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Of Christmases Long, Long Ago

Surprising Traditions from Christmas Past

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Of Christmases Long, Long Ago

By: Brian Earl
Narrated by: Brian Earl
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About this listen

Author Brian Earl is back with another look at the fascinating stories behind the most wonderful time of the year. Get ready to experience Christmas as you’ve never seen it before.

Surely, Christmas in the distant past must have been different from the one we know today. But how different? You’re about to find out. The Christmases of long, long ago were a merry mess of odd superstitions, dangerous games, and overindulgences that lasted from Christmas Day until Epiphany twelve days later. The “Christmas season” of earlier times was not the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day that Americans experience today, but rather a no-holds-barred bacchanalia following the austerity period of Advent. From it evolved some of our present-day traditions, such as caroling, which had its roots in beggars performing for a meal. This book also answers such questions as: when was Christmas Day first celebrated on December 25? Which president celebrated the first White House Christmas? What are the origins of holly and ivy as Christmas décor? These questions and more are answered in this fascinating look back at Christmases past.

©2025 Brian Earl (P)2025 Recorded Books Christian Living Christianity Civilization World Winter Christmas
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I love Brian Earl. His podcast and first book were wonderful and so informative about my favourite time of the year. His narration is warm and you can hear his love for the topics in his voice.

That said, this book was hit and miss for me. I was very excited at a new book by Brian Earl, but when I noticed the listening time was almost half of the first but at the same price I was a bit worried. There are some great parts but the book felt like a time filler. For example, the last 20+ minutes are a reading of a lovely ghost story, a lovely ghost story I have heard half a dozen times on free podcasts and also read by very good narrators...but this one I had to pay for. This didn't happen in the first book, it was packed start to finish but the long ghost still did feel like a way to get the audiobook past the two hours mark...and that's a shame. Maybe if it had a couple more Christmas ghost stories to fill out another 30 minutes it might have softened the blow a small bit.

The bar was set remarkably high from his first book, so it was always going to be difficult to maintain that high standard. Still, on to Mr Earls wonderful podcast that I eagerly await each year.

Not for me sadly

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