The Book of Christmas

by Various

Before the Christmas fire that for two thousand years has sunk into embers to blaze again into a great light at the end of the twelfth month, men are not only reunited in the unbroken continuity of their fortunes, but in the wholeness of their life; in their power of vision as well as of sight, in their power of feeling as well as of thought, in their power of love as well as of action.

This large hospitality of the Christmas fire, before which kings and beggars sit at ease and every human faculty finds its place, makes room for every gift and grace; for reason, with severe and wrinkled face; for sentiment, tender and reverent of all sweet and beautiful things; for the imagination, seeing heavenly visions, and the fancy catching glimpses of quaint or grotesque or fairy-like images, in the flame; for poetry, singing full-throated with Milton, or homely, familiar and domestic with the makers of the carols; for the story-tellers, spinning their fascinating tales within the circle of the embracing glow; for humor, full of smiles or filling the room with Homeric laughter; for the players, whose mimic art shows the manger, the shepherds and the kings to successive generations crowding the playhouse with the eager joy of children or with the sacred memories of age; for the preachers, to whom the season brings a text apart from the disputes and antagonisms of the schools and churches; for companies of children, impatiently waiting for the mysterious noise in the chimney; and for graybeards recalling old days and ways,—yule logs, country dances, waits singing under the frosty sky, stage coaches bearing guests and hampers filled with dainties to country houses standing with open doors and broad hearths for the fun and frolic, the tenderness and sentiment, the poetry and piety, of Christmas-tide.

At the end of nearly two thousand years Christmas shows no signs of decrepitude or weariness; its danger lies not in forgetfulness but in perverted uses and overstimulated activities. Its commercial availability is pushed so far that its sentiment often loses spontaneity and charm in excessive organization and prodigal distribution. The Christmas shopper suffers such a perversion of feeling that she hates the season she ought to bless; and the modern Santa Claus is so intent on the ingenuity or the cost of his gifts that he overlooks the only gift that warms the heart and translates Christmas into the vernacular.

If Christmas is to be saved from desecration and kept sacred, not only to faith but to friendship, its sentiment must be revived year by year in the joyful celebration of the old rites. We have been so eager of late years to rid ourselves of superstition and "see things as they are," that we have lost that vision of the large relations of things in which alone their meaning and use is revealed. We have studied the field at our doorsteps so thoroughly that we have lost sight of the landscape in which its little cup of fruitfulness is poured as into a great bowl rimmed by the horizon. One day out of three hundred and sixty-five, detached from its ancient history and isolated from the celebrations of centuries, cannot keep our hearts and hearths warm; we must rekindle the old fires and join hands with the vanished companies of friends who have kept the day and made it merry in the long ago. The echoes of ancient song and laughter give it a rich merriment, a ripe and tender wealth of associations. The mirth of one Christmas overflows into another until the sense of an unbroken joy, sinking and rising year after year like the tide of life in the fields, is borne in upon us. This sense of the unity of men in the great experiences steals back again into our hearts when we hear the old songs and read the old stories. Alexander Smith, whose book of essays, "Dreamthorp," is one of the books of the heart,—for there are books of the heart as well as books of knowledge and books of power,—kindled his imagination into a responsive glow by rereading every Christmas Day Milton's "Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity." When one opens the volume at this great song, it is like going into a church and hearing the organ played by unseen hands; the silence is flooded by a vast music which lifts the heart into the presence of great mysteries. But there is a time for private devotions as well as for public worship, for domestic as well as religious celebrations; and for every hour and place and mood there is a song and story. There are tender hymns for the devout, and spirited songs for those who celebrate together old days and ancient friendships; there are quaint carols for those whose hearts long for the quiet and pleasant ways of an olden time, and there are roaring catches for those whose gayety rises to the flood; there are meditations for the solitary, and there are stories for the little groups about the fire.

A Book of Christmas is a text-book of piety, friendship, merriment; a record of the real business of the race, which is not to make money, but to make life full and sweet and satisfying. It is a book to put into the hands of young men eager to start on the race and of young women to whom the future holds out a dazzling vision of a prosperity of pleasure and success; for it translates the word on all lips into its only comprehensible terms. In the glow of the Christmas fire the man who has made a fortune without making friends is a tragic failure, and the woman who has won the place and power she saw shining with delusive splendor on the far horizon and missed happiness faces one of life's bitterest ironies. It is a book for those who have fallen under the delusion that action is the only form of effective expression, and that to be useful one must rush along the road with the ruthless speed of an automobile; forgetting that action is only a path to being, and that the joy of life is largely found by the way. It is a book for those ardent spirits to whom the one interest in life is making people over and fitting them into their places in a rigid order of arbitrary goodness, forgetting that to the heart of a child the Kingdom of Heaven is always open, and the ultimate grace of it is the purity which is free and unconscious. It is a book for the sceptical and cynical, whose blighted sympathy and insight regain their vitality in the atmosphere of its love and kindness, its fun and frolic, its fellowship of loyal hearts and true.

