The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-12-09

holiday ideas. A tree twinkled in every place that
housed a German last year, and though the Bel
gians will not allow their Christmas to be German
lied, yet the trees appealed to them nightly. Ger
tainly the Christmas tree will be much more COM
mon ,henceforth in Belgium whether the Germans
stay there or not.
Thousands of refugees waiting in England until
their country is redeemed will bring back with
them many ideas of the English holiday.
Until the marriage of Queen Victoria to the
prince consort, Christmas in England was chiefly a
day of churchgoing, of merrymuking and of mighty
feasting. The prince brought with him from his
German home the customs of the Christmas tree
and of gift giving. The latter has never become
as firmly intrenched in England as it is here. but a
lighted tree loaded with decorations and presents
Is established as a part of every English celebra-
ton. Christmas decorations of holly and mistletoe,
the ceremony of the Yuie log and many of the ira
ditional Christmas dishes, notably the plum pud-
ding, are all owed to English custom.
But it is a sadder and wiser England that APP
proaches Christmas this year. Hundreds of, thou
sands of young Englishmen have died to make
her so. Today every LOndoner has had a graphic
lesson In what a powerful and resourceful enemy
can do even in a fright little, tight little island" AS
a further object lesson, England will pay for the
raisins for her plum buildings something like 200
per cent more than she did last year. The war
with Turkey has done that to her.
England has had other black Christmases, but
they were farther away from home. The Christ
mas of 1899 in South Africa was one that she does
not like to recall. while the terrible Christmas of
1854, the Christmas of the Crimean war, when, as
a writer of the day put it, Thanks to General
Middle, things are about as bad as they can be-"
was always a bitter memory to that generation.
The year 1916 has not been a good year for Eng
land, and she knows 1t. The knowledge has shat
tered her complacency and has strengthened her
determination. But she is not happy about it and
her Christmas celebration will be a chaStened feast.
Christmas in the Latin countries has always been
more of q religious festival than a home celebra-
ton. : In Italy it is more customary to exchange
presents at New Years than at Christmas. Lighted
trees are frequently seen, but they are the luxury
of the prosperous and not the habit of the people.
The day before Christmas is more of an occasion
than the day itself.
In the cities of southern Italy booths are erected
In certain streets, as before Easter, for the sale of
odds and ends and sweetmeats; wheeled traffic is
barred and the people promenade slowly up and
down, exchanging greetings. Midnight mass is
said in all the churches. In the churches, too, are
exposed the famous cribs, or presepi, representing
scenes of the birth and infancy of Jesus. The be-
ginning of this custom is ascribed to st. Francis
of Assist.
Christmas eve is the great feast of the season in
France. In the provinces it is celebrated with pro-
cessions in the streets, which were originally re-
hgious in character, but which have become pro-
famed by the gayety OF the maskers. In Normandy
and in Provence there are elaborate puppet shows
of scenes in the life of the infant Christ. All the
street gayety terminates after mass in feasts in all
the homes.
In Paris there are Christmas booths set I'D in
many of the boulevards. This year they will be
devoted to the sale of comforts for the soldiers.
Paris knows better than anyone just how black
a wartime Christmas can be. She has never for
gotten the Christmas of 1870. For ninety-eight
days the Germans had battered at the city. Every
sortie had failed miserably. The final lombard
ment was inevitable. On Christmas eve 900 men
froze to death in the trenches just outside the city,
Better, it seems, than any of the other nations
did France realize from the beginning what this
present war would mean and, realizing, she conse-
Grated herself utterly. She has made every sac
rifice, great ana small, even to giving up the crusty
rolls and light white bread that are as the breath
In her nostrils. When d F~renchman, every French
man. eats without complaint a grayish bread made
OF a mixture of wheat and rice and entirely lack
ing in golden crust, he has Indeed an exalted spirit.
1t is a small thing, perhaps. but it is enormously
significant.
Last Christmas was a solemn festival in France.
A million gifts, gifts of wool, were sent to the men
in the trenches. Every soldier had a glass of
champagne. But there was no merrymaking.
Masses were said at open-air affairs erected back
OF the battle lines. In the old church at Thanh In
Alsace a French Christmas was celebrated for the
first time in forty-four years. But it was a cele-
bration of prayer, not of rejoicing.
This year, at least, midnight masses will be said
in the churches of Paris, but afterward there will
be no gayety in the streets as in former years, no
dancing pierrots and harlequins leading the mask
ers, no brilliant round of restaurant suppers. the
beloved reveillon of the Partisan.
So Paris on Christmas eve will 60 home through
darkened streets with a prayer in her heart for all
those who have died for France ana for all those
who must yet die.