DECEMBER 143 



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 draw- 

 backs. When children receive too many presents at the 

 same time, it is apt to encourage criticism and ingrati- 

 tude ; and having to thank for what they do not want 

 or already possess is too early a training in what might 

 seem to a child hypocrisy. Not to look a gift horse in 

 the mouth is excellent and reasonable to those who 

 xinderstand it, but neither in word nor idea does it 

 convey anything to a child's mind. I heard two 

 delicious child anecdotes last winter. One was of a 

 village schoolboy helping to decorate a Christmas tree 

 for himself and his schoolfellows. He made a touching 

 appeal to the kind but tired lady who was doing the 

 same : ' Please, teacher, if you have anything to do with 

 it, will you see that I get something that is not a pocket 

 handkerchief ! I've got seven already ! ' Sad to say, 

 his eighth pocket handkerchief had been assigned to 

 him, and he had to put up with it. The other story 

 was of a rich little lady who was taken to a neighbour's 

 Christmas tree. On receiving a new doll, she said to 

 her mother : ' Really, I don't know, mother, what I 

 shall do with this doll. I have so many already, how 

 edn I find room for her?' 



