The book of Christmas

This work surveys the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, entertainments, and social meanings surrounding the Christmas season, tracing mingled origins and the festival's changing fortunes. It describes domestic preparations and foods such as mince pies and plum pudding, carol-singing, waits, bellmen, and masquerades; public and rural observances across holy days including Christmas Eve and Day, St. Thomas's and St. Stephen's Days, New Year’s and Twelfth Night; seasonal sports, mummers, pantomime, wassailing, and civic rituals; and considers the decline, partial revival, and cultural implications of these practices.