When Christmas Meets the "Umbrage Industry"

Hostility toward Christmas, Santa Claus, and the Christmas tree has a long history, as does disgust with the holiday's appropriation by politicians, marketers, and lobbyists. Gerry Bowler's often hilarious, sometimes tedious Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World's Most Celebrated Holiday (Oxford University Press) chronicles a mind-boggling array of conflicts stretching from the ancient world to today. Ever ready with wry zingers for Christmas's legions of opponents or another quote illustrating the quixotic zeal of its appropriators, at times Bowler gives the impression of someone who loves his subject a little too much.