History--Yes. Commentary--No.

The Dead of Winter, Sarah Clegg

Christmas in the past wasn't all Santa Claus bringing gifts, red-nosed reindeer, and Frosty the snowman (who isn't even a Christmas thing, originally). Christmas in the past was a time of evil spirits slipping through the thin veil that separates the real and spiritual world, ghost stories, and companions of "Santa" (St. Nicholas) who threatened to punish naughty children by eating them, opening up their stomachs, or putting them into a bag and taking them to be punished.

Clegg takes trips to Europe to investigate locations that still play up these Christmas visitors, including Wales to follow a Mari Lywd parade and Sweden to investigate Santa Lucia and the Netherlands to see St. Nicholas and Zwarte Piet, and of course the infamous Krampus. She also visits Carnival in Venice, because many Christmas customs that were discarded once people stopped celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas migrated to Carnival. She gives us her point of view of these celebrations, but also includes an endless litany of how the past was racist, sexist, and every other kind of bad "ist." It was very off-putting to have the narrative interrupted so many times with this "but!" commentary. It would have been best to deal with it once, in a foreward, and stop with the lecturing. I would have appreciated a deeper delving into the customs rather than just her POV of them without the constant criticism of the past.
.