Old Magic Of Christmas

Author : Linda Raedisch
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN 13 : 0738733342
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Old Magic of Christmas written by Linda Raedisch and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2013 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Tis the Season for Witches, Elves, and a Legion of Ghosts Not so very long ago, Yuletide was as much a chilling season of ghosts and witches as it was a festival of goodwill. In The Old Magic of Christmas, you'll rub elbows with veiled spirits, learn the true perils of elves, and discover a bestiary of enchanted creatures. Rife with the more frightful characters from folklore and the season's most petulant ghosts, this book takes you on a spooky sleigh ride from the silvered firs of a winter forest to the mirrored halls of the Snow Queen. Along the way, you'll discover how to bring the festivities into your home with cookie recipes and craft instructions, as well as tips for delving more deeply into your relationship with the unseen. Praise: "Steeped in history and adorned with a bit of enchantment, The Old Magic of Christmas is the perfect book to read by a winter's fire with a mug of mulled cider in hand."--Deborah Blake, author of The Witch's Broom "...[A] fascinating journey into the stories behind the tinsel and bows."--Doreen Shababy, author of The Wild & Weedy Apothecary "...[A]n intriguing little tome that explores the darker side of the Yuletide holiday."--Ellen Dugan, author of The Enchanted Cat

Author : Trisha Ashley
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 1847563015
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Magic of Christmas written by Trisha Ashley and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2011-10-03 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deliciously seasonal and heart-warming tale from the No.1 bestselling author of The Christmas Invitation

Author : Christian Rätsch
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1594776601
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagan Christmas written by Christian Rätsch and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-10-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the sacred botany and the pagan origins and rituals of Christmas • Analyzes the symbolism of the many plants associated with Christmas • Reveals the shamanic rituals that are at the heart of the Christmas celebration The day on which many commemorate the birth of Christ has its origins in pagan rituals that center on tree worship, agriculture, magic, and social exchange. But Christmas is no ordinary folk observance. It is an evolving feast that over the centuries has absorbed elements from cultures all over the world--practices that give plants and plant spirits pride of place. In fact, the symbolic use of plants at Christmas effectively transforms the modern-day living room into a place of shamanic ritual. Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling show how the ancient meaning of the botanical elements of Christmas provides a unique view of the religion that existed in Europe before the introduction of Christianity. The fir tree was originally revered as the sacred World Tree in northern Europe. When the church was unable to drive the tree cult out of people’s consciousness, it incorporated the fir tree by dedicating it to the Christ child. Father Christmas in his red-and-white suit, who flies through the sky in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, has his mythological roots in the shamanic reindeer-herding tribes of arctic Europe and Siberia. These northern shamans used the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, which is red and white, to make their soul flights to the other world. Apples, which figure heavily in Christmas baking, are symbols of the sun god Apollo, so they find a natural place at winter solstice celebrations of the return of the sun. In fact, the authors contend that the emphasis of Christmas on green plants and the promise of the return of life in the dead of winter is just an adaptation of the pagan winter solstice celebration.

Author : Arlyn Grussing
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 1532032145
Total Pages : 27 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Santa’S Magic Christmas written by Arlyn Grussing and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written in response to the childrens frequently asked questions about Christmas and Santa Claus. The book includes the characters involved in the Christmas season and their role in the celebration. To foster involvement of the children in the story, several questions are posed to encourage participation and creative thinking. May the love and giving spirit of Christmas remain in your heart all year long.

Author : Penne L. Restad
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199923582
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christmas in America written by Penne L. Restad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-12-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.

Author : Al Ridenour
Publisher : Feral House
ISBN 13 : 162731041X
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas written by Al Ridenour and published by Feral House. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Krampus, a folkloric devil associated with St. Nicholas in Alpine Austria and Germany, has been embraced by the American counterculture and is lately skewing mainstream. The new Christmas he seems to embody is ironically closer to an ancient understanding of the holiday as a perilous, haunted season. In the Krampus' world, witches rule Christmas, and saints can sometimes kill.

Author : Michael Garland
Publisher : Puffin
ISBN 13 : 9780142501405
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christmas Magic written by Michael Garland and published by Puffin. This book was released on 2003-09-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No Marketing Blurb

Author : Janet Dailey
Publisher : Zebra
ISBN 13 : 1420145606
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Kind of Christmas written by Janet Dailey and published by Zebra. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A delightful annual tradition.” —RT Book Reviews Sometimes the best surprises are right at home . . . Returning to Branding Iron, Texas, is Travis Morgan’s last resort, and the abandoned ranch he inherited isn’t much more welcoming than the prison cell where he spent the last three years doing time for a tragic accident. Completely without funds or family, Travis finds celebrating Christmas is the last thing on his mind, but there’s no escaping the holiday spirit in this close-knit little town—not with Branding Iron’s longtime Santa retiring, and sweetly stubborn Mayor Maggie Delaney determined to find a replacement. When her no-nonsense façade slips to reveal the sensual, vulnerable woman beneath it, Travis realizes Maggie just might be as lonely as he is—and that this holiday season, love could be the gift that heals them both. “The spirit of Christmas permeates this charming holiday romance.” —RT Book Reviews on Merry Christmas, Cowboy

Author : Earl W. Count
Publisher : Ulysses Press
ISBN 13 : 9781569752357
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book 4000 Years of Christmas written by Earl W. Count and published by Ulysses Press. This book was released on 2000-09-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if our entire civilization could write its own memoirs and tell the complete story of Christmas past? Surprisingly, the tale would begin not in Bethlehem, but two thousand years earlier in the cradle of civilization. It would be a nostalgic story involving Christians and non-Christians alike. Babylonians Greeks, and Romans - whose ancient customs became part of the Christmas celebration - would people its pages. We would see early Europeans hanging fir sprigs and winter greenery to renew life and protect against the cold blasts of Arctic wind. People who had not yet learned of the Christ child would be burning Yule logs. Of course, the most important chapter in these memoirs would take place in a manger surrounded by Wise Men and marked with a brilliant star. But the tale would continue on for another two thousand years as generation after generation added to the customs of Christmas.

Author : Tristram Potter Coffin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780816491582
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Book of Christmas Folklore written by Tristram Potter Coffin and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insights into the culture of pre-Christian Europe are provided as the author seeks out the origins and meanings of songs, food, legends, and other items associated with yuletide.