REVIEW
Approaching this book I was hoping for some funny stories about the different aspects and traditions of Christmas. With a foreward by Chris Evans, and an endorsement from Miranda Hart (Who I find really funny to watch) saying "The Perfect Stocking-Filler" I had high expectations for this book.

The cover has a light sky blue background with a decent amount of snow fall too. The cover has Christmas themed items within the "sky" part of it such as trees, a sleigh, doves, a stag/reindeer etc. Then the prominent part of the cover are like pieces you would put on a MR or Mrs Potato head, so there's reindeer ears, glasses, a Santa hat and red nose. All this adds to the Christmassy feel to the book. The title Hark! is quite dominant and catches the eye well, so I guess it should stand out well on a book shelf. There's what I would describe as an endorsement, or maybe recommendation or quote from Miranda Hart of "The Perfect Stocking-Filler". I admit as I do like Miranda Hart as I find her quite funny so her comment would encourage me to purchase this book.

The genre of this book is described as "humour" and yes it does have some humourous parts within the book and yes certain parts of the book made me smile. In my opinion the content within this is more of an informative, factual nature, with the addition of a little wit rather than funniness. The other genre I think applies to this book is nostalgia when finding out where all the small decorations, and traditions began and the original meanings behind them.This meant I didn't think the genre choice was specific or clear enough, meaning for me the book wasn't what I thought it would be.

The book is quite long and has lots of factual information within it from talking about the twelve key dates that have shaped our modern day Christmas. Apparently some early non-Christian Christmas' were merely the gathering of friends and family that coincided with winter and Christmas. This would also be the type of Christmas that existed before Christ, and the more religion connected Christmas. Years before celebrating the birth of Jesus, the "party" was to urge on Spring so not so much praising the "risen son" as "rising sun".
The book also reveals the four traditions around the Yule log and it decrease in popularity when fire places were much smaller and other decorations were increasing in popularity.
The book also discusses the story of St Nicholas which I can remember clearly listening to being told at the Church of England School that I attended. The whole poor man with three daughters that needed dowry money to enable them to be married, and St Nicholas throwing a bag of coins in through an open window that land in a stocking hung up near the fireside. It is covered in a little more detail in the book. Re-reading and recognising this certainly made me smile and gave me that feeling of nostalgia.

I enjoyed both learning about the traditions from different cultures, religions and countries too. Such as the Christmas Tree tradition originally being German tradition. The book also covers Christmases of old when stores closed for a couple of weeks so you had to buy in large amounts of food and drink to tide you over until the shops re-opened. These days most shops only close for Christmas Day, with larger retailers re-opening on Boxing Day for sales. Speaking of sales we have some stores starting sales Christmas Eve!
I found various parts of the book really interesting such as the section which talks about the Santa equivalent different countries have such as Italy has an old woman called Befana that rides on a broomstick and hands gifts for the good and coal to the not so good. Russia also has a female equivalent of St Nick. She is a white robed elf maiden who has a sleigh. In the Ukraine it is Father Frost and the Snowflake Girl.

The book also discusses Advent Calendars and their origin, as well as famous "Christmas Crooners". Christmas Carols and songs are mentioned going into quite a lot of detail about them. At the very end of the book there is a timeline from 4000BC to 2015. There is also an added joke prediction entry for the year 2048!

So although I did like most of the book there were sections that seemed to drag on and I felt a little impatient with those. I do agree with the quote Miranda Hart makes on the cover that this book would indeed make a great stocking filler gift, especially if the person you are buying is a bit of a history buff. My initial thoughts immediately as I finished the book was that this is an informative book and Christmas and its origins, customs and traditions from around the world.

From the front cover and the blurb, I had expected 'Hark!' to be a highly humorous account of all things Christmas - a light-hearted book full of joy that could be read in the run-up to Christmas to fill you with a similar warmth to that of a delicious mulled wine. Unfortunately this book was more factual and historical; although there were little snippets of dry humour here and there, there weren't enough humorous parts to make this an easy read. I found the content quite heavy and much more suited to someone who is perhaps a history buff and has the patience to sit and learn all the facts behind Christmas.

I was hoping for a biography of Christmas, both secular and religious, not a bashing of Christianity. This book was not for me at all.

http://thespooniemummy.com/2017/12/19/blogmas-day-nineteen-book-review-hark-the-biography-of-christmas

Review goes live on 19/12/2017

Paul Kerensa traces the history of Christmas from ancient times to the present in a lively procession of history and facts, overlaid with Tommy Cooperesque interjections. Depending on your innate abilities, it could make you a pub quiz champion or the pub bore. Kerensa works hard to keep the reader entertained, and mostly succeeds.

The cover gives the impression of being a book of few words, with much distraction and empty spaces. But, in its own way, it’s quite meaty. Beginning well before the Christ after whom Christmas is named, it’s when he reaches ancient Rome that it really takes off. While not as erudite as Mary Beard or as compellingly-paced as Robert Harris, his incidental coverage of Roman civilisation is actually very informative. I’ve been there many times but learned new things from the book.

Theologically, he scores well and even gets the Immaculate Conception right, i.e. Mary, not Jesus. But the donkey gets expelled from the nativity.

St Nicholas, naturally, gets a starring role, as the originator of Santa Claus and St Francis of Assisi as the person who popularised the do-it-yourself at home nativity crib scene. The vanishing of Christmas associated with Puritanism was a surprise but only to be expected, though Cromwell had a role in popularising mince pies, though I’d have to be a bit doubtful about the claim that that average Briton now eats an average 27 mince pies per year. The part of the book dealing with wassailing and Merrie England was the least entertaining.

Other European countries, particularly Germany, are covered and, in the latter part of the book, the US. Washington Irvine is given a lot credit for US traditions.

The marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert was the real turning point in arriving at the current Christmas traditions, as he imported much of the German traditions, such as Christmas trees. Dickens, who hated Albert (not in his own right but as the taker of Victoria, who was adored by Dickens), was the other architect of what we know now.

Latterly, the US is setting traditions and a surprise was the relative newness of some famous Christmas songs, such as White Christmas (1941) and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (1949). But it took the Irish to come up with the best: Fairytale of New York.

An effortless read, it will entertain and inform.

A well presented and written non-fiction book about the history of Christmas throughout the ages. It is easy to read which makes it a joy to read.

Enjoyable stocking filler with a variety of Christmas themed facts to interest all ages and interests.

This book was interesting for anyone who wants a different perspective on Christmas and the history of it came to be as it is today.