DECEMBER 141 



and where year after year it is an immense toil to the 

 givers and but very little appreciated by the receivers. 

 It is almost laughable, the way that people who are 

 apparently the greatest supporters of this custom of 

 present-giving at stated times groan over the trouble 

 and expense it entails, and congratulate themselves and 

 each other when the terrible Christmas fortnight is at 

 an end. 



This fashion of giving presents to all sorts of 

 promiscuous people at special times has immensely 

 increased since my childhood, when it was only beginning 

 imported no doubt, as far as Christmas is concerned, 

 from Germany. The French, who keep their rubbish- 

 giving for the New Year, confine themselves almost 

 entirely to flowers and bonbons, which, if equally useless 

 have at least the merit of passing away and of not 

 crowding up our chimneypieces and writing-tables. The 

 turning of every shop into a bazaar ; the display of meat, 

 game, and turkeys on the outside of shops ; the spending 

 of a disproportionate amount of money on feasting all this 

 is comparatively recent. I can quite well remember as a 

 girl the excitement of first decorating a church. This 

 developed into a fashion with the High Church party, 

 and is not an old custom. I know one old clergyman 

 who to this day refuses to allow any Christmas decorations, 

 and says : ' Why desecrate my church with evergreens? ' 

 If it has any antiquity it is a Pagan revival, like flowers 

 for the dead. It may be pretty and desirable, or the 

 contrary, but it is not Old English, though the Druids 

 may have been as fond of mistletoe as they were of 

 oaks. 



To return to present-giving at anniversaries. I am 

 more than willing to admit, as I have already said, that 

 quite young children get considerable pleasure out of this 

 custom, but even in their case it has distinct drawbacks'. 



