Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-12-23
OLYMPIA. WASHINGTON TER.
FRIDAY ENEG, DEC. %, 1851
Christmas Thoughts.

to he perfect, should be clear and
cold, with holly branches III berry,
q blazing fire, dinner with mince
pies, and games and forfeits in the
evening. These all may have been
essentials in "Merrie England, .
fifty years ago, but for this latitude
we cannot always expect the weather
will be clear and cold, the chances
being that an Oregon mist" will
settle down upon the festivities just
about the time the Christmas bells
are ringing.
But little cares childhood whose
holiday it pre-eminently is-for the
state of the weather when mys erious
old Santa Claus is supposed to be
abroad with his reindeer and sledSe.
Trusting innocence pays no heed to
minor incougruitie., such as the
inadaptability of the class of vehicle
for hasty passage through the mud
and mire, or of the wonderful feat
performed by the portly dispenser
of gifts when he comes down the
cramped Aucs of modern civilization
which have supplanted the wide
chimney-top of the land of his
birth. These are inessentials which
do not disturb the budding intellect
wholly absorbed in the contemplation
of absolute realities, the treasures
so fervantly longed for, SO amply
supplied.
Nor is it to be supposed that the
children of older growth take nc
interest in this best holiday of the
year. We all look toward hopefully
for the day, planning our gifts and
preparing to keep the festival as we
have observed it all our lives. 1t is
the one which admits of no material
change. 1t must be like the holiday
of our youth or it would not be
Christmas, and we would not live
over again the scenes hallowed by
rememberances of loved ones whose
kind hearts no longer throb re-
sponsive to our temporal vents. 1t
is that we live over again the blessed
period of childhood, that we, grown
people, look toward to the dawn OF
Christmas with scarcely less pa
tience than our youthful compan-
ions. This is why the stockings are
hung in the chimney corner and is
the life-giving germ which causes
the evergreen tree to blossom with
gifts on the eve of the day that
commentaries an epoch which in
augurated Peace and good will
among men,"
1t is quite prob. bile that the habit
of making presents at this season
of the year arose from a custom
which may be considered of pagan
origin, from its antiquity. 1t is said
that Servius Tuilius, the sixth king
of Rome, instituted festival to
commemorate the beginning of the
year, ct which an altar was erected
in each village, and to the box
placed upon it, every man, woman
and child was expected to contribute
q coin, to supply the wants of those
who we're subject to abject poverty.
This was nearly GOO years B. c., but
the Christmas box prob:bly owes
its xistence to this charitable custom,
and it seems proper that so benefcent
an object should have given life to
an impulse which for nineteen GEN.
turtles has been the distinctive feature
of Christmas offerings. There is an
equal propriety and beauty in the
thought that by commemorating the
advent of the Kedeemer. it is made
the medium Of purpetuating the
generously and charity which flowed
from the human heart even before
the golden precepts of the New Tes-
lament were presented as the re-
vealed will.
The beautiful custom of adjoining
the dwellings, and places of worship
with evergreens during Christmas
holidays, is ascribed by some, who
accept the Christian view, to those
expressions so frequently met with
in the prophetical writings, where
green boughs are spoken of as orna-
ments of the sanctuary and emblems
of rejoicing. while others affirm that
the custom had pagan origin, and
refers to the druidical custom OF
hanging up in the houses boughs of
green, as escorts for the wood spirits
during the nipping blasts of winter.
It matters little which is nearest the
truth. The evergreen is SYMBOL
of perpetual life and fit emblem of
q season fraught with tender recol-
lections which have taken such deep
root in the heart that they continually
spring forth in perennial freshness.
Let us hope that the season on
whose threshold we now stand may
indeed be o Merry Christmas" to
all. Try and make it fairly sparkle
with the joyous, the generous, the
bene6cent and good, SO that when
+L;o pooa 10 turped in the hook of