The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1894-12-20
Christmas r the PAS.
Youths Compaljon

| ohfh C0mpHH'pH
The father Of the boy or girl ofto-dav
can well remember. if he ha- reached
the age Of forty or upward. time when
Christina, had practically no existence
for him. In certain parts Of the coun-
try. indeed, Christmas has never been
/ forgotten. In New York City. in Penn
=ylvania. and in the South generally.
| Christmas as well as Easter, has
ALWAYS been observed. In New Eng
land, 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, Christina. was, forty years ago,
! but a name.
Some trace OF it seemed to have sur
yived in the occasional practice Of
hanging up the stocking on Christmas
Eve. Bows and girls often hung their
stockings by the fireplace, and in the
morning, if they were fortunate, there
was in each stocking store OF nuts, a
little candy, and perhaps jack-knlfe
or thimble. But next day-Christ-
mas Day-the boys and girls went to
school as usual, and fathers and moth
ers 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 mlnce
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
tho children of that PERIOD as far as
HOLIDAYS we're concerned, until Fast
Day came around 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 we're practically but two holidays
in the year.
The recollectlons Of Christmas which
person OF fifty should undertake to
relate to his children would be very
much like the celebrated chapter about
the snakes in Ireland, which simply sta
ted that there were no snakes in Ireland.
He might, however, have vivid recol-
lection OF rather lonesome ten min
utes spent in hanging a WOODEN stocking
by 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 possible gift wss
tempered not little by the remem-
brance of one Christmas morning when
he arose eagerly, searched his stocking,
and found nothing whatever in it.
Very soon, however, the real Christ
mas 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" we're introduced
as feature of an annual observance,
and many little gifts were distributed.
1t was customary to have the pas
sages in the Gospels relating to the
| birth of Christ read aloud by one OF
the pupils of the Sunday-school who
could read we'll, and this Office was
greatly 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.