Essay: "Seed Corn and Mistletoe." Bernard De Voto

One-minute review: An essay on the American Christmas—symbolized by a lighted cabin in the dark in the snow surrounded by a forest and looking west. “Cerebrals” can criticize America’s Christmas all they want—its commercialism, etc.—but an American Christmas is uniquely an American Christmas, remembered by adults as children and passed on to their children. And an American Christmas is preceded by an American Thanksgiving with its pumpkins and shocked corn in a way that only Americans gather corn in shocks. The roots of America may lie in Europe, but the symbol of America is maize and Europe had no maize. America is America and all that it symbolizes, including maize, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

American Essays. Ed. Charles B. Shaw. A Pelican Mentor Book. New York: The New American Library. 1948.