CHRISTMAS TIME.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1126, 17 December 1883, Page 2

CHRISTMAS TIME.

[By Growl.] So onoo more Christmas is close upon ns, and many will bo tho exchange of the compliments of tho season—“ A Merry Christinas.” Is tho term at all appropriate to the present time ? With how many will it bo “a merry Christmas ?” Looking back over tho present, but fast fading year, wo con but remember what n slow time it has been—a period that faill long be remembered by most of us. But “ such is life,” and wc must mako tho best of it. All anniversaries, to my mind, are objectionable ; but perhaps Christmas, from a secular point of view, is tho most sad and objectionable of all, since this was the time when the rosy-cheeked schoolboy, who is here no longer, was wont to

gladden tis with his return ; or this was the time when wc wore rosy-clmekod school-boys ourselves, and gladdened by our return the hearts of those whose places are now vacant. Christmas is always looked upon as a period of merrymaking ; but when we were children, after a deal of talk about the fun, it often turned out a disappointment. ’Tis true, at this festive season our uncles and aunts, in order to conciliate our parents, would present ns with a few not very expensive presents, but what recompense was that for the excruciating agony which we usually underwent after having our turn at the Christmas pudding and other niceties generally provided. In those days old nursery rhymes and songs were sung to us by our parents. Amongst these I recollect the ballad of the “ Mistletoe Bough,” but I doubt very much if the baron, retainers, ‘ Young Lovell’ and the rest, who it will be remembered were “keeping their Christmas holiday,” wore as jolly upon the following Christmas, when they thought of the lost bride. Christmas comes but once a year, but when it docs come it brings oursisters and our cousins and our aunts together, it brings our boys home for the holidays (worse luck), it brings a round of family gatherings, it brings to your mind the fact that next week you will be recipient of a pile of bills from all quarters, bills, which if you are patient enough to examine, will show you that Christmas is indeed a merry time. But despite these cheering circumstances, there arc people who do not like Christmas, not because of the expense, (some people never study it) but because in every month in the year and every day in the month (except the last month) we may sit and converse like reasonable brings, or enjoy the luxury of silence and rest ; but during the latter end of December we are, evening after evening, required to assist at what is cruelly called. “ playing round games, or some other abominable performance, wbicb seriously disturbs our digestion and upsets our tranquillity. First in tbe category of horrors come all those games which culminate in “ forfeits,” and whether imbecility or impropriety is the most conspicuous element in th-‘se exercises, it is hard to say. A man of average intellect, and even less than avrage self respect, condemned to “ smile at the prettiest, laugh at the wittiest, and kiss the one you. love the best,” is truly a melancholy and idiotic spectacle. The miserable victim, after suffering torture the most intense, in selecting his three objects, proceeds to evoke, in full front of some charming damsel, a sickly smile, the effect of which is wofully marred by the inward conviction, that whilst complimenting her he is offending every other woman in the room. He can get over the second difficulty more easily by choosing some elderly dame, bnt only to fall prostrate in dismay before the necessity of executing his third penalty. Bah I the whole “ forfeit ” is idiotic and offensive. Another game is that of guesses. In this, if you have any common sense, yon will listen at the doer when you go out, and overhear the word when the enevilable imbecile inside, who always forgets it, requires to have it repeated to him across the room just at the time when you are being called in. In this you gain a reputation for smartness. On the other hand if you do not guess on the instant, there you stand, and if not’'absolutely a fool, look the picture of one. And so the games go merrily on.

Now is this amusement? Why is this mode of spending the evening always force! on reluctant Christians towards the close of one year and the opening of another ? The sports of innocent little boys and sweet lit tie girls is to tease cats, suck sweets, or break their toys, but these “ forfeits ” have not even the pretence of renewing our youth ; all children hate them and say so. So do most of ns hate them, but we lack candour, and tamely submit rather than say “ we’ll have none of them.”