DECEMBER 263 



holy tree ? So, when the yule-tide came, the 

 mistletoe was taken into the house, and there 

 Christianity found it on the conversion of 

 the northern tribes. With the celebration 

 of the birth of "Christ the White," concur- 

 ring as it did with the yule-tide, came the 

 strange combination of the Mass in the 

 church as the official ceremony, and the 

 mistletoe in England and the Christmas tree 

 in Germany as the celebration in the home, 

 in memory of the good old times. Of course 

 there is no longer any religious meaning 

 attached in our minds to the hanging up of 

 the mistletoe, but the sweet accident which 

 tradition makes liable to occur beneath its 

 overshadowing boughs tells us that its orig- 

 inal significance was certainly not baleful. 



