Donald Brown Miller has a year to live. At least that's what his guardian angel has told him. He'd like to shrug it off as a strange dream but he can't, it seems much too real. If he does have a guardian angel, why would she want him to know? Couldn't she do something about it? There'll be other angels. Old friends and acquaintances, even complete strangers. All have one thing in mind; they want him to die a happy man. They're here to help. This won't be easy, he has issues. So do they.

How do we understand Christmas? What does it mean? This book is a lively introduction to the study of popular culture through one central case study. It explores the cultural, social and historical contexts of Christmas in the UK, USA and Australia, covering such topics as fiction, film, television, art, newspapers and magazines, war, popular music and carols. Chapters explore the ways in which the production of meaning is mediated by the social and cultural activities surrounding Christmas (watching Christmas films, television, listening or engaging with popular music and carols), its relationship to a set of basic values (the idealised construct of the family), social relationships (community), and the ways in which ideological discourses are used and mobilised, not least in times of conflict, terrorism and war.

Dramatic time travel fiction as a family is cast into ancient history and pre-history, slavery and immigration, the birth of Christmas, and how Noahs sons populate the earth through the empires. 70th Anniversary of Old Sturbridge Village Harriet Tubman on the new $20 bill Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin tales Noahs repopulation through the empires Who are the Egyptian slaves? Old Sturbridge Village discovers the secret of Christmas