Christmas in July

 

The Atlas of Christmas: The Merriest, Tastiest, Quirkiest Holiday Traditions from Around the World, Alex Palmer

I've been collecting Christmas books for 20-30 years now, so a lot of the customs talked about in this book I already know...but it's still a nifty little volume, because there are so many holiday customs I didn't know about as well. The book is divided into nine parts: Ceremonies and Rituals (Three Kings Day and Santa Lucia, among others), Musical Interludes and Interlopers (bagpipes in Italy rather than Scotland and mumming in Newfoundland), Local Quirks and Curious Practices (the much-vaunted Christmas book flood in Iceland along with Finnish saunas and a "poop log" in Spain), Saints and Gift Bringers (alternate Santa like La Befana, Frau Holle, Tante Arie, and even some male ones), Devils and Troublemakers (here comes Krampus with his long tongue and bag for naughty children and the problem with "Black Peter"), Holiday Trimmings and Trinkets (beautiful lanterns in the Philippines, a Yule goat, and a wheat chandelier), Fierce Competitions and Leisurely Pastimes (Christmas verse with a difference in the Netherlands and Christmas crackers), Savory and Satisfying Holiday Dishes (holiday foods...), and Celebratory Sweets (...and desserts and drinks).

 

This book includes a lot of new traditions from Africa and the Middle East that I'd never heard of, even a Chinese custom of giving apples during the holiday season, despite the government's efforts to suppress Western holidays. If you don't have any other books about Christmas customs in other lands, this would be a great starter volume for reading about world holiday customs. It's illustrated with quaint little cutout paper type illustrations, although photos of some of the food would have been cool. The only problem is that someone appeared to quit proofreading the book about halfway through and there are references to other articles that say "see page TK," but this doesn't spoil the narrative. Also, they seemed to skip the German custom of the peppermint pig.

(Incidentally, the story you hear about the custom of the pickle ornament on German Christmas trees is not here, as Germans say it's not a German custom.)

A Christmas Legacy, Anne Perry

This is this year's Christmas book from Perry, who is most famous for her two Victorian mystery series: the later set Charlotte and Thomas Pitt stories starting with The Cater Street Hangman and the earlier set William Monk/Hester Latterley novels starting with Face of A Stranger. In each of the books she has a usually minor character from one of the two series facing some sort of problem during the Yuletide season.

A Christmas Legacy stars one of Perry's most beloved supporting characters, Gracie Phipps Tellman, once the teenage servant of the Pitts. Now married to Thomas Pitt's old partner on the Metropolitan Police, Samuel Tellman, with three children (Charlotte "Charlie," Thomas, and Victor), Gracie takes pity on Millie Foster, whose mother she and Tellman had helped when Millie was a child. Millie works as a maid for a wealthy family and things like food are disappearing from the kitchen. She's afraid something odd is going on and the servants will be blamed for it, and she's desperate for someone to help. If one of the servants gets dismissed without a character reference, they will likely spend the rest of their lives on the street. So Gracie concocts a story that Millie is ill, produces a character reference from Charlotte Pitt, and with her husband's blessing, takes Millie's place at the Harcourt home. She promises Tellman and little Charlie she will be home for Christmas, but is immediately swept up in the problems Millie has spoken about, and can't figure out for the life of her what's going on...but it has to do with the food, and something upstairs.

I think readers will guess pretty quickly what's going on after Gracie finds out the secret of the food and especially after a conversation between the Harcourts, but it's the humanity of Gracie's reaction once she discovers the problem and the actions of the servants that carry this book. The actual mystery is a bit cliche, but it's all heartwarming, and Charlie is a darling character. I really wish Perry would write some books about Tellman's cases and how Gracie has helped him, as they intimate she has in at least one case with Millie's mother, as I find Gracie and Tellman both more interesting than her newest character, Elena Standish.