Myths and Legends of Christmastide

by Bertha F. Herrick

Myths and Legends
of Christmastide

BY

Bertha F. Herrick

San Francisco
Printed by the Stanley-Taylor Company
1901

The following article originally appeared in one of the Christmas editions of the San Francisco Chronicle and is now reprinted by permission from that journal.

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Myths and Legends of
Christmastide

“Lo! now is come our joyful'st feast,
Let every man be jolly.
Each room with ivy leaves is drest,
And every post with holly.
Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning;
Their ovens they with bak't meats choke,
And all their spits are turning.”

The celebration of Christmas, which was considered by the Puritans to be idolatrous, has for many centuries been so universal that it may prove of interest to contrast the rites, ceremonies and quaint beliefs of foreign lands with those of matter-of-fact America.