I thought this book would give us insight into actual Christmastime practices under chattel slavery. It turns out the author has already written a book about that, Yuletide in Dixie (2019). This book is literally what the title says. It's a very, very boring recitation of research notes used to debunk a legend. This should be a series of blog posts. I am bewildered that a university press has chosen to publish this. It seems like a waste of time, money and dead trees. That being said, it's nice to see academics document their hard work, just not at this length.