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Christmas. There is nothing in England
that exercises a more delightful spell over my

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imagination than the lingerings of the holiday
customs and rural games of former times.

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They recall the pictures my fancy used
to draw in the May morning of life,

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when as yet I only knew the
world through books and believed it to

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be all that poets had painted it. And they bring with them the flavor

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of those honest days of yore,
in which, perhaps with equal fallacy,

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I am apt to think the world
was more home bred, social and joyous

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than at present. I regret to
say that they are daily growing more and

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more faint, being gradually worn away
by time, but still more obliterated by

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modern fashion. They resemble those picturesque
morsels of Gothic architecture which we see crumbling

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in various parts of the country tree, partly dilapidated by the waste of ages

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and partly lost in the additions and
alterations of latter days. Poetry, however,

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clings with cherishing fondness about the rural
game and holiday revel from which it

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has derived so many of its themes. As the Ivy winds its rich foliage

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about the Gothic arch and moldering tower, gratefully repaying their support by clasping together

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their tottering remains and as it were, embalming them in verdure. Of all

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the old festivals, however, that
of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt

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associations. There is a tone of
solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our

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conviviality and lifts the spirit to a
state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The

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services of the Church about this season
are extremely tender and inspiring. They dwell

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on the beautiful story of the origin
of our faith and the pastoral scenes that

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accompanied its announcement. They gradually increase
in fervor and pathos during the season of

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Advent, and till they break forth
in full jubilee on the morning that brought

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peace and good will to men.
I do not know a grander effect of

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music on the moral feelings that to
hear the full choir and the pealing organ

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performing a Christmas anthem in a cathedral
and filling every part of the vast pile

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with triumphant harmony. It is a
beautiful arrangement, also derived from days of

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yore, that this festival, which
commemorates the announcement of the religion of Peace

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and Love, has been made the
season for gathering together of family connections and

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drawing closer again those bands of kindred
hearts which the cares and pleasures and sorrows

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of the world are tinually operating to
cast loose, of calling back the children

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of a family, who have launched
forth in life and wandered widely asunder once

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more to assemble about the paternal hearth, that rallying place of the affections they

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are to grow young and loving again
among the endearing mementos of childhood. There

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is something in the very season of
the year that gives a charm to the

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festivity of Christmas. At other times
we derive a great portion of our pleasures

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from the mere beauties of nature.
Our feelings sally forth and dissipate themselves over

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the sunny landscape, and we live
abroad and everywhere. The song of the

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bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the

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soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden
pomp of autumn, Earth with its mantill

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of refreshing green, and heaven with
its deep delicious blue, as cloudy magnificence

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all fill us with mute but exquisite
delight, and we revel in the luxury

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of mere sensation. But in the
depth of winter my nature lies despoiled of

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every charm, and wrapped in her
shroud if she did snow. We turn

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for our gratifications to moral sources.
The dreariness and desolation of the landscape,

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the short, gloomy days and darksome
nights, while they circumscribe our wanderings,

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should in our feelings also from rambling
abroad, and make us more keenly disposed

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for the pleasures of the social circle. Our thoughts are more concentrated, our

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friendly sympathies more aroused. We feel
more sensibly the charm of each other's society,

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and are brought more closely together by
dependence on each other for enjoyment.

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Heart calleth unto heart, and we
draw our pleasures from the deep wells of

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living kindness, which lie in the
quiet recesses of our bosoms, and which,

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when resorted to furnish forth the pure
element of domestic felicity. The pitchy

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gloom without makes the heart dilate on
entering the room filled with the glow and

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warmth of the evening fire. The
ready blaze diffuses an artificial summer and sunshine

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through the room and lights up each
countenance into a kindlier welcome. Where does

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the honest face of hospitality expand into
a broader and more cordial smile. Where

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is the shy glance of love more
sweetly eloquent than by the winter fireside?

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And as the hollow blasts of wintry
wind rushes through the hall, claps the

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distant door, whistles about the casement, and rumbles down the chimney, what

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can be more grateful than that feeling
of sober and sheltered security with which we

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look around upon the comfortable chamber and
the scene of domesticalarity. The English,

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from the great prevalence of rural habits
throughout every class of society, have always

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been fond of those festivals and holidays
which agreeably interrupt the stillness of country life,

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and they were in former days,
particularly observant of the religious and social

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rights of Christmas. Is inspiring to
read even the dry details which some antiquarians

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have given of the quaint humors the
burlesque pageants. The complete abandonment to mirth

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and good fellowship with which this festival
was celebrated, seemed to throw open.

