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October 29, 2015 News, Press Releases

Controversial Christmas Book Challenges Santa Claus and Jesus Is the Reason for the Season

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October 29, 2015 News, Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Merrill Miller, 202-238-9088 ext. 105, merrillmiller@americanhumanist.org

(Washington, DC, Oct. 29, 2015)—Humanist Press, the publishing arm of the American Humanist Association, is set to release The Myths that Stole Christmas by David Kyle Johnson, PhD, a book that will make readers rethink everything they thought they knew about Christmas.

The book keenly observes that Christmas has become an expensive and stressful obligation, not the joyful celebration we portray it to be. Johnson tackles the so-called “War on Christmas” and the Religious Right’s claim that Christmas is losing touch with its Christian origins. Christmas, he demonstrates, has always been a secular holiday with greater emphasis on feasting than praying. Johnson even takes on the big man in the red suit, Santa Claus himself, by claiming that teaching children to believe in Santa Claus is not harmless fun. Rather, Johnson asserts that instilling a belief in Santa Claus is a bad parenting practice that hampers critical thinking, imaginative play, and moral values in children.

Perhaps the biggest myth about Christmas that Johnson debunks is that Christmas cannot change. Given the many changes Christmas has undergone, we can change it into a celebration that works for us, not the consumerist and religiously divisive affair it has become today. As Barry Jones of the Scottish comedy team Barry and Stuart said about Johnson’s book, “The sooner you read this book, the sooner you can actually enjoy Christmas.”

David Kyle Johnson will be giving book talks to the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia on November 29, 2015 at 1:00pm ET at the Upper Moreland Library in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, and to the Lehigh Valley Humanists on December 6, 2015, at 10:30am at the Allentown Brew Works in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Members of the media are welcome to attend and should contact Merrill Miller, communications associate, at merrillmiller@americanhumanist.org. Dr. Johnson is also available for interviews.

Dr. Johnson is an associate professor of philosophy at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He blogs for Psychology Today and has written and edited extensively for Wiley-Blackwell’s Philosophy and Pop Culture series, as well as published numerous articles on philosophy and religion. He has written extensively about the history of Christmas and the harmful effects of the Santa Claus lie for Psychology Today, Scott Lowe’s Christmas—Philosophy for Everyone, and the London School of Economics.

The Myths that Stole Christmas will be available from Humanist Press on November 20, 2015. Readers can pre-order here. Print copies are $18.99, and ebook copies are $9.99.

###

Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming philosophy of humanism, which—without beliefs in any gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

Humanist Press is the publishing house of the American Humanist Association, providing material for the humanist/freethought/atheist market since 1995.

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