OSHER 956 - Christmas History Part I

Christmas is coming. The stores are getting ready and so can you with this class about the history of Christmas as a religious observance and secular festive holiday. We will examine the evolution of Christmas season music, the origin and transformation of Santa Claus, and the portrayal of Christmas in movies, television, and national magazines. In this gloriously illustrated class, you will learn that Christmas began as a pagan festival, the Christmas season was marked by drunken revelry, Christmas carols were prohibited in church, and Christmas was banned in America. We will also discover that Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is not just a children's story, and that Santa Claus was a woman, did not fly through the air with reindeer, and came on New Year's Eve.