Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-12-25
CHRISTMAS IN THE HOME.
The Spirit of the Old Fashioned Christ
mas Around the Family Hearth.


mas Around the Family Hearth.
We are all expecting with more OF
less pleasant anticipation. some sort OF
q Christmas in some sort of a home
We shall quite generally try to revive
something of the spirit of the old
fashioned Christmas and the old-fash-
Toned home, but with Il consciousness
| that both have radically changed and
| are still radically changing. 50 that
each year puts us farther and farther
away from those old ideals, but does
| not loosen their hold upon our hearts.
We can all trace through our men,
DRY or tradition the outline of the old
home. Somewhere. if we go far enough
back into the past, il was Il country
home, simple and substantial in con-
Struction with equally simple and sub
stantial furnishings: with an abund-
ance of nothing save food and children,
which by the way, We're also simple and
substantial! In this old home, as the
Christmas season drew near. there
We're weeks of preparation, involving
sacrifice and struggle. Then there was
the home coming of those who had been
tempted, or driven by ambition or cir
cumstance, out into the world. There
were the warm and genuine greetings
of those long parted.
The night before Christmas about the
great open Fireplace were gathered the
members of the whole family. The
prosperous merchant and the easy
hammered professional men from the
city with their well-dressed families
were sandwiched between the farmers
and woOdmen, uncomfortable in their
unaccustomed clothes. About the big
rooms children played with an abandon
and delight only possible where there
was nothing to soil and nothing thew
could break! And over it all there was
4 spirit of wholesome reality and
simple affection which wove the magic
circle around the family.
Then the children were sent to bed.
and from some mysterious place there
was brought forth the OdOrouS balSam
tree ard set up in the corner, and then
was re-enacted the miracle of the loaves
and the fishes. for from nothing in sight
there came out of the hearts of those
busy people apparently. such wondrous
packages and such marvels of decor
pyramid of glory, Yet all that was he
fore the days of tinsels and glass balls +:
bits of cotton and strings of popped
corn and big red apples and love and
heaTtineSS worked wonders i'm these
days
Then came the morning. 1t began
quite early with the shriekS of delight
from children wrestling with plethoric
stockings and the procession led by
| the baby in to see the wonderful tree
| that bore the fruit of love: then that
whole long day of continuous pleasure; :
the dinner. such a dinner as only
grandmas can get up; not an old per-
| son. but that unique personality, a
| "Grdndma.' And the night drew near
| at last upon such WEAKNESS as great
| labor could never compel. and brought
such sleep as the tired and healthy
child alone can know. All knew it,
for all had been children for a day,
| and as children had come very near
| to the Kingdom of heaven.
They then parted, each to his own
place, to his own work. to his own
joy or his own suffering. to his own
victory or his own defeat, but WHITTIER
soever they went they carried with
them the memory of that real Christ
mas in the real home as a constant
benedictiOn
There are few today who can expert
ence this Old Christmas, but there are
none to whom it does not yet appeal,
and if we cannot realize it we shall
all cream 1t over as we read the story
Or poem in which il is set forth. and We
snail all sigh for its beauty. its simple
lty and its worth; for the world has
outgrown its childhood, and we have
so much work to do it is hard for
us to stop and play.
We have lost the old Christmas
because we have lost the Old home
With the growth of our more complex
life of today we have succeeded in fill
ing our houses SO full of furniture that
we have crowded the home spirit out
| There is not even room for children
and so we have the President of the
United States bewailing the Race
suicide of the age! There can never
be real Christmas in home without
| children. and children have become
such luXuries that We can not afford
them. They take our money which We
would spend on clothes, and thew take
our time which We would give to pleas
ure, they use up our strength which
we would give to games or to the
great battle of life. Husbands work
so hard all day to get more money
with which to get still more money
with which to buy houses and auto
mobiles and dogs. that they cannot he
bothered with such useless things as
children who have no market value,
wives cannot begin to keep I'D with
the literary and whist clubs if there
are baby's stockings to darn, and SC
the house becomes an eating and lodg-
ing place, while all our interests and
all our pleasures are outside; and
When we have no home how can VIC
expect to have Christmas in it?
Says recent writer: 1.-THE world
grows wise in gains of nroerass o.5