[My awesome wife Vaughn Joy’s book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy has been out for about four months, which means Vaughn has had the chance to share it through a ton of book talks, podcast episodes, writing, and more. So this week I’ll highlight a handful of such occasions, leading up to a special post featuring my own thoughts on this must-read book!]
On one longstanding and one new connection that made Vaughn’s first in-person book talk extra special, and what also made it entirely her own.
There are many reasons why both Edgartown and Martha’s Vineyard are among my most meaningful places, including the fact that Vaughn and I were married there! But when it comes to historical writing, the top of that list has to be my grandfather Art Railton, about whose exemplary life and culminating book publication alike I wrote in this tribute post after his passing in May 2011. I’d ask you to check out that tribute post if you would, as it provides one key layer to what made Vaughn’s early December book talk at the Edgartown Public Library so special.
The Library’s support was instrumental in making that event happen, and I’d highlight in particular the Programs Director Claudia Taylor (who is also, as that hyperlinked story notes, the Island’s current poet laureate!). But just as supportive, and particularly representative of what I love so much about the Martha’s Vineyard community, was the manager of Edgartown Books, Mathew Tombers. As that Vineyard Gazette story details, Mathew came to both the bookselling business and the Vineyard just a few years ago, but in that short time he has fully made both worlds his own, and his ordering a handful of copies of Vaughn’s book for her to sign and sell at the talk was a wonderfully generous and moving gesture. We were able to buy Mathew a drink after the talk to express our gratitude, and in talking with him further learned about his incredibly multilayered professional and personal story (again, detailed in that Gazette article), all of which he has brought to Edgartown Books, to Edgartown, and to the Island. My grandfather was an emigrant to Martha’s Vineyard, as just about everyone who loves it is and has always been (outside of the Wampanoag people, of course), and Mathew embodies that community at its most communal to be sure.
I couldn’t write a post about a book talk in Edgartown and not highlight those inspiring past and present connections. But I most certainly can’t start a series on Vaughn’s book without dedicating a paragraph to her own unique and vital voice and perspective. I wrote a bit about (some of) what I love about the book in this post, and will say more this coming weekend. But a key detail from this first in-person talk reflects another vital and lovable layer to Vaughn’s perspective on American Christmas. Under the beautiful wintry white sweater that Vaughn was wearing at the start of the talk—but that she quickly took off as it was plenty warm in the Library’s programs space—she had on a new t-shirt, which we had spotted at Zaftigs Delicatessen in Brookline and which she had to have for precisely such occasions. The shirt reads “Happy Challah-days,” and while that’s officially a nod to Zaftig’s delicious menu of Jewish delicacies, Vaughn meant something quite different through her sporting of it at this book talk. She consistently makes, and made in both the talk and her Q&A conversation with audience members, the case that American Christmas is not only not a religious holiday, but that it reflects and embodies the foundational and enduring diversity of this nation and community. There’s nothing more important to argue for in 2025-26, and Vaughn’s book talks, like her book, do so passionately and potently.
Next book convo tomorrow,
Ben
PS. If you’ve had a chance to check out the book, and/or have ideas for places or ways Vaughn can talk about it, feel free to reach out!
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