Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1887 — Origin of Christmas Gifts. [ARTICLE]

Origin of Christmas Gifts.

After the marriage of Albert and Victoria, Christmas gifts came into vogue in England, and the pretty German custom has grown well-nigh universal now. Saint Nicholas does New York in lieu of a patron saint, and Euecht Rupert—but let us hope there are no bad boys now, and that the servants’ rod is never needed on Christmas day at least. •‘Yule’s come arid Yule’s gone, And we hae feasted weel, Sae Jock maun to his flail again And Jenny to her wheel.” Now one of the best things about this little ditty is that it isn’t true. Christmas is a fine thing in itself —we like it because it is Christmas, because it stands out in the winter a bright glow in the cold, because the shops are shut and mammon for one day is suspended; but, after all, it is an exceedingly good point about Christmas that New Year comes after it. Christmas ushers in a set of holidays, and one needn’t settle down into the commonplace immediately after it.