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The Curious World of Christmas
Drawing on over 2,000 years of writing and experiences from all over the world, The Curious World of Christmas covers every remarkable aspect of the largest religious festival on Earth. This is a unique treasury of amusing and poignant anecdotes, heart-warming stories, ancient customs, forgotten traditions, historical insights, practical tips, bizarre practices, recipes, quotations and a scattering of jaw-dropping statistics. And while it shuns cloying sentimentality, it is never cynical or contemptuous - The Curious World of Christmas wears its paper hat with pride.Chapters roots of Christmas; Christmas with our ancestors; Christmas around the world; the origins of Santa Claus; Christmas at war; Christmas shopping and DIY; at work on Xmas day; reunions and tantrums; volcanoes, earthquakes and train crashes; Xmas traditions; Xmas weather and Food and Drink - all with a liberal sprinkling of great quotations, and some statistics for good measure.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 22, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 20, 2013
Reads like the unorganized notes of an author who meant to write a book from his research. A bibliography would have been appreciated too, or at least a list of works (loosely) cited throughout.
Many of the snippets were interesting, but most were too general or without context.
Many of the snippets were interesting, but most were too general or without context.
December 16, 2023
Edworthy's book seems to suffer from a lack of direction. He has gathered all the Christmas factoids he could find (though he's missing a few startlingly significant ones) and just... jammed them together and called it a book. It's poorly organized, not entirely factual, and is overall rather disappointing.
One positive thing--Edworthy does give us the words of original sources whenever possible. It was fun to get snippets from Evelyn Waugh, George Bernard Shaw, and GK Chesterton, among others. But that isn't enough to make up for the rest of the book's flaws.
One positive thing--Edworthy does give us the words of original sources whenever possible. It was fun to get snippets from Evelyn Waugh, George Bernard Shaw, and GK Chesterton, among others. But that isn't enough to make up for the rest of the book's flaws.
December 30, 2012
Great seasonal reading. The book is an interesting blend of origin stories of aspects of Christmas, historical facts about things (mostly tragic) that happened around the holidays and primary research (direct quotes and personal holiday stories). The layout is different to keep the reader engaged but at times the text was too small to read.
February 16, 2015
I think I was gifted this book on Christmas. While is it very entertaining and filled with many fun facts about this joyous holiday. I found myself to be a very large grinch and my mind wandered frequently when trying to finish it.
But I was glad I did. If not I would not have the recipe for drunk Christmas cake - which is awesome or Martha Washington's recipe for fruitcake.
But I was glad I did. If not I would not have the recipe for drunk Christmas cake - which is awesome or Martha Washington's recipe for fruitcake.
March 14, 2016
Interesting enough. Some parts were funny, others silly, still others sobering. The section on war at Christmastime had some touching stories, but the section about disasters at Christmastime was depressing. Otherwise, the book was filled with some amusing reflections on the history, the traditions and the commercialism of Christmas.
December 31, 2009
I enjoyed this book, it has a lot of fun facts.
Although I thought even though Edworthy said he was pro Christmas traditions he seemed a little passive aggressive negative through the whole book. Oh well, it still had lots of fun facts about the origins of different Christmas traditions.
Although I thought even though Edworthy said he was pro Christmas traditions he seemed a little passive aggressive negative through the whole book. Oh well, it still had lots of fun facts about the origins of different Christmas traditions.
November 18, 2011
Not what I was expecting, but entertaining nonetheless - lots of interesting and curious tidbits about my favorite holiday - set up in sort of a Reader's Digest format, the little snippits of facts and stories made for a quick read. Enjoyed.
December 31, 2018
2.5?
I'm dipping in and out of this over the Christmas holidays, skimming some of it, skipping other bits, reading other bits with enthusiasm and making notes. Overall it's not as interesting or easy to read as I had hoped, but it's not bad. Good December bathroom reading?
I thought the Swedish smorgasbord sounded quite delicious and laughed at the Night Before Christmas cat parody and the Martha Stewart Christmas to do list. There's a pretty good quick history of how Christmas became what it is now. The scientific analysis of how fast Santa would have to travel to deliver his 400,000 tons of toys (assuming one toy per kid) with his ~billion reindeer pulling the sleigh (5000x the speed of sound) was awesome, but I had to wait till my little nephew left the room to share it. I also learned the Jingle Bells was a THANKSGIVING song! (Yup, it really doesn't refer to anything Christmasy).
