ortant features of
Yule-tide among the Germans of all denominations.

Nearly ten million households require one or two trees each Christmas,
varying in height from two to twenty feet. Societies provide them for
people who are too poor to buy them, and very few are overlooked at
this happy holiday season.

The grand Yule-tide festival is opened on the eve of St. Nicholas Day,
December sixth; in fact bazaars are held from the first of the month,
which is really one prolonged season of merrymaking.

In Germany, St. Nicholas has a day set apart in his honor. He was born
in. Palara, a city of Lycia, and but very little is known of his life
except that he was made Bishop of Myra and died in the year 343. It
was once the custom to send a man around to personate St. Nicholas on
St. Nicholas Eve, and to inquire how the children had behaved through
the year, who were deserving of gifts, and who needed a touch of the
birch rods that he carried with him into every home. St. Nicholas
still goes about in some parts of the country, and in the bazaars and
shops are sold little bunches of rods, real or made of candy, such as
St. Nicholas is supposed to deal in. In some places Knight Rupert
takes the place of St. Nicholas in visiting the houses. But Kriss
Kringle has nearly usurped the place St. Nicholas once held in awe and
respect by German children.

[Illustration: TOY-MAKING IN GERMANY.

How the rough figures are chipped from the wooden ring coming from the
cross-section of a tree.]

Because St. Nicholas Day came so near to Christmas, in some countries
the Saint became associated with that celebration, although in Germany
the eve of his birthday continues to be observed. Germans purchase
liberally of the toys and confectionery offered at the bazaars, and
nowhere are prettier toys and confectionery found than in Germany--the
country which furnishes the most beautiful toys in the world.

From the palace to the hut, Yule-tide is a season of peace, rest, joy,
and devotion. For three days, that is the day before Christmas,
Christmas, and the day after--known as Boxing-day--all business not
absolutely necessary to the welfare of the community is suspended.
Stores, markets, and bazaars present a festive appearance; the young
girl attendants are smiling and happy, and every one seems in the best
of humor.

Many of the poorer class, of Germans do not eat much meat, but at
Christmas all indulge in that extravagance, so the markets ar