Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1895 — Christmas in the Past. [ARTICLE]

Christmas in the Past.

Christmas, as the American boy or girl 1 now knows it, has not been thus always. I The father of the boy or girl of to-day ; can well remember. If he has reached the age of forty or upward, a time when this , splendid festival had practically no exi istence for him. In certain parts ci the i country, indeed, Christmas has never been I forgotten. In New York City, In Pennsyl- [ vania. and in the South generally, Christmas, as well as Easter, has always been observed. In New England, however, in many of the rural parts of New York, and in portions of the country which were settled from New England and from rural New York. Christmas was, forty years ago, but a name. Some trace of it seemed to have survived in the occasional practice of hanging up the stocking on Christmas eve. Boys and girls often hung their stockings by the fireplace, and in the morning, if they were fortunate, there was in each stocking a store of nuts, a little candy, and perhaps a jack-knife or a thimble. But next day—Christmas day—the boys and girls went to school as usual, and fathers and mothers went about their usual tasks. There was no holiday and no big Christmas dinner. The one feast of the year had been eaten at Thanksgiving. The mince-pies accumulated for that festival were still making their appearance upon the family table: and the pies, and the memory of all the other good things and sports of Thanksgiving, had to serve the children of that period, as far as holidays were concerned, until Fast Day came round again. In most of the States, indeed, the children had not even Fast Day to look forward to. There was no real holiday until the Fourth of July. For them there were practically but two holidays in the year. The recollections of Christmas which a person of fifty should undertake to relate tp his children would be very mueh like the celebrated chapter about the snakes in Ireland, which simply stated that there were no snakes in Ireland. He might, however, have a vivid recollection of a rather lonesome ten minutes spent in hanging a woollen stocking by a fireplace, during which time his parents sat solemnly by. looking as if they did not altogether approve what he was doing. The joy with which he might anticipate a possible gift was tempered not a little by the remembrance of one Christmas morning when he arose eagerly, searched his stocking, and found nothing whatever in it. Very soon, however, the real Christmas began to grow up, as it were. The most powerful agency in making its observance general was the Sunday school. Always on the lookout for something with which to arouse the interest of children, the Sunday school of thirty years ago early made choice of Christmas. “Trees” were introduced as a feature of an annual observance. and many little gifts were distributed. It was customary to have the passages in the Gospel relating to the birth of Christ read aloud by one of the pupils of the Sunday school who could read well, and this office was greiAy coveted. The chance of being selected to read these passages aloud at Christmas was a sufficient incentive to many pupils to pay particular attention to their reading lessons at school for months together. The interest of the children in these exercises was very great from the start, and it soon drew the older people into an almost equal interest in the revival of the old festival. In a surprisingly short time Christmas had become the most important day in the year.