I love reading about holiday traditions and histories, but this isn't one of my favorite books on the topic. I also just don't like the fonts and layout very much.
I'm dipping in and out of this over the Christmas holidays, skimming some of it, skipping other bits, reading other bits with enthusiasm and making notes. Overall it's not as interesting or easy to read as I had hoped, but it's not bad. Good December bathroom reading?
I thought the Swedish smorgasbord sounded quite delicious and laughed at the Night Before Christmas cat parody and the Martha Stewart Christmas to do list. There's a pretty good quick history of how Christmas became what it is now. The scientific analysis of how fast Santa would have to travel to deliver his 400,000 tons of toys (assuming one toy per kid) with his ~billion reindeer pulling the sleigh (5000x the speed of sound) was awesome, but I had to wait till my little nephew left the room to share it. I also learned the Jingle Bells was a THANKSGIVING song! (Yup, it really doesn't refer to anything Christmasy).
I love reading about holiday traditions and histories, but this isn't one of my favorite books on the topic. I also just don't like the fonts and layout very much.
December 26, 2024
A nice little collection of facts and I did learn some things, but it did feel more like a collection of facts over a book (like the author had done a lot of research and then just published it all, rather than tidily assembling it). The Christmas during war chapter was a good example of this, as it jumped around: a bit of WWI, then the US Civil War, then WWII, then back to WWI... etc. And there were a few "of their time" quotes that really did not need to be reprinted (stereotyping and even verging on racist).
Still, I did for the most part enjoy the book! Some new info about Christmas traditions, which was what I had been looking for.
Still, I did for the most part enjoy the book! Some new info about Christmas traditions, which was what I had been looking for.
December 4, 2022
curious Christmas
Wonderful book full of amazing facts and stories about Christmas time past and present also a great source of facts that I was able to annoy anyone in earshot with
Wonderful book full of amazing facts and stories about Christmas time past and present also a great source of facts that I was able to annoy anyone in earshot with
January 10, 2020
A really entertaining and informative!
December 29, 2020
An interesting read at Christmastime that is chockfull of facts and holiday tidbits with clever illustrations. The diversity of information about Christmas makes this a good fireside read to return to every December.
June 8, 2015
Nothing new or curious here, just a fairly typical compendium of Christmas facts, certainly festive, sometimes wonderful, seldom weird (although King Henry II's court fool Roland the Farter who was called on to perform his popular "a leap, a whistle, and a fart" routine, was a new fact I'll mix into conversation as much as possible this holiday season) in a tidy little package, with a ribbon bookmark sewn into the binding to tie up the bundle.
In fact, to maintain the compact (nearly pocketable) size, the typefaces are very small and difficult to read, especially when long sections are in small italics, and some farts--er, fonts--are in a light gray color against beige or gray backgrounds, some with line drawings watermarked behind the text. The typographical effect is attractive when flipping through the pages, but makes the book very tiresome on the eyes when actually reading it.
Would make a good bathroom book for reading in short segments. Gift it to the Roland the Farters on your list.
In fact, to maintain the compact (nearly pocketable) size, the typefaces are very small and difficult to read, especially when long sections are in small italics, and some farts--er, fonts--are in a light gray color against beige or gray backgrounds, some with line drawings watermarked behind the text. The typographical effect is attractive when flipping through the pages, but makes the book very tiresome on the eyes when actually reading it.
Would make a good bathroom book for reading in short segments. Gift it to the Roland the Farters on your list.
December 31, 2014
Really interesting book - learned lots of things I didn't know.
Well presented with different sections, easy to go back and find bits.
Quite funny and found myself reading bits out to people.
Liked the addition of bits from people talking about their (usually unconventional) Christmases.
Definitely aimed at adults rather than kids.
Well presented with different sections, easy to go back and find bits.
Quite funny and found myself reading bits out to people.
Liked the addition of bits from people talking about their (usually unconventional) Christmases.
Definitely aimed at adults rather than kids.
December 2, 2011
This was given to me by a student. I read about half at Christmastime and then got caught up in other books. Wonderful tidbits of trivia mixed with humor, but definitely the sort of book you pick at here and there and don't read all at once.
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December 25, 2010Interesting, amusing, tragically sad the war time chapter.
A book for the broad open minded
A book for the broad open minded
January 2, 2011
A very British and fun collection of Christmas quotes and trivia.
January 30, 2016
An amusing and mildly informative book, it's mostly quotes and short little anecdotes about the various different ways Christmas has been celebrated and how it's changed over the years.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews