing. The book also, oddly, features random pairs of coloured pages, which are harder to read the text on, for no apparent reason. These two elements were enough for me to rate this solidly a three, although really it is, at best, only a brief glance at the topic anyway. I will likely pursue some additional reading using this as a jumping off point.

[amycw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute little book about Christmas traditions (why we celebrate Christmas in the ways that we do). It has a beautiful cover with gold foiling, is about 100 pages long and printed on heavy paper, and it is heavily illustrated with vintage images.

The information is exceedingly brief and only provides a bare-bones overview, however it is enough to provide some interesting insights. I wish the information about the images had been printed beneath the image instead of at the back of the book and the text written on colored pages was difficult to read. I will be passing it along, as I didn't find it interesting enough to keep on my shelves.

[Alex Alder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute festive coffee table read. Probably not long enough to do anything outstanding, but I picked up some Xmas trivia I didn't previously know. Why are Robins associated with Xmas? Because it's symbolic of the early postmen bringing christmas cards. Aww, nice.

[Francesca Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read…somethings I knew, somethings I definitely didn’t! The only thing I didn’t enjoy was when the text was on different coloured pages…made it harder to read…

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely printed, mildly entertaining, and certainly mistitled. Another book that iterates through the origins of the various Christmas traditions we enjoy. Nothing about philosophy!

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really delightful book. Some interesting info on old traditions and the illustration are delightful.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mehhhh