French child: Christmas is a holy time with us. The Christ Child himself brings the gifts. We call him Le Petit Noël.
Hans: Do you hang up your stocking for him to fill?
French child: No; we put our shoes by the hearth at night and Le Petit Noël comes down the chimney and fills them.
Hans: Your shoes? I’m glad we hang up our stockings—they hold so much more. Wooden shoes won’t stretch!
Gretchen: What a lovely Christmas party we are having! Just think, here are children from Switzerland, Holland, Russia, and France. I wonder if any more children will come. Let’s all dance and sing while we wait. (They go on with the song. Sound of sleigh bells is heard outside. An English child enters.)
English child: A Merrie Christmas from Merrie England!
Hans: Oh! another guest! How lovely of you to come to our party. Do you have Christmas Eve parties at home?
English child: Oh, yes; Christmas Eve is the merriest night of the year with us.
Hans: Tell us all about it. (The children seat themselves about the hearth, the English child in the center.)
English child: Early in the morning we go to the woods and gather evergreens. Then we trim all the rooms with holly, mistletoe, box, and bay; in the evening we light the great yule log.