Part 4

Then it is home to dinner, a real Christmas Dinner. I do not suppose that you will dine with a boar's head on the table, or that you will be permitted to taste a peacock stuffed with spices and sweet herbs. These were two of the dishes that figured in the good old times, but they have long been discarded. Yet the Christmas goose is still popular, and in almost equal favour is the roast beef of Old England. With you children, however, the plum-pudding and the mince pies and the fruit will be in most demand. How many helpings? I dare not say how many, for Christmas Day brings its own appetite, but you must try--just a very little--not to be greedy when the pudding comes in ablaze.

Because greediness is ugly, and also because Christmas does not end with dinner-time. There is the evening with its romps, its games, its dances and its Christmas Tree. It is the Christmas Tree, probably, that will give you most pleasure, with all its glittering ornaments, its coloured flags, and its lighted candles. This is a pleasure which English children, in the old times, did not share, because the Christmas Tree for children was only introduced to this country in the reign of Queen Victoria. Indeed, the whole tendency nowadays is to make of Christmas a children's holiday. This is well; because by so doing--by making the lives of all children, and especially all poor children, brighter at this season--we shall give most honour and praise to the Babe that was born in lowly Bethlehem.

BOXING DAY.

When people are in a good humour--and everybody is supposed to be in a good humour at Christmas--they find it easy to give little gifts to their relations, friends, children and servants. On Christmas Day these gifts are given to friends and the children of the household, but on the day after Christmas the servants and dependents obtain their share of the gifts in what is called a Christmas Box. Hence the 26th December has come to be recognized as Boxing Day. This is a very old custom, and probably it has its origin in certain customs that were observed by the Romans during the Saturnalia. At that season presents were distributed to all, and for one day, at least, the Roman slaves received the gift of freedom. That was a good custom.

It was wise for the early Christian Church to adopt this method of giving presents at Christmastide, but the custom has lost some of its wisdom by use. The art of giving wisely is a very difficult art; almost as difficult as the art of receiving wisely. At Christmas time this becomes very plain to us, and it is especially obvious to us on Boxing Day. Many of the gifts bestowed on that day are bestowed with a grudge, and received as a matter of right. That is not as it should be, for all pleasure is lost when a gift is bestowed in a stingy spirit, and taken with a thankless hand. I feel sure that you children do not give or receive your Christmas boxes in that manner. If you have any little gift to bestow upon the people who do you a service throughout the year, you will do it cheerfully. And if any one gives you a little gift, do not turn it over and over looking at all sides, but accept it with thankfulness and a cheerful countenance. By so doing you will find that Boxing Day is one of the most pleasant days in all the year.

For a London child there is an interesting event that always happens on the 26th December. The pantomimes begin upon Boxing Day. Your old friends the Harlequin, the Clown, the Pantaloon bounce upon the stage with all their old antics and most of their old jokes. But the more ancient the jokes are, I think you like them the better. When I was a boy I liked to see the Clown play tricks upon the policeman, and startle innocent people with a red-hot poker. I am sure that you feel just like that to-day, and that you laugh as heartily as I did. There is nothing better than laughter; and throughout England, in every playhouse, a great tide of laughter begins upon Boxing Day.

And now we have reached almost the last day of the year, and quite the last page of this little book. Since New Year's Day we have travelled together, and I have tried to explain to you the meaning of the various Holy Days and Holidays. I have tried to make the explanations interesting, and not exactly like the dull books that grown-ups read. But I am not sure that I have succeeded; holidays are stupid things when they are set down in print. It is far better to take them just as they come along, and enjoy the good things they bring. Holidays are like the pictures in a dry book. When I was a boy I sometimes skipped the reading and enjoyed the pictures. You can skip the reading in this book if you like.

FINIS.