Not All Comfort and Joy in the Dead of Winter

The Dead of Winter: The Demons, Witches and Ghosts of Christmas

by Sarah Clegg

published by Granta

ISBN 9781803511535

Let me start off by saying that I love this book! It's informative and fun--once I started it, I was all in and could not put it down. The author states her intention at the beginning:

'This is my account of a winter spent with monsters, but it's also an effort to understand their history, where and when they originated, and why they take the forms they do.It is an attempt as well to understand why we are so drawn to horrors at Christmastime.' (p 9)

She accomplishes her goals and more. Clegg takes readers with her as she visits various midwinter festivals, even as she begins with Carnival, just before Lent, since as she says, this is what Christmas used to be like when Saturnalia was still celebrated. She also attends the Mummer's Play on December 26th in the Cotswolds, The Chipstow (Wales) Wassail in on January 20th, The Salzburg Krampus Run on December 5th, Lucy's Night in Finland on December 13th, and solstice at Stonehenge on December 22nd.

In each place, she participates, observes, and digs deeper to discover how each particular festival evolved, what came before it, and how each fits into a larger context. This is a slim volume, but it's packed full of fascinating history. Perhaps surprisingly for a book that's about the darker side of Christmas, it's also funny. I found myself laughing more than once. Clegg has a very dry humor, which I love and it comes through in her excellent writing. This is particularly true in the footnotes. I usually don't care much for footnotes, but in this case they added so much to the book that I was glad they were there. Finally, the cover art is fabulous!

I'll end where I began--I love this book and I highly recommend it! 

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