CHRISTMAS
APPROPRIATE TOASTS
The Day of Good-will--to The Cold Weather without and the Warm Hearts within--to The Christmas Tree, which grows in a Night and is plucked in the Morning by the gladdest of fingers--to The Day in which Religion gives sweetness to Social Life--Christmas Gifts; may they bless the Giver not less than the Receiver--to The Oldest of our Festivals, which grows mellower and sweeter with the passage of the centuries--to St. Nicholas [or Santa Claus], the only saint Protestants worship--to A Merry Day that leaves no heart-ache--to A Good Christmas, may sleighing, gifts, and feasting crowd out all gambling and drunkenness.
SPEECH-THOUGHTS
The good cheer enjoyed on this merriest day of the year. How the little people look forward to it. It comes to the older ones as a joy, and yet tender and sad with the memories of other Christmases. The religious and the secular elements of the day. The countries where it is most observed. The long contest between the two days, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The compromise that Massachusetts and Virginia, New England and the South, have unanimously agreed upon; namely, to keep both days.
SELECTED OUTLINE OP AN EFFECTIVE LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPEECH
The speaker assumes that the observance of the day is becoming obsolete, and that there are persons who wish it to die out. The assumption, though rather strained, affords the opportunity to demolish this man of straw. "All other kings may go, but no one can spare King Christmas, or St. Nicholas, his prime minister. School-rooms and nurseries would rebel. And plum pudding is too strongly entrenched in Church and State to be dislodged. Washington Irving, with his _Sketch Book_, would protest. Best argument of all is the worth of the Christmas entertainments. Here's to the Festival of Festivals, and long may its honors be done by such hosts as entertain us to-day."
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