The New York herald., 1922-12-03


been caught by the above title would
stop right there for a few minutes
and do a little hard thinking to try and
recall through all the intervening years,
just what was his or her earliest personal
impression of the meaning of Christmas.
Perhaps that first memory is of a wonder
full stocking bulging with mystery; perhaps
a fairy tree aglow with shimmering light;
perhaps just confused sense of the beati-
tude of opening countless beribboned little
packages But in any case that earliest
impression is a personal experience, some
thing you have lived through, not some
thing you have read. To the normal happy
child Christmas is rightfully the most won
derful day in the year; and accordingly
there is nothing surprising to find that
really great Christmas stories are well-nigh
the rarest stories that there are. A story
that can catch and Adequately mirror back
something of the inimitdble color and light
and pent up excitement of impressionable
childhood's greatest day is one of the little
miracles of narrative art
Probably to most of the older generation
the earliest recollection of Christmas in
word and picture is happy blend of gay
colored cards and calendars and bright
Christmas ANIMALS -esplendent with holly
and mistletoe, and robins caroling blithely
on bare branches amid a furry of snow
flakes The trad tional English Christmas
figured much more largely a few decades
ago both in picture and in text than it does
to-day; gay coated huntsmen gallopng
after pack in full cry; majestic Yule logs
blazing grandly on ample hearths; pro-
digious plum puddings borne proudly in
by mine host; these are the themes which
still recall to us, as they did to Washing
ton Irving a century ago. "the pictures his
fancy used TO draw in the May morning of
life" bringing with them "the flowers of
those honest days of yore in which. per-
haps. the world was more home
bred. social and joyous than at present"
Dickens. of course was literary high
priest of the old fashioned English Christ
mas, and his christmas Carol" is beyond
question the most ubiquitously known of
all Christmas stories wherever the Eng
lish language is spoken. 1t is a unique
blend of allegory. satire and realism; of
medieval miracle play, md-Victorian
merrymaking and the perennial essence
of the Christmas spirit. peace and good
will. 1t is pleasant to be told, in these
days when Dickens is sadly out of fashion,
that there is still healthy demand for the
christmas Carol" in the children's de-
partments of our big public libraries
or all American contributions to Christ
mas literature the long established ia
in verse, "A Visit from st. Nicholas" by
Clement c. Moore. Never before or since
has the traditional Santa Claus fat, jolly
and rosy checked. with his huge overflow
ing pack of toys his sleigh and prancing
team of nimble reindeer. been so fiawlessy
embodied in a jingle of words that sings
itself into the memory as enduringly as
the best of Mother Goose" The boy or
girl who has never read Twas the night
before Christmas" with a willing credulity
never peeped out from darkened windows
upon snow clad roofs. hoping against hope
to hear the tnkle of fairy sleigh bells and
to see the antlered team dashing merrily
over caves and rafters, has been robbed of
one of the precious prerogatives of child
hood
Another quite charming Christmas
story in rime, now almost forgotten. was
"Annie's and Willes Prayer" written. if
memory is not at fault, by Dr. E. p.
Rogers. in the early 7O's. and beginning.
like it's forerunner, with the words, "'Twas