The Most Wonderful Time cover

Religion

The Most Wonderful Time

A revealing history of Christmas that traces how an ancient religious holiday transformed into modern consumer culture's biggest commercial spectacle.

45 min read12 sections8,084 wordsFree online

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE The Darkest Day SO HERE’S THE thing. Before Christmas was Christmas, before Jesus, Santa, and reindeer learned to fly, there was just… darkness. Not metaphorical darkness. Actual, sun’s-gone, can’t-feel-your-fingers, what-if-the-world-never-warms-up-again kind of darkness. Because December is brutal. It always has been. The days shrink. The light fades. The trees go bald. Your food stores start looking a little too “root vegetable” for comfort. And if you’re living thousands of years ago with no central heating and no DoorDash, that’s not just a seasonal mood. That’s a crisis. And yet somehow, every ancient culture across the world figured out the same cheat code: if you can’t...

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