Christmas: from keeping Christ in it, to carols filling the air at the mall before Thanksgiving, to preserving holiday traditions that link us back to our past – it can all seem a bit chaotic. But what if you were to look at another era when issues like commercialization, piety and preserved traditions were depicted in paintings? This lecture focuses on the art of 17th-century Flanders and Holland, including works by great masters like Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Pieter Breughel and Jacob Jordaens, and how each artist depicts Christmas and the season with plentitude, piety and parody.