Milford chronicle., 1926-12-24
WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS
Written for This Paper by
FRANK P. LITSCHERT


The season of Christmas is at
hand. In every city, town and ham
let in the United States, the peO-
pie haye been busy during the past
few weeks, seeking something to
present to the loved ones at home
and abroad. For it is at this time
of year that we seek especially to
remember those who are near and
dear to us either by ties of blood or
friendship.
The Christmas custom is an old
one, ante-dating our Christian civ
iIization. And when the Christian
fathers converted the savage tribes
who formed the ancestors of most
of us, they changed pagan customs
to Christian ones. So now, Christ
mas day observing the birth of the
Christian Savior, is quite properly
the day on which we hang up the
stocking, trim the tree and radiate
peace, good cheer and brOtherly
love.
And because this Christmas sea-
son is so time-honored, we have
come to regard it as a matter of
course. Few of us therefore ever
stop to consider what might hap
pen to our economic system if this
Christmas season with it's customs
were suddenly, in some supernatur-
al manner, wiped out of our human
, existence.
For every year factories in Eu-
rope and America are busy manu-
featuring Christmas goods, giving
employment to hundreds of thous-
ands of people everywhere. Then
these goods find themselves on the
shelves of the merchant in the Uni
ted States and every other civilized
land, and are sold to the people who
observe the Christmas season. De-
cember consequently is the biggest
retail business month of the year,
and hundreds of millions annually
are spent to make the Christmas
! season a real holiday. 1t is easy
to see then that if the Christmas
spirit were suddenly to disappear,
| there would be a real economic ca
lamity in every Christian nation.
AS a stimulus to production nothing
can surpass the Christmas spirit.
The economic loss, however, would
not be in any degree so great as
the ethical loss. For the good
cheer, and generosity Of Christmas
send a fine impulse over the world,
lasting a great deal longer than the
Christmas season itself. What
Christmas means to our children,
and to the memory of our own child
hood is worth a thousand times
what it costs. And the spirit of
good fellowship which Christmas day
engenders, to say nothing Of its
purely religious phase, is worth an
other thousand times the cost.
30
That is why, in addition to its
purely spiritual significance Christ
mas means so much to us. It is the
one season of the year when we feel
that we can forget our little petty
troubles and differences of opinion
and join in the fun.
90
Let us not forget our friends on
this one big day Of the year. Even
kindly message will suffice If we
cannot remember them more sub
stantially. For after all it is the
spirit of the gift and not the intrin-
sic value which counts. The Santa
Claus spirit isn't entirely for the
children. 1t concerns the grown-ups
too, who, after all, are only the chill
dren of yesterday.
90
Three cheers for st. Nicholas
then, and may his trip this year be
so successful that nobody will be
neglected. And if there is any
danger that anyone will be missed
let our good fellows see that st.
Nick is provided with the name and
address. America is at the high
tide of prosperity this year. Every
body, especially every youngster,
should have a visit from Santa
Claus.