Excerpt from Home Arts for Old and YoungThe custom of giving presents at Christmas originated in Germany. It was derived from the ancient feast of Sol. The children of many Americans, who remember Christmas, hang up their stockings Christmas Eve, think ing Santa Claus will come in the night and fill them with gifts. Some, to avoid being roused at too early an hour, have taken a large bag, as a receptacle for pres ents, and the father or mother of the family in due time distribute the presents. Others have had a table spread with their gifts of love, or place their gifts carefully under the breakfast plates, or on the chairs at the table. But the German custom of Christmas trees is by far the most desirable. We wish it was universal here. The writer of this assisted in preparing almost the first tree in our portion of New England, but since then the Christ mas tree has spread far and wide a tree more productive of pleasure and fun was never before planted.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.