<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/620869a7-b15e-4b6d-b591-a5c036039420/BEF3E3E3-CF8B-4D63-B224-6553A91ED6D9/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html" href="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.czerniec.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html"><CITE><A target="_blank" href="http://astore.amazon.com/czerniec/detail/0679740384/103-8130371-9076661">The Battle for Christmas</A></CITE> is about how a boisterous orgy was deliberately tamed in the United States into the tradition of family Christmas shopping and commercialism that we know today. The Christmas holiday was transformed by a small club of wealthy men in New York, members of an elite set known as the <A target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knickerbocracy">Knickerbockers</A>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html">Initially, Nissenbaum explains, Christmas for many early Americans was a season of "misrule" — an extended post-harvest festival of drunkenness, rowdiness, and lust carried over from similar traditions in England and Europe in general</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html">The view of the <A target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan">Puritans</A> was that the date had no connection to the birth of Jesus Christ and was merely a varnished-over pagan festival.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html">Borrowing the figure of <A target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas">Sinterklaas</A> from the Dutch, they fashioned a new American stay-at-home tradition revolving around family members buying gifts for each other</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html">I am not kidding in the least when I say that <CITE><A target="_blank" href="http://astore.amazon.com/czerniec/detail/0679740384/103-8130371-9076661">The Battle for Christmas</A></CITE> has helped me endure "<A target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000UBMZ8O/czerniec">The Most Wonderful Time of the Year</A>."</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.czerniec.com/2007/11/24/battle-for-christmas.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.czerniec.com/img/87F469CA-8C15-492E-8BFA-7F7B992B5C0E" alt="The Battle for Christmas, by Stephen Nissenbaum" /></div></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/clip-icon.gif" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://img.skitch.com/20090822-muu8cgdqacm32e1c6fis3xmr2g.jpg" href="http://img.skitch.com/20090822-muu8cgdqacm32e1c6fis3xmr2g.jpg" style="font-size: 11px;">img.skitch.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://img.skitch.com/20090822-muu8cgdqacm32e1c6fis3xmr2g.jpg"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/img.skitch.com/img/91E13E40-5867-4379-B873-0A880DBC26CC" alt="http://img.skitch.com/20090822-muu8cgdqacm32e1c6fis3xmr2g.jpg" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/BEF3E3E3-CF8B-4D63-B224-6553A91ED6D9/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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