A WHITE CHRISTMAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

A WHITE CHRISTMAS

IS there any New Zealander who 1 from earliest childhood has not longed to see a real white English Christmas? All the books read in one s earliest and most impressionable years have Christmas in the snow. No book, of course, ever mentioned one in the summer sun or summer rain, and therefore we grew up rather apologetic about ours, so different as it was from all our ancestors had known. For most of us the ultimate dream of bliss was to have a Christmas such as was depicted on all the Christmas cards. Many of us, when we grew to man's estate, went to England, and where was the lovely Christmas? A 8 we sat in the rain whit pi, w and the 8,,15h we heard roral r„I S i7 9eß that they had had i" rural England many years before. When we were safely back in New Zealand we wero t f y had had another but we were too far away by then to investigate suSirhr / CamC t0 the conel "3ion that such Christmases were but a pretty Wend It was in Canada, in a huge, industrial' city near the United States bor/ler a plaee thmml.i >ne k? expect a r ,eo P ]e with no thought above super plumbing that sentimental Cnristmas was found trium 7* egln . with > the stage setting was so beautifully right. Snow had been fail ing for weeks in early December, not «lushv disheveHed snow, but a crisp, dry powdJr that crackled under the feet The inhabitants too were dressed for the part for there, inevitable as ' the return of the birds in spring and departure in the ' * fall, is the return in December of all the fur coats from cold storage. Very early in the month the super decorations of the huge department stores heralded the great day. Even such prosaic articlc* as electric washing machines appeared coyly draped in cellol phane wrappers and with angels floating above them. From the country there came daily great lorry loads of small spruce and cedar trees that filled the city • with their spicy scent. The vendors, who were generally returned soldiers, arranged them in miniature forests on vacant lots or on the sidewalks outside the shops in the suburbs Trade was always brisk, even in times of depression, for it was the tradition that every house from the richest to the poorest. every school room, every institution, and most business house? had a Christmas tree. As the prices ranged from one shilling' Up to about five, they

By D.M.S.

were within the reach of all. Two or three weeks before Christmas every lawn or little front plot had its tree in place, for there the enjoyment was shared bv all and not kept as ours, behind closed blinds. The trees, sparkling with glass baubles and tinsel by day, were a blaze of coloured light at night. For a mere shilling shops provided a complete set of coloured globes and the necessary wirjng for a tree. At night when one drove through the city and the suburbs it was a fairyland of twinkling lights. Some of the great houses would have the entire front decorated with light of every colour and every tree in the shrubbery twinkling in the snow. Some had even arranged on their lawns elaborate Christmas tableaux with wooden figures. The amazing thing to an outsider was the fact that no house, however humble, neglected its contribution to the public pleasure of some wreath of green or red, hung in a window with a lighted caudle beneath. Garlands decorated most front doors, and even hung from tall poles outside most shops. The largest department store of the city v t a P ar . ade ear, y in the month, and fa.ther Christmas, met by an elaborate procession at the outskirts of the citv, was escorted in, and could thereafter be met without embarrassment in any store. His progress had been reported tfourly over the radio aa he came down from the frozen north. One would have expected children to be enthusiastic, but the enthusiasm of the

adults was most amazing. Before seven, on a bitterly cold day, tlicy forsook their beds, and collecting any child or adult stranger as an alibi, set off breakfastless, to secure a good place along tha route. What parade it was! Every creature from fairy tale and nursery rhyme was there, with sundry brass and pipe bands in addition. Snow White and the dwarfs, Three Bears, Mother Goose, knights and ladies, enormous giants walking, and float after decorated float all came by. Then came the grand tinale that aroused children to frenzied cheers. With a jingling of bells the lovely reindeer through the air, drawing behind them Santa Claus, jovial and ■ kind. With the real snow drifting down on his red robes, he bore no resemblance to those poor, hot, shabby masqueraders seen in our department stores. In Canada he arrived with all pomp and ceremony to the city, and by tacit understanding there were no impostors in anv shop before his arrival. On that day amongst the wildly cheering children he was very real even to a disillusioned adult. At night during the week before Christmas, in all the churches, Protestant and Catholic, were the lovely candlelight services. No electric lights marred the beauty, but candles and flowers were everywhere. The choirs dressed in long surplices, some of blue, some of red, came singing in, each chorister carrying a tall lighted candle. For hours the lovely old Christmas songs and hymns were and one came out in a dream to a clear, frosty night and tramped home through the crisp snow. At night In every street the waits sang carols. Sometimes it would be the great church choirs giving pleasure to everyone, and sometimes the poor children would be singing in the hopet of gathering a few «ents.

At last the cheerful bells chiming through the strangely quiet city told that Christmas Day had come. Snow lay deep and still on the streets, and on every ..evergreen tree there were great patches. Icicles hung from the eaves and from the leafless maples that lined tlie streets. No wind disturbed the lovely peace. Here was the lovely Christmas that one had dreamed of, snow and evergreens, carols and waits. Nothing was missing from the scene, but with a hideous lump in the throat and a feeling of nostralgia for home never known before, one. realised that Christmas was not just something of trees and candles and snow in a land that was not one's own. Christmas to a New Zealander could, after all, only be perfect amongst his own, in his own green land, however topsy-turvy the seasons of that land might be.