But in the winter's frost and rime!
O Hemlock-tree! O Hemlock-tree! how faithful are thy branches!"

It is ablaze with tiny lighted tapers and radiant with shiny tinsel
cut in pretty devices or in thread-like strips. Bright balls, gay
toys, and paper flowers help to enhance its beauty, and sometimes
scenes from sacred history are arranged with toys at the base of the
tree.

With the distribution of the gifts the fun begins; each person is
expected to kiss every other person present and help make the occasion
a merry one.

Holy Night, or, as the Germans term it, _Weihnacht_--the Night of
Dedication--is the time of family reunions, fun, and frolic. Not alone
in homes, hospitals, prisons, barracks, and elsewhere is the pretty
betinseled tree to be seen on Christmas, but in burying-grounds, on
the resting-places of the dead, stand these fresh green trees in
evidence of keeping the loved one's memory green.

While the custom of having a tree is universal throughout Germany, and
from thence has been introduced into other countries, there are many
customs peculiar to certain sections. In some of the little
out-of-the-way places in the Tyrolese Alps the old-time Miracle Plays
are enacted in a most primitive manner. As the peasants rarely, if
ever, attend the theatre or have any opportunity to see a modern play,
this occasion attracts them from far and near. Where is the theatre,
who are the actors, do you ask? The theatre is the largest place
available, sometimes a large room, sometimes a barn, anything that
will accommodate the crowd that is sure to come. In one description of
a play given on Christmas Day it is stated that the people assembled
in a barn belonging to the vicarage to witness the Paradise Play. The
top of a huge pottery stove at least five feet high served for the
throne of God the Father, the stove being hidden by screens painted
to represent clouds. The play "began at the beginning,"--at Chaos. A
large paper screen bedecked with a profusion of suns, moons, stars,
and comets formed a background, while in front sprawled a number of
boys in tights with board wings fastened to their shoulders to
represent angels. The language was as simple and primitive as the
scenery, yet for the credulous, devout peasants "no distance is too
great, no passes too steep or rough, no march on dusty highroads too
fatiguing, if a Miracle or Passion Play is their goal."

Does it seem sacrilegious? Not to those who atten