I've often wondered about the origins of many Christmas traditions. This book provides stories behind many of them. With each tradition, the author ends up saying it should be part of a Christian's holiday celebration, and he finds or assigns some religious significance or moral benefit to each. I really wonder where these stories came from. There's no bibleography, no list of resources, and few specific facts. If you're looking for stories of Christmas, you will find them in this little book, but if you're looking for reasons and facts, look elsewhere.

Of the four Advent books I read in 2023, this one was tied with The Carols of Christmas for my favorite. And yet, the two books could not have been more different. In this book, we are given the history behind some common tradition of Christmas. These histories are fairly in depth, and I found them fascinating, by and large. I’m not positive how well researched this book was, so there might be some historical fallacies inadvertently woven in. I hope not, because not only were these factoids incredibly interesting, they were memorable, and I can see myself sharing them with others. Collins also managed to include something of spiritual significance with ever topic addressed, which I appreciated. This book bridged the gap between devotional and straight nonfiction, and I liked that combination. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I own another of Collins’ books, Stories Behind the Traditions and Songs of Easter, and I’m very much looking forward to reading it.

I’m always curious about why we do things and traditions that we hold, so I found this book really interesting. However, like the other reviewers, I wish the author had included resources. Would have made him more credible and I like to follow the trail sometimes.

Decent explanations but unfortunately, no sources even mentioned. You have to take his statements on faith.

Stories Behind the Great
Traditions of Christmas
By Ace Collins

There are so many traditions involved with Christmas and all too often they are just done because it is the thing to do. But how often do we wonder about the reason behind these traditions and when they began?

In Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas Ace Collins shares with readers what he knows about a variety of the traditions. And the nostalgic yearning for Christmas of old - well it may not be how you imagine it was. Christmas was a celebration that would not bring a nostalgic remembrance before the nineteenth century - be sure to read the introduction and I think you'll agree it would have been a day to avoid.

The various aspects of what we have come to associate with Christmas are presented in 26 chapters starting with Advent and ending with Yule Logs. Some of these traditions have a spiritual aspect while others have just been accepted as part of the season because they draw friends and family together in a sharing of "the wonder, joy, and magic of the season. ... And that spirit is something worth celebrating."(pg. 148)

I enjoyed the history of the candy cane, mistletoe, and the X in Xmas (which has been in use since the sixteenth century). This is a book with much to offer in just over 200 pages and one that would be useful to have on hand whenever one has a question arise about any of these traditions. Did you know that The Nutcracker was vastly different than the ballet that is performed every year? It went through several transformations before it became the beloved performance that it is today.

This is a book that you'll want to share with friends and family - I know I did as I read through it which may have slowed down my reading as I went back to different sections that caught my attention. This book would also lend itself well to family reading time with all hearing it together and then discussing what was read. But however, you choose to read and share you'll enjoy and value the knowledge you will have gained.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher through BookLook with no expectations but that I offer my honest opinion. All thoughts expressed are my own.

I loved this book. I was expecting it to cover the Christian meanings behind the holiday traditions because its from a Christian publisher but the book was very honest and explained the pagan meanings behind the holidays and how they were transformed into Christian symbols. I think we can be honest about their beginnings and still think of them in Christian terms now. Some books or websites pretend they always had Christian meanings. I was very impressed by this.

I found the book fascinating and even read parts of it out loud to my 7 year old who also found it interesting. I had to explain parts of it to him of course because the book is designed for adults but the background of things we see every year is something we should know but don’t. I thought I knew a lot about the background of Christmas things but I was shocked to see how much I didn’t know.

The most shocking to me was the history behind the Twelve Days of Christmas song. I had no idea it was originally created with a Christian meaning to teach Christian concepts without being caught (when it was illegal to talk about Christianity.) When at the back of the book I saw an advertisement for another book by the same author: Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas I just knew I had to get it and I’ll be buying it soon so I have it for next year.

Every chapter was captivating, and that’s rare. I consider it a must read for the Christmas season.

Filled with informative stories and legends, many of the traditions that we blindly participate in at Christmas are unpacked and the real meanings unfolded in this pretty little hardcover book. It would make a fun little Christmas gift given early in the season so that many of the stories could be read before Christmas. Perhaps new traditions would be put in place as the real reasons are discovered.

I was surprised at some of the history that was revealed in this book. Some of it is the stuff of legends and a bit fantastical maybe, but a lot of it was very interesting and insightful. For instance, I learned what Boxing Day is. I had no idea, but it is a day for giving, stemming back metal boxes that were placed in churches on December 26th. These metal boxes were first brought to the British Isles by Roman soldiers who kept the money they earned from gambling in them. And somehow these boxes found their way into churches as a way to gather special offerings on the Feast of St. Stephen. And interestingly, most Americans, like me, know nothing about this tradition. That story was one of the theories about the origin of Boxing Day. There is at least one more theory that you will need to read the book to find out about or do your own research, I suppose.

Another very interesting discover to me was the origin of the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas". This song was written by priests in the Catholic church as a code song. It was written during a time when Catholicism was outlawed with threat of persecution and so the priests wrote this "funny" song as a way of expressing their beliefs. "My true love" is Jesus with the partridge in the pear tree being symbolic of His death on the cross. The partridge was one bird who would die for her babies. That was so intriguing to me.

And the last little story I want to hint at is the where Xmas originated. Today, among some Christians, Xmas is bad, it's taking Christ out of Christmas, but really Xmas originated with the Christians. Go figure that out.

So this book was very interesting to me to hear about the many details of Christmas and how they originated and what they mean. I highly recommend it if you like to know the why behind things. Ace Collins has also written a a book called "Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas" as well as two other books containing the stories behind well-loved songs.

I received this book from Book Look Bloggers and was not required to write a positive review.

Fairly interesting. Seems to be well-researched.

"STORIES BEHIND THE GREAT TRADITIONS OCHRISTMAS" by Ace Collinsis well researched and very informative.For example, Did you know that F. W. Wollworths was the first company to give a Christmas bonus to it's employees. Grover Cleveland was the first President to have electric lights on the White House Tree. You will dicover these and many more facts about Christmas in this great book.

Very interesting! I like Collins' approach and explanations. I think he's really done his research and still not become cynical about Christmas. I understand it in a new way. Easy read.

This book was amazing. I had no idea how little I knew about Christmas - mostly that it used to be a riotous debauch! Turns out the Puritans didn't outlaw Christmas because they had something against happy little children! Christmas was a day when women and children hid inside because rape, robbery, murder - anything went. That carol where they sing about giving them some figgy pudding because "We won't go until we've got some?" They weren't kidding! They would invade the house, trash it and steal anything not nailed down. I don't want to give away any more stories behind traditions but this was a great Christmas read.

very interesting read on how so many of our Christmas traditions came about.