“Behind every tale of Christmas monsters lurks the true darkness of Christmas - the solstice, and the longest night of the year….Christmas is still spent deep in the shadows.”

Every year my husband and I exchange books on Christmas Eve, following the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð! This year I got The Dead of Winter by Sarah Clegg and it’s so short that I’ve already finished it ❄️ 

I love Clegg’s writing! She tells us the history of Christmas monsters/folklore and how traditions have evolved over the centuries in an informative yet fun way. I was laughing at some of her side comments in the footnotes! 

I adored her debut (Woman’s Lore) and after loving this one, she’s definitely an auto buy author now! I was engaged the whole way through, with enough information to learn new things without being dry or feeling overwhelmed. I especially loved learning the connections between folklore of the demons, witches, and ghosts and how these tales are often shared (if slightly different ways) across Europe! 

The one reason this is not 5 stars is her conflation of the German and Dutch celebrations of St Nicholas; Clegg claims that both in the Netherlands and Germany, people exchange presents on the 5th of December (true) but that the shoes for gifts from St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) takes place on the 6th of December. The Netherlands (as I’ve been told by my Dutch family) does the shoe thing in November upon his arrival, everything has ended for us by the 6th unlike in Germany where it is actually celebrated with the shoes on St Nicholas’ Saint’s Day. So for the minor misinformation on that I deducted half a star 🥲

Overall it was a perfect read for Christmas and so intriguing to learn more about folklore traditions surrounding the winter holidays!