Peter Bolland

Our modern American Christmas celebration is a multicultural blend of ancient and modern elements from all over the world. On the surface Christmas commemorates the birth of the central figure in Christianity, a Jew called Jesus of Nazareth. As this nascent religion evolved and developed it, like a snowball rolling downhill, picked up bits and pieces of every culture it encountered—Roman ritual, Germanic symbolism, Norse mythology, Dutch folk tales, British customs, American pop culture, and more. Join us as we tease out the many tendrils and roots of this beautiful holiday and seek out the underlying universal mythological significance and spiritual meaning of these familiar images, icons, and songs.