Christmas? Bah! Humbug! forwarded by Jill

[jill stockinger]

Karen Arenson  (Jill's sister)	4:18 PM (2 hours ago)

Here’s a bit of “bah, humbug” if you have had enough Christmas, from The Economist magazine:

The Faber Book of Christmas. Edited by Simon Rae. Faber & Faber; 288 pages; £18

Curled up with this anthology, readers will find much to delight and amuse them in the prose and poetry of such writers as Washington Irving, Christina Rossetti, T. S. Eliot and Jilly Cooper. 

Ms. Cooper writes on the theme of festive-season adultery: “if she suddenly starts looking wonderful over Christmas, and doesn't put on at least seven pounds misery-eating, the marriage is in trouble.” 

Some of the best entries moan instead of marvel. George Bernard Shaw declares Christmas to be “an atrocious institution”. 

Philip Larkin describes how “Christmas idiocy bursts upon one like a slavering Niagara of non-sense”. 

And Wendy Cope writes: 

happy families go to church and cheerily they mingle

        And the whole business is unbelievably dreadful, 

       if you're single.”

This compendium of cheerful and dyspeptic writing, loosely arranged by theme rather than in the order in which its pieces were written, is a cut above most festive fare.