{"id":9421,"date":"2010-12-24T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=9421"},"modified":"2010-12-23T17:30:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T22:30:06","slug":"staff-picks-christmas-reads-portlandia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/24\/staff-picks-christmas-reads-portlandia\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Picks: Christmas Reads, Portlandia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If Christmas is now a thoroughly domesticated ritual\u2014gifts beneath the tree, cookies and milk for Santa\u2014Stephen Nissenbaum\u2019s The Battle for Christmas<\/a><\/em> reminds us that it wasn\u2019t always so. The Puritans of Massachusetts outlawed the holiday (since it was obviously just the pagan solstice in disguise), and until the mid-nineteenth century it was mostly an excuse to get drunk and hit the streets. In 1712, Cotton Mather complained: \u201c[T]he Feast of Christ\u2019s Nativity is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking, and in all Licentious Liberty.\u201d Those were the days. \u2014Robyn Creswell<\/strong><\/p>\n

I discovered a nicely bound anthology edited by W. Somerset Maugham<\/a> while wading through the holiday shoppers at the Strand. In it, among many other gems, was a series of (charmingly prefaced) epigrams by Hilaire Belloc<\/a>. My favorite (titled On His Books<\/em>): \u201cWhen I am dead, I hope it may be said:\/ \u2018His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.\u2019\u201d \u2014Stephen Andrew Hiltner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is it that Christmas spirit seems to be the most difficult to find around the holidays? The feeling I associate with December is stress: the stress of coming up with the perfect gift for a loved one, then braving the vicious hordes to buy it; the stress of the post office; the stress of travel. Which is why David Foster Wallace\u2019s 2005 Kenyon Commencement Speech<\/a> is so essential. Wallace calls on his audience to summon the sort generosity that this season purports to be\u2014but rarely is\u2014about. \u201cIt will be within your power,\u201d he promises, \u201cto experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars\u2014compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things.\u201d That would truly be a Christmas miracle. \u2014Miranda Popkey<\/strong><\/p>\n

With lines like \u201cPortland is a city where young people go to retire,\u201d IFC\u2019s Portlandia<\/em> looks like (organic, locally grown) manna from television heaven. The trailer<\/a> has been on repeat play (and then some) here at the office this week, and I\u2019m counting the minutes until the January 21 premiere. Sure, they\u2019re shooting fish in a barrel, but then again, it\u2019s only funny \u2019cause it\u2019s true<\/a>. \u2014Peter Conroy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Christmas is now a thoroughly domesticated ritual\u2014gifts beneath the tree, cookies and milk for Santa\u2014Stephen Nissenbaum\u2019s The Battle for Christmas reminds us that it wasn\u2019t always so. The Puritans of Massachusetts outlawed the holiday (since it was obviously just the pagan solstice in disguise), and until the mid-nineteenth century it was mostly an excuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[1442,354,883],"class_list":["post-9421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-weeks-reading","tag-christmas","tag-recommendations","tag-staff-picks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStaff Picks: Christmas Reads, Portlandia by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 24, 2010 \u2013 If Christmas is now a thoroughly domesticated ritual\u2014gifts beneath the tree, cookies and milk for Santa\u2014Stephen Nissenbaum\u2019s The Battle for Christmas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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