CHRISTMAS BRIEFS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 60

CHRISTMAS BRIEFS.

The "holly" or "holy tree" is known as ' Jhrist's thorn "\ in Germany and Scandinavia.

On Christmas aftersoon the young King of Spain receives a visit" from the sons of most of the Spanish nobility.

Paris uses about 50.000 Christmas trees each year, of which over 10,000 are bought by foreigners resident in that city.

In olden times Christmas carols were sung by the bishops and clergy, the money collected being distributed among the poor. The baron of beef for the Royal table usually weighs a full 2Colb. It is always obtained from a beast bred and fed at Windsor.

At A'tlanta, in the State of Georgia, it is the Christmas custom to liberate all prisoners whose only offence has been against the city ordinances. A Christmas custom once practised all over England, but now rarely seen, is the performance on Christmas 'Eve of the play of "St. George and the Dragon." To this day in some of the remote villages of Norfolk (England) peoplo retain the ancient custom of .making a separate Christmas pudding for each member of thp family. Every year-end hundreds of Frenchmen who have settled ,in America cross 'the Atlantic for the solo purpose of bding in their native country on New Year's Day. The word "Noel," which may mean either Christmas Day or a Christmas carol, is a contraction of the Old English "no wells," derived from the French "nouvelles" ("tidings"). Three , Christmas Islands fexist—all of them, being British possessions. One is in the Pacific; the second 250 miles southwest of Java, and the third is off Cape Breton. ' <

The chief supply of mistletoe used in England comes from Normandy and parts of Brittany, where the plant may be seen growing luxuriantly on the trees in the great apple orchards. As a general rule the longest frosts in England begin between Christmas and New Year's Day. The deepest falls of snow during the last 25 years have commenced in the middle of January. In the Middle Ages beer was drunk on Christmas Day as a sort of religious duty, and unlimited quantities of it were sold in the "church-houses," and even, sometimes within the walls of the church itself. The best Yuletido gift ever received by one London children's hospital was sent by a lady who, learning on Christmas Eve that the institution had a debt of £3OOO, at once forwarded a cheque for that amount as a Christmas-box. At Biarritz, on the Bay of Biscay, at Christmas time, the English residents and visitors gave an' annual dinner to the Basque and Gascon fishermen, at which the fandango, the old national dance of Spain, is danced by a number of pretty Spanish girls. It is an interesting fact that the modern bathbun is a relic of former times once peculiar to Christmas and other festive seasons. A recipe that has been handed down from the reign of 'Charles I corresponds in every detail with the bun familiar to us.

Leghorn is the centre of the candied fruit industry. The candying of the citron and orange peel, used in enormous quantities at this season of the year, chiefly in Great Britain, Germany, and North America, affords occupatiqn to a large number of inhabitants. , In Rumania there exists a curious Christmas custom of "blessing the river." A service is held on the bank of the Danube, and a email wooden cross ia thrown in through a hole in the ice. A frantic scramble to recover the relic on the part of the spectators ensues.