HAIL, FATHER CHRISTMAS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 23 December 1922, Page 7

HAIL, FATHER CHRISTMAS

WELCOME. WELCOME HE IE JOY FOR THE HEART OF A CHILD “Hail, Father Christmas! Welcome, welcome here! Joyously we greet them, emblem of good cheer! Kindly, gentle, loving, shedding gifts around— In the radiant presence Joy and Peace abound. Greater gifts than jewels, love for every tiling — At this most gladsome Cliristmastide, like thee to all wo bring. 0 Spirit of .Rejoicing, they glow tho world doth fill ! We greet thee as the monarch of the Kingdom of Goodwill!

Everyone has been a child; every wise person remains one. Tho world is plentifully besprinkled with children of uncertain age, which is precisely what makes the world such a delightful place. And, of all times of the year, Cliristmastide excels every other for the encouragement of the virtue of sheer youthfulness. We may forget that we are young until the glad Christmas season cornea round to remind us, but- when the revels begin, and we “Old Fogeys,” as we style ourselves, clumsily join in the. fun, with more or less assumed puffiings and pantings—■well, we don’t really deceive anyone, not even ourselves. Do I not know that, beneath my portly waistcoat, beats the heart of a child, nay, a veritable babe! Am I not aware that yon curly-headed mite simply cannot compete with his venerable grandsirc in sheer delight and unbounded enthusiasm—the acumulated enthusiasm of two thousand vears!

Christmastide has been called the. “Children’s Festival.” ‘Whoever said that was nearer the truth than he imagined, for, while he sought to regulate the delights of Christmas time to the nursery, pure and simple, behold, the world transformed into one touchstone of perfection—the heart of a child. •There is surely no sweeter music on earth than the sound of the Christmas bells, and no merrier or more cheering sound than the voices of the “■waits’’ saluting the “happy morn.” What if they arc. a bit nasal and out of tune! .Are they not so much the more human and lovable? When you have heard — perhaps for the fiftieth time —their discordant, rendering of the shepherd’s “all seated on the ground” you may, in a. momentary impulse of irritation, have growled beneath the clothes, “I wisli those fellows were all seated in their beds,” but your annoyance would be shortlived, giving place at once to a glow of warm festive feeling. Let us imagine Christmas eve shorn of its Christmas trappings, the shops devoid of their gay display of presents, our houses unadorned, no appetising smell of plum puddings or mince pies in the making, no busy throng of eager young folk around a Christmas tree whispering the magic words, “Stockings, “Chimneys,” Santa Claus” ; none of the sounds of revelry that have been associated with the season for generations. Instead of the family gathering, ]e; the members of each household disperse to hotels and hydros, possibly as separate units; let there be no interchange of presents, letters ,cards, or any of the symbols of remembrance or goodfellowship, _to turn the Christmas season simply into a little jaunt, or brief respite from business or the monotony of home life. Surely we should miss the happy, jovial atmosphere of the old Christmas celebrations, with their pageantry, their conviviality, their quaint old customs, breathing memories of the past and goodwill in the present, and the deep meaning underlying these manifestations. 'Cry, “Down with Christmas” and bring forward your battalions of condemnatory arguments and sly thrusts at senitmentality, and/ at the end behold yourself much in the condition of the agnostic philosopher, who, while laboring to collect arguments to demolish the Christian faith, found that ho had instead amassed evidence to strengthen that mighty fabric; No, indeed, the Christmas celebrations are symbols of _ most precious significance, and the Christmas spirit, as manifested in the traditional observances of the, season, has an appeal most touching, and evokes a feeling of tenderness winch no other time quite conjures up. There is no sweeter greeting than the old familiar words, A .Merry Christmas,’ ’and no more captivating legend than that of Santa Claus, ■/with his tale of a ride .on a reindeer through the realms of space and descent through a sooty chimney to fill a child a stocking—a delicious minding of the sublime and the commonplace! \Ve all firmly believed it “Once upon a tune, mid ‘now, for one delirious moment, wo almost believe in again! When that child was horn nearly two thousand vears ago, the hearts of men melted into tenderness, and became “as little children,” and tor that reason the Christmas spirit lives for ever m the hearts of ua all. , ~ As Robert Louis Stevenson so beanLifully says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is of the childlike, of those who are easy please .who love and who give plea,Sl'on Christmas Day no one is really old but the whole world of children listens with the same old, eager thrill to the message of Father Christmas, who, Ihe embodiment of benevolence and kindness, casts a spell upon all. Of Course, the old fellow has much to mi-wer for—wild fancies, impossible dreams, extravagant feats of imagination! Oh; the foolish intoxication ot ~li i put. with one accord we acclaim his sovereignly, and Hock to pay him Jl T.T'nuleed, hail Father Christmas! f of in'thy spirit of Love ami kindness is the verv‘ essence of the spirit ol Chusthild whose festival of the world dehonor with all the merriment and gaiety of the fine old Christmas c iirttoms traditions. 1 * Mav they never cease lo gladden and ( heeJ y the season of Christinas with their quaint and innocent delights!