Christmas has been in our eyes and ears and pocket books since the day after Thanksgiving. So I thought to go once again into the labyrinth of the invention of Christmas and many of its current ramifications in the next few postings. It is a fascinating example of how a story continually told over many years becomes its own evidence. ‘Everybody knows’ is not evidence. Almost everyone in my favorite coffee house ‘knows’ a tremendous amount about Tiger Woods. None of them have ever met him, nor are they likely to meet him.

Christmas has been in our eyes and ears and pocket books since the day after Thanksgiving. So I thought to go into the labyrinth of the invention of Christmas and many of its current ramifications in the next few postings. It is a fascinating example of how a story continually told over many years becomes its own evidence. This is Part 1.