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Show Ancient? lave Presents as Most People Do Now ""THE cuitom of making presents at t hristmas Is derived from very ancient usage, it was a Teutonic Invention. m Latin countries gifts were exchanged at New Year's, writes James Waldo Fawcett in the Washington Wash-ington (D. C) Evening Star. The decoration of churches with mistletoe and bolly is likewise a pagan survival. Nativity plays and pageants trace back to a pre-Christian era. The sports ol the Lords of Misrule in England are supposed to be an inheritance in-heritance from the Saturnalia of heathen Koine. Father Christmas or Santa Clans Is Identified with St Nicholas or Nicolas, Nic-olas, and also with Knecht Rupercht and Robin Goodfellow. Grimm says that In some parts of Germany Knecht Nicolas is merely an attendant attend-ant on the real glft-glver, who Is sometimes the Infant Christ and sometimes Dame Bertha, but who Is also frequently conceived as an ugly dwarf, called Krampus. Carol singing by waifs, strolling street musicians, is an old British custom. The first Christmas cards date from about IS46. The setting up in Latin churches of a Christmas creche Is said to have been originated by St. Francis. |