The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-26

always gentle and always sweet; my
 father, with his beautifully trained mind
 and tender heart attuned to all that was
 beautiful. made the lives of their chl-
 dren very very happy. and especially so at the Joyous Christmas when par
 ticular pains with every thing pertain
 ing to the holiday season made us all
 unusually happy.
 There never appeared to be any cloud upon our Christmas horizon, except at one time when one of the children was very ill; but even then the others were
 not deprived of their pleasures and our parents tried to hide their own anxiety ana to rejoice with us. There must
 have been shadows upon other earlier Christmases, although we children failed
 to notice them because care was taken to let us see the sunshine only.
 We always hung up our stockings on Christmas Eve, and found them stuffed to overflowing with little toys, candy. nuts, fruit and what not, just as children found their stockings this Christmas morning What happiness Christmas stockings give to little folk! Nothing else. except, perhaps, the Christmas tree, touches them in the same way. It gives such a happy. comfortable feeling to find that dear old Saint Nick had not passed by those who have tried to be good children!
 The Christmas dinner always was a festive occasion for us, and in those days there was no scrimping of the good things set upon the table. Besides roast turkey and a big chicken pie, there was a ham, and then there were vegetables or all sorts, plum pudding, mince and pumpkin pies, fruit and nuts and raisins The elders may have given out before the last-named dainties arrived, but the children were always game to the end.
 It Is bcause the Christmas spirit never failed to pervade our home that Christ mas always has been happy time for me; and those beautiful memories have made me wish to preserve that same spirit and to make Christmas a happy day for my own loved ones
 It may be hard for some of us to feel Quite as happy today as we have in other years, for we are older and moro sedate, but it is time to remember the real meaning of the day, no matter how old we are, and the reasons why we should be grateful and glad. It is a time to remember the great gift that came to the world, and the great spirit- m a1sf hat plr ivd of God"
 With the holly-wreathed decorated he mes of today during the Christmas sea- son, with crimson bells and graceful mistletoe trailing from chandelier and these Chr stmas days shine with light softer and perhaps more comfortable than the pre-festiyal days or Christmas Day itself. |
 Particularly is this true of the first ! day after Christmas-especially when 1 that day is Sunday. In England. of ] course, as in the time of the late Sam ! uel Pickwick. Esq, who brought about | -he renascence of Christmas. this is called | boxing day. not because it is the oc- | ,asion of fistic encounters, but because t is the time appointed for the distribu- ion of those more or less spontaneous of good will which are called Christmas boxes. It's more orthodox title | s Saint Stephens Day; 1t is, you know, he day on which the illustrious King Nenceslaus, with the assistance of his page. did his noble almoning. Says the id carol:
 Good King Wenceslaus looked out
 On the feast of stephen, | When the snow lay round about,
 Deep. and crisp. and even;
 Brightly shone the mocu that night,