Christmas.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3734, 13 December 1880, Page 2

Christmas.

The time when the hoary-headed president of Yule-tide pays hia annual visit is close at hand. He will not, however, be ushered in regal state, through passages and rooms decorated with vejdant holly and festoons of laurel and yew, with the snow silently falling on the earth, and wrapping the landscape in a soft; mantle of pure white. The shouts of .lie schoolboys engaged in that healthgiving Amusement, snowballing, will not ritoound through the cutting winter atmosphere, while the "wh'rr" of the

Acme skate will not be heard in pleasan conjunction with the sonorous reports of the ice-bound lake, which when cracking emits the sound of a diapason. There will be no crowding round the huge log fires which are characteristic of Christmas, and the melodious carol singers and discordant "waits" will not stand shivering in the cold night wind, while they pour forth their exultant music in celebration of that joyful event which occurred more than 18C0 years ago. The mistletoe, ancient emblem of. Druidical priestcraft, severed from its parent stem by the keen-edged knife of the chief priest, will not hang from the ceiling inviting youths and maidens toosculatory demonstration, although no doubt a substitute for the real oak grown mistletoe will be found, so that young people need not despair of carrying out old Christmas customs in this respect. Instead of the scenes just referred to a very different one will be our lot. The glorious sun shining high in the heavens, sending forth his fiery darts and creating here a genial heat. The woods and forests abundant with luxuriant verdure—the gift of a beneficent Nature. The picnic parties reclining idly " sub tegminefagi," as Virgil saith, and enjoying a quiet gossip to the sweet accompaniment of hundreds of melodious feathered warblers. The boat, gliding up the river with its living freight of pleasure seekers, all intent on "keeping Christmas." The ardent pursuers of vagrant pieces of leather, stand in "the field and wait for the next successful attack of the manipulator of the willow. All out of door sports wilt be indulged in, and we will have the same joyous pleasures, and hopeful anticipations as our friends in the Old Country. Let us not in our merry mak> ing forget our ice-bound friends at Home, where dreary winter now reigns supreme, but as we drink to each other on Christmas Day let us remember " Absent Friends."-