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Every door resounded with the harp and
the Christmas carol, and their ample boards

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grown under the weight of hospitality.
Even the poorest cottage welcomed the festive season

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with green decorations of bay and holly. The cheerful fire glanced its rays through

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the lattice, inviting the passenger to
raise the latch, enjoining the gossip knot

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huddled round the hearth, beguiling the
long evening, the legendary jokes and oft

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told Christmas tales. One of the
least pleasing effects of modern refinement is the

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havoc that has made among the hearty
old holiday customs. It has completely taken

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off the sharp touchings and spirited reliefs
of these embellishments of life. Has worn

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down society into a more smooth and
polished, but certainly a less characteristic surface.

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Many of the games and ceremonials of
Christmas have entirely disappeared, and,

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like the Charissa of old Falstaff,
are become matters of speculation and dispute among

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commentators. The flourished and time is
full of spirit and lustihood. When men

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enjoyed life roughly, but heartily and
vigorously times wild and picturesque, which have

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furnished poetry with its richest materials,
and the drama with its most attractive variety

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of characters and manners, the world
is become more wardly. There was more

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dissipation and less of enjoyment. Pleasure
has expanded into a broader, but a

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shallower stream, as forsaken many of
those deep and quiet channels where it flows

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sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic
life. Society has acquired a more enlightened

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and elegant tone, but it has
lost many of his strong local peculiarities,

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his homebred feelings, his honest fireside
delights. The traditionary customs of golden hearted

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antiquity, its feudal hospitalities, and
lordly wassailings have passed away. With the

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baronial castles and stately manor houses in
which they were celebrated. They comported with

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the shadowy hall, the great oaken
gallery, and the tapestried parlor, but

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are unfitted to delight showy saloons and
gay drawing rooms of the modern villa.

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Shorn. However, as it is
of its ancient infestive. Christmas is still

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a period of delightful excitement in England. Is gratifying to see that home feeling

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completely aroused, which seems to hold
so powerful a place in every English bosom.

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The preparations making on every side for
the social board that is again to

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unite friends and kindred. The presence
of good cheer, passing and repassing,

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those tokens of regard and quickeners of
kind feelings, the evergreens distributed about houses

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and churches, emblems of peace and
gladness. All these have the most pleasing

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effect in producing fond associations and enkindling
benevolent sympathies. Even the sound of the

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weights, rude, as may be
their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mid watches

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of a winter night, with the
effects of perfect harmony. As I have

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been awakened by them in that still
and solemn hour when deep sleep falleth upon

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man, I have listened with a
hushed delight, and connecting them with the

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sacred and joyous occasion, have almost
fancied them into another celestial choir, announcing

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peace and good will to mankind.
How delightfully the imagination when wrought upon these

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moral influences, turns everything to melody
and beauty. The very crowing of the

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cock, who is sometimes heard in
the profound repose of the country, telling

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the night watches to his feathery Dames, was thought by the common people to

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announce the approach of the sacred festival. Some say that, ever against that

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season comes wherein our Savior's birth is
celebrated, this bird of dawning singeth all

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night long. And then they say, no spirit dares stir abroad the knights

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are wholesome. Then no planet strike, no fairy takes no which hath power

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to charm. So hallowed and so
gracious is the time, amidst the general

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cause to happiness, the bustle of
the spirits, and stir of the affections

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which prevail at this period, what
bosom can remain insensible. It is,

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indeed the season of regenerated feeling,
the season for kindling, not merely the

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fire of hospitality in the hall,
but the genial flame of charity in the

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heart. The scene of early love
again rises green to memory, beyond the

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sterile waste of years, and the
idea of home fraught with the fragrance of

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home dwelling joys reanimates the drooping spirit, as the Arabian breeze will sometimes waft

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the freshness of the distant fields to
the weary pilgrim of the desert. Stranger

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and sojourner, as I am in
the land. Though for me no social

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hearth may blaze, no hospitable roof
through open its doors, nor the warm

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grasp of friendship welcomed me at the
threshold, Yet I feel the influence of

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the season beaming into my soul from
the happy looks of those around me.

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Surely, happiness is reflective, like
the light of Heaven, and every countenance,

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bright with smiles and glowing with innocent
enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to

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others the rays of a supreme and
ever shining benevolence. He who can turn

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cheerlessly away from contemplating the felicity of
his fellow beings and sit down, darkling

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and repining in his loneliness when all
around is joyful, may have his moments

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of strong excitement and selfish gratification.
But he wants the genial and social sympathies

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which constitute the charm of a merry
Christmas and of Christmas by Washington Irving