Slogans such as "Let's put Christ back into Christmas" or "Jesus Is the Reason for the Season" hold an appeal to Christians who oppose the commercializing of events they hold sacred. However, through a close look at the rise of holidays in the United States, this book argues that commercial appropriations of these occasions were as religious in form as they were secular. The rituals of America's holiday bazaar that emerged in the 19th century offered a luxuriant merger of the holy and the profane - a heady blend of fashion and faith, merchandizing and gift-giving, profits and sentiments, all celebrations of a devout consumption. This book offers a reassessment of the "consumer rites" that various social critics have long decried for their spiritual emptiness and banal sentimentality.