Above all, the Book of Christmas is a book of joy in the sadness of the world, a book of play in the work of the world, a book of consolation in the sorrow of the world.

Hamilton W. Mabie

CONTENTS

		PAGE
Introduction	Hamilton W. Mabie	[v]
[I]
SIGNS OF THE SEASON
"The Time draws near the Birth of Christ"	Alfred Tennyson	[4]
An Hue and Cry after Christmas	Old English Tract	[5]
The Doge's Christmas Shooting	F. Marion Crawford	[6]
Thursday Processions in Advent	William S. Walsh	[7]
The Glastonbury Thorn	Alexander F. Chamberlain	[9]
In the Kitchen	Old English Ballad	[11]
Christmas in England	Washington Irving	[12]
Christmas Invitation	William Barnes	[16]
A Christmas Market	Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick	[17]
The Star of Bethlehem in Holland	Bow-Bells Annual	[18]
The Pickwick Club goes down to Dingley Dell	Charles Dickens	[19]
A Visit from St. Nicholas	Clement C. Moore	[24]
Crowded Out	Rosalie M. Jonas	[26]
[II]
HOLIDAY SAINTS AND LORDS
My Lord of Misrule	T. K. Hervey	[31]
St. Nicholas	Collated	[32]
An Old Saint in a New World	Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer	[33]
St. Thomas	Collated, W. P. R.	[35]
Kriss Kringle	Thomas Bailey Aldrich	[36]
Il Santissimo Bambino	Collated, W. P. R.	[37]
The Christ Child	Elise Traut	[38]
The April Baby is Thankful	"Elizabeth"	[38]
Good King Wenceslas	Old English Carol	[41]
Jean Valjean plays the Christmas Saint	Victor Hugo	[42]
St. Brandan	Matthew Arnold	[45]
St. Stephen's, or Boxing Day	Collated, W. P. R.	[47]
St. Basil in Trikkola	J. Theodore Bent	[48]
[III]
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ	From "The Golden Legend"	[55]
Folk-lore of Christmas Tide	Collected by A. F. Chamberlain	[58]
Hunting the Wren	Quoted by T. K. Hervey	[61]
The Presepio	Hone's Year Book	[64]
Hodening in Kent	Contributed to The Church Times	[65]
Origin of the Christmas Tree	William S. Walsh	[66]
Origin of the Christmas Card	William S. Walsh	[67]
The Yule Clog	T. K. Hervey	[68]
"Come bring with a Noise"	Robert Herrick	[69]
Shoe or Stocking	Edith M. Thomas	[70]
Jule-Nissen	Jacob Riis	[71]
"Lame Needles" in Eubœa	J. Theodore Bent	[73]
Who Rides behind the Bells?	Zona Gale	[76]
Guests at Yule	Edmund Clarence Stedman	[78]
[IV]
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
"I saw Three Ships"	Old English Carol	[83]
"Lordings, listen to Our Lay"	Earliest Existing Carol	[84]
The Cherry-Tree Carol	Old English Carol	[86]
"In Excelsis Gloria"	From the Harleian MSS.	[87]
"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"	Old English Carol	[87]
The Golden Carol	Old English Carol	[89]
Caput apri refero resonens laudes domino	From a Balliol MS. of about 1540	[90]
"Villagers All, this Frosty Tide"	Kenneth Grahame	[90]
Holly Song	William Shakespeare	[92]
"Before the Paling of the Stars"	Christina G. Rossetti	[92]
The Minstrels played their Christmas Tune	William Wordsworth	[93]
A Carol from the Old French	Henry W. Longfellow	[95]
"From Far Away we come to you"	Old English Carol	[97]
A Christmas Carol	James Russell Lowell	[98]
A Christmas Carol for Children	Martin Luther	[99]
[V]
CHRISTMAS DAY
The Unbroken Song	Henry W. Longfellow	[104]
A Scene of Mediæval Christmas	John Addington Symonds	[105]
Christmas in Dreamthorp	Alexander Smith	[111]
By the Christmas Fire	Hamilton W. Mabie	[113]
Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity	John Milton	[114]
Christmas Church	Washington Irving	[119]
Dolly urges Silas Marner to go to Church	George Eliot	[124]
Yule in the Old Town	Jacob Riis	[127]
The Mahogany Tree	William Makepeace Thackeray	[132]
The Holly and the Ivy	Old English Song	[134]
Ballade of Christmas Ghosts	Andrew Lang	[135]
Christmas Treasures	Eugene Field	[136]
Wassailer's Song	Robert Southwell	[138]
[VI]
