s of guests to these old-time homes, to
partake of the good cheer and enjoy weeks of fun and frolic, indoors
and out. For many days before Christmas arrived, colored cooks, the
regular, and extra ones, were busy cooking from morning till evening,
preparing for the occasion. The storerooms were replete with every
variety of tempting food the ingenious minds of the cooks could
devise, for Christmas dinner was the one great test of their ability
and woe to Auntie whose fire was too hot, or whose judgment was at
fault on this occasion.

[Illustration: LIGHTING THE YULE-LOG IN COLONIAL DAYS.]

To the whites and blacks Christmas was a season of peace, plenty, and
merriment. In the "Great House" and in the cabin there were music,
dancing, and games until New Year. This was "Hiring Day," and among
the blacks joy was turned to sadness as husbands, fathers, brothers,
and lovers were taken away to work on distant plantations, for those
who hired extra help through the year were often extremely cruel in
their treatment of the slaves.

The gladsome Virginia Christmas in time became the typical one of the
South, where it was the red-letter day of the year, the most joyous of
all holidays. The churches were lovingly and tastefully decorated with
boughs of green and flowers by the ladies themselves and
conscientiously attended by both old and young. In the South there was
never any of the somberness that attended church services in the North
among descendants of the Plymouth Colony who came to America later.

The Puritans of England early discountenanced the observance of
Christmas. But among the Pilgrims who reached the American coast in
December, 1620, were mothers who had lived so long in Holland they
loved the old-time custom of making merry on that day. To these dear
women, and to the kind-hearted, child-loving Elder Brewster, we are
indebted for the first observance of the day held by the Plymouth
Colony.

According to the Journal of William Bradford, kept for so many years,
the Pilgrims went ashore, "and ye 25 day (Dec.) begane to erecte ye
first house for comone use to receive them and their goods." Bradford
conscientiously refrains from alluding to the day as Christmas, but
descendants of these godly Puritans are glad to learn that home-making
in New England was begun on Christmas Day.

Many very interesting stories have been written about this first
Christmas. One writer even pictures the more lenient Elder Brewster as