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The hatred of "wanton Bacchanallian Christmasses" spent throughout England, as Cotton said, in "revelling, dicing, carding, masking, mumming, consumed in compotations, in interludes, in excess of wine, in mad mirth," was the natural reaction of intelligent and thoughtful minds against the excesses of a festival which had ceased to be a Christian holiday, but was dominated by a lord of misrule who did not hesitate to invade the churches in time of service, in his noisy revels and sports.
She did them in her mind. She heard the sound of her boot soles tapping the shining pavement as she hurried along... she would write a short note to her mother "a girl about my own age with very wealthy parents who wants a companion" and enclose a note for Eve or Harriett... Eve, "Imagine me in Pomerania, my dear"... and tell her about the coffee parties and the skating and the sleighing and Minna's German Christmasses....
Sam can go home, too, if he has a mind, and the youngster can stay and help me look after things. I've seen a many Christmasses, said I, 'and I'd as lief spend this one at Plymouth as anywhere else. You can give 'em all my love, and turn up again the day after Boxin' Day and mind you ask for excursion tickets, I said. "They tumbled the boat out fast enough, you may be sure.
One of the guests, a little music-teacher, said: "The worst of Christmas is that it brings back to one's mind all the other Christmasses and the people who were with us then...." Bella Bathgate's voice was heard talking to Mrs. M'Cosh at the door: "I dinna believe in keeping Christmas; it's a popish festival. New Year's the time. Ye can eat yer currant-bun wi' a relish then.
They reminded each other with roars of exultation and greedy lust, of the beautiful silver crosses, the fine copes of brocade, the beautiful tombs of silver gilt, the great magnificences of the choir, the dazzling festivals, the Christmasses sparkling with torches, the Easters sparkling with sunshine, all those splendid solemneties wherein chandeliers, ciboriums, tabernacles, and reliquaries, studded the altars with a crust of gold and diamonds.
There are those who are going home soon, God willing; there are those who will go home some time after long days and longer nights. And there are those who will never go home and who know it. And because of this the ones who are never going home are most festively clad, as if, by way of compensation, the nurses mean to give them all future Christmasses in one.
The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast; and Massinger, in his "City Madam," gives some idea of the extravagance with which this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous revels of the olden times: Men may talk of Country Christmasses, Their thirty pound butter'd eggs, their pies of carps' tongues; Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris: the carcases of three fat wethers bruised for gravy to make sauce for a single peacock!
"You're not of course a very old man.... But still you are pretty old, aren't you? You've seen a whole lot of Christmasses, I mean?" "Yes," conceded her Father. From the great clumsy rolling collar of her blanket wrapper Flame's little face loomed suddenly very pink and earnest. "But Father," urged Flame. "Did you ever in your whole life spend a Christmas just exactly the way you wanted to?
Ulysses S. G. Budlong does not celebrate her Christmasses behind closed doors or rather she did not: a strange change came over her this last Christmas. She used to open her doors wide metaphorically, that is; for there was a storm-door with a spring on it to keep the cold draught out of the hall. As regular as Christmas itself was the oh-quite-informal reception Mrs.
Her library was very small, but this did not distress her because she had never cared for reading. These had been given her upon various Christmasses and birthdays. She did not care for any of them except The Imitation of Christ and Robinson Crusoe.
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