December means the winter holidays are upon us: Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St. Stephen’s Day, and New Year’s Eve, with all your favorite wintertime traditions. Celebrate with some seasonal scholarship below. All stories contain free links to the supporting academic research on JSTOR. Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas from The World
December 13, 2024
Festive poems from Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, Eileen Myles, Clark Coolidge, Alice Notley, Yuki Hartman, Wang Ping, and more.
Annotations: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
December 14, 2024
Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.
A Holiday Pantomime
December 18, 2024
With origins in the theater of the early eighteenth century, “panto” remains a crucial element of the holiday season in Great Britain and Ireland.
A Visit from La Befana
December 26, 2023
In the Catholic tradition, Epiphany is the day the Three Kings first met Baby Jesus. But in Italy, it’s also the day La Befana shows up with a basket of gifts.
Share These Victorian Holiday Cards
November 26, 2021
It's all birds and flowers and kittens in these greeting cards. May they, as one of the cards says, keep winter from your heart.
It’s Tough Work Being a Temporary Santa
December 15, 2024
Playing the role of a shopping mall Santa comes with challenges familiar to any gig worker, but the performers also see the job as carrying special meaning.
Merry Christmas from the Wellcome Collection
December 16, 2021
Enjoy these historical Christmas images from the Wellcome Collection.
Nittel Nacht: The Jewish Christmas Eve
December 16, 2020
'Twas the night before Christmas, and an undead Jesus walked the earth. No wonder early modern Jews played games and sang songs to scare him off.
Wren Folklore and St. Stephen’s Day
December 26, 2020
The tiny winter songbirds are clever kings to the Irish. They're also fodder (literally) for post-Christmas ritual.
Christmas, Inc.: A Brief History of the Holiday Card
December 20, 2015
Americans still purchase approximately 1.6 billion holiday cards a year. What about this old-fashioned tradition appeals to so many?
The Rise and Fall of Montana’s Christmas-Tree Harvest
December 14, 2020
Douglas firs weren't great for lumber, but they once made the small town of Eureka the Christmas-tree capital of America.
