Holiday History

The only thing Charlotte loves as much as ballet is Christmas. So, when she gets the opportunity to play Marie in the New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker, she leaps at the chance. Dancing takes practice - hours of adjusting her arms and perfecting her jumps. With the help of her Trinidadian and Filipino families, encouragement from her sister, and a view of her mom and dad in the audience, Charlotte finds the strength to never give up.

We know that Jesus was not born December 25, AD 0. This date was selected by a monk in the sixth century. We believe that we have learned the more precise date, having found the date for the Star of Bethlehem and the scientific manner that God used to create and display it.

All across the world, among hundreds of cultures and across centuries, people have come together to give thanks. But Americans didn’t have an official Thanksgiving holiday until the 1800s. The holiday Americans know today exists because of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, a spirited letter-writing campaign, a sympathetic president, and a civil war.

This audiobook is an investigation about the idea that Thanksgiving is a dark holiday and what that says about American culture.