acred
oaks with a golden sickle by the Prince of the Druids, between whom and
the Fire-Worshippers of Persia there was an affinity both in character
and customs.

[Footnote A: An account of the early history of Christmas may be found
in Chamber's Book of Days.]

The ancient Goths and Saxons called this festival Yule, which is
preserved to us in the Scottish word for Christmas and also in the name
of the Yule Log. The ancient Teutons celebrated the season by decking a
fir tree, for they thought of the sun, riding higher and higher in the
heavens, as the spreading and blossoming of a great tree. Thus our own
Christmas fir was decked as a symbol of the celestial sun tree. The
lights, according to Professor Schwartz, represent the flashes of
lightning overhead, the golden apples, nuts and balls symbolize the sun,
the moon and the stars, while the little animals hung in the branches
betoken sacrifices made in gratitude to the sun god.[B]

[Footnote B: A delightful account of the origin of the Christmas tree
may be found in Elise Traut's Christmas in Heart and Home.]

As Christianity replaced paganism, the Christians, in the tolerant
spirit of their Master, adopted these beautiful old usages, merely
changing their spirit. So that the Lord of Misrule who long presided
over the Christmas games of Christian England was the direct descendant
of the ruler who was appointed, with considerable prerogatives, to
preside over the sports of the Saturnalia. In this connection the narrow
Puritan author of the "Histrio-Mastix" laments: "If we compare our
Bacchanalian Christmasses with these Saturnalia, we shall find such a
near affinitye between them, both in regard to time and in manner of
solemnizing, that we must needs conclude the one to be but the very
issue of the other."

"Merrie old England," writes Walsh,[C] "was the soil in which Merrie
Christmas took its firmest root." Even in Anglo-Saxon days we hear of
Alfred holding high revelry in December, 878, so that he allowed the
Danes to surprise him, cut his army to pieces and send him a fugitive.
The court revelries increased in splendor after the conquest. Christmas,
it must be remembered was not then a single day of sport. It had the
preliminary novena which began December 16, and it ended on January 6,
or Twelfth Night. All this period was devoted to holiday making.

[Footnote C: Curiosities of Popular Customs.]

It was a democratic festival. All classes mixed in its merry