Pagan Christmas

This makes a nice read at midwinter, not so much for local festival days as the pre-Christian Germanic & Scandinavian origins (and process of adoption/adaptation) of many of our current 'Christmas' traditions (particularly aromatics, supernatural beings & folk customs). Lots of lovely colourful piccies too - old postcards, adverts, woodcuts etc. Even includes incense recipes for the 'smudging nights' (lovely pragmatic quote: "if you experience psychoactive effects with incense, you have probably inhaled too much smoke").