we used this for a class and found it needed guifdance

Heinz brings together many useful Christmas resources--songs, poems, quotes, and historical observations.
He provides a useful framework to thinking about Christmas and how to maximize its meaning in multiple settings--church, home, and wider communities.

Why not four stars? Heinz only infrequently deepens one's understanding of Christmas and provides few pointers to how its celebration might be improved. The writing is predictable and repetitive.

Summary: Four out of Five stars. A good text that reaches beyond the contemporary confinement concerning Christmas and provides an erudite read of the historical and theological basis for Christmas. Central to the purpose which Heinz has for the text is indentifying Christmas in its appropriate expression as a celebration of the incarnation of Jesus. Though the text seem limited by redundancy and a continual rant against consumerism, the author does provide a readable text that is informative for the engaged reader. This is a good text for the included theological reader who desires a text which is deep in history, rich in story, and thorough in method.

Detail: At the center of this book's aim is to delve into the annual winter festival known as Christmas to uncover the Christian practice as a celebration of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Per the author's description, "This book is a religious and historical accounting of Christmas as an ever-evolving festival of Incarnation...This book tells the amazing story of how an original religious festival celebrating the one-time Incarnation of God that is the heart of Christianity relentlessly expanded the divine investment in material culture and laid down vast deposits in the Western tradition." (ix) To accomplish this task, Heinz lays out three sections across which he moves from text to historical expression and to culture.

Heinz keeps central that Christmas, as it stands today, provides a unique interaction with the sacred and secular that should not be ignored. However, this interaction exists at a tension where excessive consumerism has turned this distinctively Christian celebration (at least in its post-Easter adaptation) into a feast of personal indulgence instead of the reflection on the divine gift. One of the aims for Heinz is how the Church might recapture Christmas and bring it back to its profound reflection on the nature and glory of the incarnation of Christ.

In evaluation of the text, Heinz has produced a unique work that rises above the sugary, shallow treatments that provide intellectual Milquetoast during a season which should be profoundly reflective. While the work is not beyond the grasp of the layman it also welcomes the attuned scholar. This is a difficult text to develop as it must speak into both worlds; being readable while also providing depth. However, Heinz does well to produce a text amiable to this level of discussion. Some might find the text too lofty, favoring something with a more sweet tooth satisfying glaze of cultural accommodate. There are plenty of treatments of the season that will suffice. For readers who desire to be stretched and motivated to consider the Incarnational reason for the season, Heinz has provided a text that does permit this intellectual exercise.

There are a few weak spots in the text. While I am not convinced that capitalism is entirely corrupt, I do share a concern for the secular religion of reckless consumerism which pervades the holiday. Christmas for the vast majority of people in the western world is indistinguishable as a festival of Incarnation. However, I do worry that Heinz takes his critique too far and becomes redundant. For readers who align with his theological school, the tones of liberationist theology will be soothing, for evangelicals the continual refrain against capitalism seems injurious to the point of the book. Heinz does well to show how Christmas has been both banished and welcomed by different generations of Christians. He does seem, though, to take this critique too far and, specifically in the final summation, seems a bit overbearing. This is the most troubling weak spot for the text.

Some more conservative evangelicals will be uncomfortable with Heinz's theological method which will rub against the standard theological commits they are comfortable with and cause some strain. However, if a reader can look beyond this they will find a text rich in historical and theological reflection. There are some theological points which I didn't agree with but I still found the larger point of the text edifying and educating.

The text is replete with quotable lines, useful illustrations, and helpful historical reflections. If pastors and teachers were to take some of the illustrations and lines from the text their sermons and lessons would benefit. Overall, I believe this is a fine text that is written well, researched well, and presented in a fine format. The middle section of various pictures and art is a wonderful addition. Also, the annotated notes section (there are no endnotes or footnotes) is well researched and the author's own annotations are rather insightful. This is a good text and would be a excellent selection for a more inclined theological reader who desires a deeper discussion on the beauty of the Incarnation in the midst of the holiday season.