Santa Claus, singing cowboys, love, hymns, satire, snow, Bing and Dean and Frank, fictional reindeer and warbling chipmunks: American Christmas music Ronald Lankford has the rare ability to reconcile the sacred and the profane in an easy narrative that manages both to cherish and illuminate the vast contradictions that adhere to December 25th in the U.S.A. Karal Ann Marling, author of Merry Christmas Celebrating America s Greatest Holiday

Thorough and well documented. Spins interesting and novel insights into songs with which we are already familiar. Paul Mullins, author of...