The children's book of Christmas

by Unknown

Virginia O’Hanlon.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been afflicted by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

FRANK P. CHURCH.

CONTENTS

		PAGE
Is there a Santa Claus?		[v]
	An Editorial by the late Frank P. Church in the New York Sun.
Christmas Greens		[1]
	Adapted from Some Curiosities of Popular Customs by William S. Walsh.
I Saw Three Ships come Sailing in		[2]
	A Kentish Version of an old English Christmas Carol.
The Angels and the Shepherds		[4]
	The Gospel Story as in the Children’s Series of the Modern Reader’s Bible, edited by R. G. Moulton.
While Shepherds Watched		[6]
	The famous Christmas hymn written in about 1700 and attributed to Nahum Tate.
The Wise Men from the East		[7]
	The Gospel Story as in the Children’s Series of the Modern Reader’s Bible, edited by R. G. Moulton.
Strooiavond in Holland		[9]
	Adapted from Holland by Beatrix Jungman in the Peeps at Many Lands Series, with one paragraph simplified from Servia and the Servians by Chedo Mijatovich.
How St. Nicholas came To Volendam		[12]
	From the volume on Holland by Beatrix Jungman in the Peeps at Many Lands Series.
Keeping Christmas in the Old Way		[16]
	From an entertaining old pamphlet published in 1740 entitled “Round about Our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments,” quoted in Christmas: Its Origin and Associations by W. F. Dawson.
As Joseph was A-walking		[20]
	An Old English Christmas Carol known as The Cherry-tree Carol. In many versions another stanza said to be of later origin is added.
The “Jule-Nissen” and Blowing in the Yule		[21]
	From The Old Town by Jacob A. Riis, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1909.
Christmas Eve in Merry England		[23]
	From Marmion by Sir Walter Scott.
When Christmas was not Merry		[25]
	Compiled from Christmas: Its Origin and Associations by W. F. Dawson, and from general sources.
Going Home for Christmas		[28]
	From Old Christmas at Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving.
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen		[31]
	An Old English Carol.
The Date of Russia’s Christmastide		[33]
	Compiled from general sources, and in part from Russia by L. Edna Walter in the Peeps at Many Lands Series.
St. Barbara’s Grain		[37]
	Adapted from an unsigned article in Macmillan’s Magazine and from creole folk-lore.
Before the Paling of the Stars		[38]
	By Christina Rossetti.
A Midnight Mass in France		[39]
	Adapted from an article in Macmillan’s Magazine with added details drawn from an article in The Century by Mme. Th. Bentzon.
The Christchild and the Pine Tree		[42]
	A weaving together of bits of folk-lore drawn chiefly from The Child and Childhood in Folk-thought by Alexander F. Chamberlain.
A Birthday Gift		[44]
	Part of a hymn for children by Christina Rossetti.
The Christmas Fire in Servia		[45]
	Adapted from Servia and the Servians by Chedo Mijatovich.
The Day of the Little God		[47]
	From Servia and the Servians by Chedo Mijatovich.
Nature Folk-lore of Christmastide		[50]
	Compiled from several sources, including The Old Town by Jacob A. Riis and magazine articles.
Good King Wenceslas		[53]
	An Old English Carol in the version by John Mason Neale.
A Mexican “Mystery” seen by Bayard Taylor		[54]
	From Eldorado by Bayard Taylor.
Breaking the Piñate		[57]
	Collated from Mexico, the Wonderland of the South by W. E. Carson, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1909.
Christmas upon a Greenland Iceberg		[59]
	Collated from Christmas: Its Origin and Associations by W. F. Dawson, and The Great White North by Helen S. Wright.
Luther’s Christmas Carol for Children		[61]
	Translator unknown.
The Good Night in Spain		[63]
	Adapted from the account by Ferdinand Caballero, translated by Katharine Lee Bates.
A Christmas Tree in Japan		[66]
	From Letters from Japan by Mary Crawford Fraser, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1899.
From Far Away		[72]
	A Christmas Carol by William Morris.
Lordings, Listen to our Lay		[73]
	A fragment of the earliest existing carol; sung in the thirteenth century.
Where the Christmas Toys come From		[74]
	Compiled from general sources, including In Toyland, an article in The Royal Magazine, copyright by C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd.
The Making of a Christmas Doll		[76]
	The material of this article also has been drawn from The Royal Magazine by permission of its publishers, C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd.
Irina’s Day on the Estates		[79]
	Adapted from Russia by L. Edna Walter in the Peeps at Many Lands Series.
A Visit from St. Nicholas		[83]
	By Clement C. Moore.
The Cratchits’ Christmas Dinner		[85]
	From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
After the Christmas Dinner		[88]
	From The Old Town by Jacob A. Riis, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1909.
Hang up the Baby’s Stocking		[89]
	Author unknown.
A German Christmas		[90]
	Collated from Home Life in Germany by Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, Music Study in Germany by Amy Fay, and Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
Crowded Out		[95]
	By Rosalie M. Jonas.
An English “Adoration”		[96]
	Adapted from The Children’s Book of Art by Miss A. E. Conway and Sir Martin Conway.
The Children’s Own Saint		[99]
	Based on legends chiefly drawn from Curiosities of Popular Customs by W. S. Walsh.
The Befana Fair in Rome		[102]
	From Ave Roma Immortalis by F. Marion Crawford, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1898.
The Golden Carol		[104]
	An Old English Epiphany Carol.
Babouscka		[105]
	By Carolyn S. Bailey. Copyright by the Milton Bradley Company. Reprinted by permission from For the Children’s Hour.
The Three Kings		[107]
	Adapted by permission from The Memoirs of Mistral, copyright by the Baker and Taylor Company, 1907.
Christmas Peace		[110]
	From The Little City of Hope by F. Marion Crawford, copyright by The Macmillan Company, 1907.