CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE CITY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 78, 27 December 1926, Page 8

CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE CITY

THE SCENE IN THE STREETS “A little folly now and then is relished by the wisest men.” It was evidently with Ulis thought somewhere at the back of their minds that many hundreds of people thronged the Wellington streets on Friday night, to be foolish for the last time before settling down to the serious business of Christmas Day. The Wellington streets had been very busy places for over a week, crowded with people looking for Christinas bargains, with others intent upon the errand of business, and with boys and girls eagerly enjoying their first taste of freedom from-the worries of school life. But on Christmas Eve the streets were busier than they had been for many months. With the bulk of their Christmas shopping done, and the satisfying knowledge that all the worrying Christmas presents were merely awaiting delivery, all sorts and conditions of men and women, of boys and girls, crowded into the streets, evidently anxious io miss nothing of the spirit of Christmas Eve/ Although verv crowded, tne streets were fairly quiet until after 10 o’clock. Everyone seemed quite satisfied merely to walk along the footpaths, from which thev were sometimes jostled on to the road, and to shake everyone else whom they knew by the hand with the usual wishes for their merriment and happiness It was not until nearly eleven, when the crowds had thinned very considerably, that the Christinas reyels really began, and it was well into Christinas morning before the streets resumed their usual appearance, allowing the patrolling policeman to go on his beat undisturbed, perhaps dreaming a little wistfully of the day when he would be able to retire with honours from the force, and to go to bed at a reasonable hour on the night before Christmas.