It’s odd, but no other season has its own literary genre, just Christmas. Christmas tales go back to the storytelling gospels of the New Testament, followed by lore and legends of saints, all overlying pagan legends and traditions.
Two broad channels guide the seasonal writing: the facts and fancies that generate the season – its mythology – and the stories that illustrate it.
Here are some examples:
“The Annotated Night Before Christmas; A Collection of Sequels, Parodies, and Imitations of Clement Moore’s Immortal Ballad about Santa Claus,” edited with an introduction and notes by Martin Gardner (Prometheus Books, 253 pages $29). “I hope no one imagines that I regard the selections in this book as good poetry,” begins Gardner in his introduction. The subject of his book, the holiday tale of a visit from the chief sprite of Christmas himself qualifies as “popular verse” – that is, having “obvious metrical beat and almost always a pattern of rhyme.”
Mediocre poetry aside, this poem can be credited as the trigger for the American mania for Santa Claus, what Gardner calls “America’s greatest myth.” It is surely one of the driving forces of holiday commercialism.
But prior to Gardner, hardly anyone sat himself down to consider “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (to give the verse its proper name; actually Moore never calls his visitor “Santa Claus”) as poetry, and explore some of the byways of the lines. Sugar-plums, according to Gardner – those visions dancing in children’s heads – actually are sugared plums “and have been imported to the United States since 1875.”
The success of “Visit” can be garnered from the many imitations and satires. “Nights After Christmas” gets a whole chapter wherein “‘Twas the night after Christmas” proceeds in ways wondrous and sardonic: “and all through the house/ We were paying each one for our Yuletide carouse” or “and boy, what a house! I felt like the devil, and so did the spouse.”
Gardner has done a service in his annotations and searching out of new fodder.
“Quizmas: Christmas Trivia Family Fun,” by Gordon Pape with Deborah Kerbel (Plume, 240 pages, $13, paper). Here’s a sample of Gordon Pape’s quizzing tome: “In which U.S. state is the town of Santa Claus located? (a) Michigan, (b) Missouri, (c) Indiana, (d) Ohio. Or, another multiple-
choice query: Which actor never played Scrooge in a movie? (a) Sean Connery, (b) Patrick Stewart, (c) George C. Scott, (d) Henry Winkler.
“Christmas’s Most Wanted, The Top 10 Book of Kris Kringles, Merry Jingles, and Holiday Cheer,” by Kevin Cuddihy and Phillip Metcalfe (Potomac Books, $12.95, paperbound). As curmudgeons complain of an already overly commercialized holiday, do we really need a Top 10 list of anything? Yes, say Cuddihy and Metcalfe.
Why does the Christmas season begin so early? Blame it on World War II when so many troops were overseas that, for presents to arrive close to the holiday, they had to be purchased and mailed early.
There’s some fun stuff here. Try the chapter “Bing, Nat, and Frank – No Christmas Is Complete Without the Classics” meaning, of course, Bing Crosby’s account of “White Christmas,” Gene Autry in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and so on through the list of 10. Holiday movie classics? No. 1 is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the 1946 classic; No. 10 is the 1993 film of George Balanchine’s choreography for “The Nutcracker.”
“Patently Christmas: Inflatable Snowmen, Singing Elves, Collapsible Trees, and Other Patented Flashes of Holiday Genius ,” by Richard Ross (Plume, 160 pages, $14, paper). Does Christmas inflate expectations? You bet, and here are some of the literally patently wacky ideas geared to the season, such as a set of accessories for a snowman (eyes, mouths, noses, ties, belts and the like) granted U.S. Patent No. 3,841,019 in 1974.
“The Official Guide to Christmas in the South, or, If You Can’t Fry It, Spraypaint It Gold,” by David C. Barnette (William Morrow, 144 pages, $14.95). Southern etiquette is a minefield for the recently arrived, especially those with unfortunate Yankee taints. Who knew that a simple gift of candy could be fraught with deep significance? Divinity is “one of the ultimate candy gifts,” but one must “read” the topping. Whole pecans? Probably affection.
“An Idiot Girl’s Christmas, True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List,” by Laurie Notaro (Villard, 160 pages, $14.95). It’s the season of disasters for author Notaro. But with pluck she seems to pick herself up and make a good holiday of it after all.
Every family has forbidden words or phrases that take on a “That of Which We Do Not Speak” eminence, for fear that a metaphorical monster will leap out of the woods and skin our goats alive if we, well, had any. The worst is “the terror known as ‘Nana Needs to Go Shopping.”
Nana is the octogenarian grandmother. “Nana is nothing short of, politely speaking, a handful,” writes Notaro. Not that Nana is deliberately trying to make life difficult. It’s just that she has a mind of her own. “A Dixie Christmas: Holiday Stories from the South’s Best Writers,” edited by Charline R. McCord and Judy H. Tucker (Algonquin, 208 pages, $15.95). These are not necessarily Southern stories here, as evidence by Rick Bass’ “Montana Christmas” as one of the entries. Other contributors are Steve Yarbrough, Marianne Gingher, George Singleton, Bailey White, Ellen Gilchrist, Aaron Gwyn, Anthony Johnston, Lynne Barrett, Michael Parker and Stephen Marion.
“The Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales,” narrated by Symons Mitchell (HarperCollins, 224 pages, $14.95). There is no editor credited for bringing together the 18 authors whose somewhat jaundiced views of the holiday season appeal to the Scrooge in all of us. The dust jacket warns, “What you will NOT find inside: Decorating tips! Fun family activities! Houseguest-removal schemes! Delicious holiday recipes! 101 things to do with a wilted poinsettia!”
You get the idea.
HERE ARE SOME IDEAS FOR:
Your dour, older sister who just came in from the West Coast.
“The Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales,” narrated by Symons Mitchell
All the little folks in your extended family.
“Quizmas: Christmas Trivia Family Fun,” by Gordon Pape with Deborah Kerbel
