CHRISTMAS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 432, 28 December 1889, Page 3

CHRISTMAS.

HTiaitono of the evili of the ng« we live in* that there is hardly anyth ing of which people do not quickly tire? There are many to whom novelties are almost a necessary of lite ; in a quiet country home they would be almost as wretched as they would be in a prison. Such people dislike most things which recur at regular intervals. They do not like fixed idoa3, invariable customs op usages which are so universal that they compel obedience. Othera are so enamoured of quiot that they dislike intensely everything thftt interferes with the routino of their daily lives. Public holidays they especially dotest, and festivals are to them only occasions for grumbling. Both these classes of persons protest that they hate Christmas— that they are sick of Christmas festivities, Christmas boxes, Christmss cards, and church decorations. They' are ready to decry all the feelings with which most men, nearly all women, and all unspoiled children hail the recurrence of the day, as sentiment — probably they say ' sham sentiment' ; and they are, or profess to be, miserable and out of sorts till the season of merriment and goodwill ia over for another year. In all probability, for every genuine hater of Christmas there are ton whose dislike is merely assumed. Young mon and girls are fond of pretending to themselves that they are too much men and women of the world, too deeply acquainted with the grave realitiesand carcsoflife, tocaremuchforholi'Jays, or for traditional and sentimental pleasures that are fit only for children. Even the children, some of them at least, are beginning to get sophisticated. They like to think themselves superior to Christmas gifts and Christmas parties. Very often it is Paterfamilias and his help-meet to whom Christmas brings many memories, vho think most of the feseival's return, and are most anxious to honour it in a fitting way. But, after all, the cynics and the makebelieve cynics are in a minority — and in a remarkably helpless minority too. Say what they will, do as they like, they cannot escape from the spirit of Christmastide. It is everywhere ; and unless they are bont on making themselves and all around them uncomfortable, despisera of the holiday and its customs do well to make the best of it, and keep their miserable, cold-shoulder-of-mutton philosophy to themselves — at least until after Boxing Da}-. "Hial lovers of Christmas feel that there is something about this festival which distinguishes itr from all others, sacred or secular — something which it is not eas\ r to put into words. The feeling is akin to that with which one revisits the scenes of one's childhood, and beholds for the first time after many . years the schoolroom, scene of so many passions and fearf, Borrows and joys ; the plantation, which was in those days a dense and well-nigh impenetrable forest ; the playground, in which the spirit of one's youth still lingers. The emotion is sad, yet sweet- in its sadness, touched with the lingering regretful light of evening, rather than with the clear radiance of the dawn. It is the reuniting of the links of our disjointed existence which causes at once the satisfaction and the melancholy of such a time ; and one cause, the chief cause perhaps, of the predominance of such emotions at Christ-mas-tide is that the festival not only carries as back to the past, but does something to bind together the fragments of our btoken and scattered race. Id is seldom thafe even one whole nation ia swayed by one impulse, animated by one idea. On Christmas mornmg, not one □ation, nor <m«s continent only, but the whole of Christendom, is touched by ona dominating thought— this day the Saviour >f the World was born. The festival has rarvived all assaults. Even in England ihe strong hand of the Commonwealth supprcos«k f> *5t for a time. The other Christian festavfels, Easter and Whitsuntide, for example, have been seized, as it were, and devoured by the World. But everybody goes to church on Christmas Day ; and perhaps one reason that the day still retains the religious character among the masses is that the afternoon and evening are, by common consent, surrendered to feasting, music, and dancing. Of the distinctly Christmas custom*, come have been of late years pushed so far as to make even genuine lovers of Christmas wish that they were abolished. This is notably true of the cards which still load ' the counters and line the walls of Bhops, and it also applies in some degree to the custom of giving money presents to all and sundry. The giving and receiving of tasteful little presents between friends and relations is one of the most ' pleasant of all Christmas customs. What anxious consideration do the younger members of a family give to the questions what presents shall be chosen, and whether the small private parse will be able to stand all the demands which the season makes upon it? Thq .finding of suitable.; objects for Christmas gifts is indeed a task of considerable diffi culty, as the collection of ash-trays, penholders, inkstands,- I match- boxes, stampboxes, and paper-weights with which most writing-tables and heavy, shelves are laden testifies.,' It' is odd to think, that fifty years ago no ;one, ever dreamt of .decorating either church _or homestead for Christmas morning ; butthe'old custom has now gained such a fresh hold upon us that in all probability \t will never again be •discarded. ( ,, . ,r ' .Then there, are, of course,, the Christmas ' •jonarities.J Splice, love especially to glstdden ' the hearts of 'children— like the old gentleman who used to fill his pocket's, with p ( enca •on • Christ mas j Eve, and/ round among cook-shops and' confectioners' shops', slippin;; coppers into the hands of the children who were hanging around their .windows. •Others prefer to care for the aged .; others, »ogam, for thio, sick. There are, 'cares' •enough for all ; for, , w'idp and deep tho -riverof charity,' the desert of povottyj of Ihonesfc and struggling poverty, is wollnifffe

boundless. And it is well that a share at least should be bestowed on Christmas Eve ; for in this world tho spiritual and the 'sentimental' are 'no less < real than the 1 material ; and the mere fact that Christmas I Day was bright and cheerful beyond the common, that, instead of bare cupboard and empty grate, tho faro vras far better, and the room , brighter than usual, helps to banish that droadful feeling of isolation, of being forgotten and forsakon, which is one of the heaviest of the hoary crosses laid upon the poor.