Despite its enduring popularity as a national festival, Christmas has been largely neglected by English historians. Neil Armstrong offers the first study to examine both the experience and representation of Christmas during the formative period of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book explores the origins of our deeply held notions of the traditional nature of Christmas and demonstrates how they were shaped by English modernity. A study of both continuity and change, Christmas in nineteenth-Ccntury England makes an important contribution to cultural and social history, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of childhood, the family, philanthropy, work and consumerism. Scholarly yet accessible, it will be enjoyed by academics, students and the general public alike.