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THE UNION-RECORDER. MILLEDGEVILLE. GA., DECEMBER 24. »Mt Santa Claus Is An American! ENGLISH CHILDREN KNOW HIM ONLY AS FATHER CHRISTMAS, WHILE GERMAN YOUNGSTERS CALL HIM KRISS KR INGLE FRENCH AND ITALIAN KIDDIES GET NO GIFTS Frcuch and Italian Kiddies Get No Gifts Display Line Tag 14 Pt. tag Memory of Ancient Bishop of Myra Perpetuated in Custom of Potting Presents in Stockings at Christmas Time Ail i • thi ol'll! ! By CALEB JOHNSON the 25th of shifts is that he learned of a | December Christians of all creeds and sects celebrate the birth of the Messiah with the festival of Christ ina —the Mass of Christ. But only in countrie* whose traditions culture derive from Tcutonii re« do folk celebrate the duy by giv- with three daughters, who were get husbands became they dowrie>. Their father was planning to kill the daughters and himself when St. Nicholas slipped in- i their cottage by night and filled ic stockings of the daughters with gold! In Italy, France, Spain, the na- j St. Nicholas Day is December Cth, tlons of South America and other and for a thousand years the Eve of countries where the Latin culture | St. Nicholas, December 5, was the pn\ail.', Christmas i* celebrated as!date for filling the stockings. Christ- a great . hurch festival but nobody * i.ia« was not fixed on December 25 thinks of giving anybody a present | until the Christian .hurch was n? Christmas time. New Year’s Day j nearly 500 years old. In some parts cf the church it was celebrated on in Germany and in nil the coun trie having the Teutonic background which includes Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Hol land. Belgium, England and the B’*il :«h Dominions and the United has hi t gift-making s the of the year. ad An Claus himself, howe Idren of England liavi Santa Claus, unlcs rican stories. The jolly old chap with white whiskers the -torkings secretly on t Eve '% known to the little ot British Empire as “Fnthe vho fills January 0th, elsewhere on March 25th. There is, of course, no record of the date of the birth of the Sa vior. But the Angles, the ancient German people whose blood and tra ditions still rule the English-speaking world as well as the German, had a pagan festival on December 25, ! “Modranccht” or Mothers’ Night, when their New Year began, and in J the »our. e of centuries that festival came to be celebrated as the anni- ; vinary of the greatest event in the i life of the greatest Mother of .all Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Chris was still, however, dis- eligious festival. St. he kno’ "Kr Chr United Stati rs Kringle” is a corruption of German “Chri tkindlein,” the si Child. The peasant folk of rmnnv have come to believe that • giving of Christmas presents is of the Christ- I ^"' c f ,0 * a8 Ha> remained the duy when | the children had their innings, until the sixteenth century. On St. Nicho las Day it was the custom to elect a Boy Bishop, who appointed other boys to the offices of the church, and the youngesters ruled their towns (since in those duys the church domi nated everything) until Holy Innoc ents Day. December 28. In some parts of Germany the Boy Bishop me part of elsewhere. symbolic ot the bringing of gift* to the manger nt Bethlehem by tho Wise Men of the East. But that is not the source from which Christmas giving originated. Secret gifts to children are a tri bute to the memory of St. Nicholas, just as the name “Santa Claus” i* an Americanization of the Dutch PPtm- of that good old father of the church. “San Nikuluas” as the early Dutch settlers of New York called the patron saint of children, schol ar , merchants and sailors, sounded like "Santa Claus” to the ears of the Engli.-h children, who learned of him from their Dutch playmates. And Santa Claus he hnv been ever since to generation* «»f American children, ihough up to fifty c.* sixty year* ago it was rot considered dignified by the refei him except by his full name, St. Nicho las. The figure of St. Nicholas *is a little fat man in a fur-trimmed ceat, rid ; ng in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, anil clipping down chimneys with a pack on his back, to fill the stock ings which hung from the mantel of present fixed^orm by Clement C. Mo. re. whose porn; beginning * ’Twns the night befon ( hristmns” wns writ ten nearly a hundred years ago. Mr. Moore did not call him Santa Claus but entitled his poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Who was the real Suint Nicholas? Why is he associated with the giv ing of presents to children? Nobody knows very much about h ; m. Like some of the other leaders o' th‘ early Christians, a mas? of !• genii and myth has grown up about hi? name, hut the records are strange- All that- is known definitely is that he was the Bi-hop of Myra, a town in Asia Minor, about three hundred years after Christ. Nobody knows how the legends about him started, but he wns held in such high esteem that within a century or two after ceremony persisted until 1799. But England Henry VIII abolished it jn 1542. Queen Mary restored it in 1552 and Elizabeth abolished it finally a few years later. The festivities which hud been a part of St. Nicholas Day then began c transferred to Christmas, though there was a time when even Christmas celebrations were forbidden i England. That was in 1644, hen Cromwell’s Puritan Parliament paxsed an act forbidding any merri ment or rel’gicus services at Christ- on the ground that it wa heathen festival! This feeling against Christmas persisted among the Puri- settlers of New England down to the nineteenth century. The exchanging of gifts by grown- •s on Christmas Day is a very mod- n idea indeed. And children to day know where their pret-ents come from; they no longer believe in the good “San Niklaas’’ who fills their stockings secretly by night Perhaps the world was happier when Chri*t- giving was less of an obligation more of a jo> and the little still helived in fairies and Santa Claus. THIEF SWIPES CHRISTMAS DINNER OF SALVATION ARMY Envoy and Mrs. Scovill purchased a fine chicken for their dinner and placed him in a coop at their home on Jefferson street They were fattening the bi*d to have him ready for the feast Christmas dsy. Friday night a thief entered the coop and took the fowl off with him, leaving the religious workers without Christ- Eifvjoy Scovill stated that he thought he was about the mcanist man he ever taw, to take a chicken from a preacher, but if he would bring it back he would forgive him. 3 Merry Christmas! $ The Baldwin Furniture Co. Extends Greetings Appreciating your pleasant business relations during the year, we want to say Thank you, and to wish for you and yours a happy Christmas, with all the joys of the Holiday Season.. The Baldwin Furniture Co. J. C. INGRAM, Manager a Enjoy the Holidays at the COLONIAL THEATRE Christmas Day and the Day After Nancy Carroll In “Sweetie” Monday - Tuesday Dec. 30, 31 Woman to Woman Betty Compson In Her Latest Wednesday - Thursday, Jan. 1, 2 The Cocoanuts THE MARX BROTHERS IN A PICTURE YOU WILL ENJOY Friday - Saturday, Jan. 3, 4 The Mighty Starring George Bancroff Comedy, News or Acts with Each Picture Merry Christmas May this Clad Season be one of Happiness for each of you. We are grateful for your many past favors. Sam McComb GREETINGS From Bells Store At this joyous holiday season, as the Chimes ring out glad tidings, our thoughts revert gratefully to those whose courtesy, good will and loyalty, have made possible our progress. We are very mindful of the favors you have extended us, and may this greeting serve to express our heart felt appreciation. We extend our best wishes for a Christmas filled with joy and a New Year of Health and Happiness. E. E. Bell WE WILL BE CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY Christmas Greetings Its been mighty good to know you and do_ busi ness with you—I’ve enjoyed serving you during the year and I now sincerely wish that Christmas and the New Year finds you happy and prosperous. Ralph Simmerson BUICK & MARQUETTE DEALER