Christmas Lies and Legends

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "Christmas Lies and Legends" was published on December 9, 2020 and runs 60 minutes.

December 9, 2020 ·60m · Gresham College Lectures

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Summary

Is Santa really Dutch? Were Christmas Trees introduced by Prince Albert? Was Christmas once a time of faith, rather than riotous feasting? In this lecture, social historian Judith Flanders considers Christmas myths and Christmas memory, and will explore how everything you think you know about Christmas is wrong. She looks at the long history of nostalgia for a different kind of Christmas, and whether Christmas ever really existed at all. A lecture by Judith Flanders 9 December The transcr...

Episode Description

Is Santa really Dutch? Were Christmas Trees introduced by Prince Albert? Was Christmas once a time of faith, rather than riotous feasting?

In this lecture, social historian Judith Flanders considers Christmas myths and Christmas memory, and will explore how everything you think you know about Christmas is wrong. She looks at the long history of nostalgia for a different kind of Christmas, and whether Christmas ever really existed at all.

A lecture by Judith Flanders 9 December

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/christmas-legends

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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