Chapter II: Introduction: Hamilton W. Mabie v

I

SIGNS OF THE SEASON

"The Time draws near the Birth of Christ" _Alfred Tennyson_ 4

An Hue and Cry after Christmas _Old English Tract_ 5

The Doge's Christmas Shooting _F. Marion Crawford_ 6

Thursday Processions in Advent _William S. Walsh_ 7

The Glastonbury Thorn _Alexander F. Chamberlain_ 9

In the Kitchen _Old English Ballad_ 11

Christmas in England _Washington Irving_ 12

Christmas Invitation _William Barnes_ 16

A Christmas Market _Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick_ 17

The Star of Bethlehem in Holland _Bow-Bells Annual_ 18

The Pickwick Club goes down to Dingley Dell _Charles Dickens_ 19

A Visit from St. Nicholas _Clement C. Moore_ 24

Crowded Out _Rosalie M. Jonas_ 26

II

HOLIDAY SAINTS AND LORDS

My Lord of Misrule _T. K. Hervey_ 31

St. Nicholas _Collated_ 32

An Old Saint in a New World _Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer_ 33

St. Thomas _Collated, W. P. R._ 35

Kriss Kringle _Thomas Bailey Aldrich_ 36

Il Santissimo Bambino _Collated, W. P. R._ 37

The Christ Child _Elise Traut_ 38

The April Baby is Thankful "_Elizabeth_" 38

Good King Wenceslas _Old English Carol_ 41

Jean Valjean plays the Christmas Saint _Victor Hugo_ 42

St. Brandan _Matthew Arnold_ 45

St. Stephen's, or Boxing Day _Collated, W. P. R._ 47

St. Basil in Trikkola _J. Theodore Bent_ 48