Linda Raedisch

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

The Secret History of Christmas Baking is a fun, breezy overview of Christmas treats that doesn't ignore dark aspects of the past, either. Really, this is an ideal book for people like me to geek out over food history.

Raedisch references her own German-American background often, but her exploration is by no means confined to Germany. The history of Christmas baking means the entire world is involved, as many "holiday spices" come from tropical places. The tale of how those ingredients traversed the world--and then later became attached to Christmas--is a convoluted one. Sometimes Raedisch proposes theories, but they don't seem far-fetched. She acknowledges the role of slavery in things like the sugar trade and the develop of vanilla harvesting. The balance of grim reality and levity feels right. There are some wild historical tangents (witches are a regular theme) but they are all pretty fun and do carry some connection to Christmas baking.

There are recipes throughout, too, mostly from Europe. In addition, there are projects and even schematics for doing some papercrafts to accompany a Christmas meal.… (mais)

I picked up this book, thinking it would be about Christmas ghost stories, and, hopefully, tell some of those stories. It does talk about the British practice of telling ghost stories at Christmas, but it’s really a collection of folk tales and practices, mainly from the more notherly areas of Europe. Elves, of course- although not quite the ones we think of today in respect to Christmas, Christmas beasties like horses and cats, goblins, tontum, witches, Santa Lucia, Yule logs, first-footing, plants and how they became standard Christmas décor, and, my favorite part and something I’d never heard of, vampires and werewolves associated with the dark days! There are even some related crafts and recipes included.

The author tries to stick absolutely everything she learned about Christmas/Yule/Solstice traditions into the book; because of this, the entries are very short and nothing is gone into in real depth. I found that very disappointing. There is, however, a good bibliography in the back so that the reader can go on to learn more about the subjects that take their interest. The book is a bit uneven; there were a couple of sections that I skimmed over after a while, but mostly it’s a fast, if somewhat disjointed, read. Four stars.… (mais)