CHRISTMAS HYMNS
A Hymn on the Nativity	Ben Jonson	[143]
While Shepherds Watched	Nahum Tate	[144]
O, Little Town of Bethlehem	Phillips Brooks	[145]
The First, Best Christmas Night	Margaret Deland	[146]
It Came upon the Midnight Clear	Edmund H. Sears	[147]
A Christmas Hymn	Eugene Field	[149]
The Song of the Shepherds	Edwin Markham	[150]
A Christmas Hymn	Richard Watson Gilder	[152]
A Christmas Hymn for Children	Josephine Daskam Bacon	[153]
Slumber-Songs of the Madonna	Alfred Noyes	[154]
[VII]
CHRISTMAS REVELS
"Make me Merry both More and Less"	Old Balliol MS. of about 1540	[164]
The Feast of Saint Stephen in Venice	F. Marion Crawford	[165]
The Feast of Fools	William Hone	[167]
The Feast of the Ass	William Hone	[168]
The Revel of Sir Hugonin de Guisay	William S. Walsh	[170]
Revels of the Inns of Court	T. K. Hervey	[172]
King Witlaf's Drinking-Horn	Henry W. Longfellow	[175]
Old Christmastide	Sir Walter Scott	[176]
Christmas Games in "Old Wardle's" Kitchen	Charles Dickens	[179]
A "Mystery" as performed in Mexico	Bayard Taylor	[183]
[VIII]
WHEN ALL THE WORLD IS KIN
Christmas Night of '62	William Gordon McCabe	[191]
Merry Christmas in the Tenements	Jacob Riis	[192]
Christmas at Sea	Robert Louis Stevenson	[200]
The First Christmas Tree in the Legation Compound, Tokyo	Mary Crawford Fraser	[202]
Christmas in India	Rudyard Kipling	[208]
A Belgian Christmas Eve Procession	All the Year Round	[210]
Christmas at the Cape	John Runcie	[215]
The "Good Night" in Spain	Fernan Caballero	[216]
Christmas in Rome	John Addington Symonds	[218]
Christmas in Burgundy	M. Fertiault	[222]
Christmas in Germany	Amy Fay	[225]
Christmas Dinner in a Clipper's Fo'c'sle	Herbert Elliot Hamblen	[227]
Christmas in Jail	Rolf Boldrewood	[229]
Colonel Carter's Christmas Tree	F. Hopkinson Smith	[231]
[IX]
CHRISTMAS STORIES
Christmas Roses	Zona Gale	[241]
The Fir Tree	Hans Christian Andersen	[245]
The Christmas Banquet	Nathaniel Hawthorne	[257]
A Christmas Eve in Exile	Alphonse Daudet	[275]
The Rehearsal of the Mummers' Play	Eden Phillpotts	[280]
[X]
NEW YEAR
New Year	Richard Watson Gilder	[298]
Midnight Mass for the Dying Year	Henry W. Longfellow	[299]
The Death of the Old Year	Alfred Tennyson	[301]
A New Year's Carol	Martin Luther	[303]
New Year's Resolutions	"Elizabeth"	[303]
Love and Joy come to You	Old English Carol	[305]
Ring Out, Wild Bells	Alfred Tennyson	[307]
New Year's Eve, 1850	James Russell Lowell	[308]
Rejoicings upon the New Year's Coming of Age	Charles Lamb	[309]
New Year's Rites in the Highlands	Charles Rogers	[315]
The Chinese New Year	H. C. Sirr	[316]
New Year's Gifts in Thessaly	J. Theodore Bent	[319]
"Smashing" in the New Year	Jacob Riis	[322]
New Year Calls in Old New York	William S. Walsh	[323]
Sylvester Abend in Davos	John Addington Symonds	[325]
[XI]
TWELFTH NIGHT—EPIPHANY
"Now have Good Day!"	Old English Carol	[337]
A Twelfth Night Superstition	Barnaby Googe	[338]
Twelfth-Day Table Diversion	John Nott	[339]
The Blessing of the Waters	J. Theodore Bent	[341]
La Galette du Roi	William Hone	[344]
Drawing King and Queen	Universal Magazine	[345]
St. Distaff's Day and Plough Monday	Hone's Year Book	[346]
[XII]
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
"As Little Children in a Darkened Hall"	Charles Henry Crandall	[350]
Christmas Dreams	Christopher North	[351]
The Professor's Christmas Sermon	Robert Browning	[358]
Awaiting the King	F. Marion Crawford	[359]
Elizabeth's Christmas Sermon	"Elizabeth"	[361]
Nichola's "Reason Why"	Zona Gale	[362]
The Changing Spirit of Christmastide	Washington Irving	[363]
A Prayer for Christmas Peace	Charles Kingsley	[365]
Under the Holly Bough	Charles Mackay	[366]
Christmas Music	John Addington Symonds	[367]
A Christmas Sermon	Robert Louis Stevenson	[368]

LIST OF PLATES