“Another quaint and lovely fashion that English Christmas-keepers would do well to borrow is the custom of leaving the house-doors wide open just as the clock strikes midnight.”

Admiring a ritual in which hospitality becomes a symbolic act of faith · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Friendship
• Tradition

“If custom fell a-weeping, poor wench, ’twere pity of our lives.”

Affectionately personifying custom as something neglected at our own loss · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Memory
• Tradition

“All strange things and wild things and sweet things are made possible at Christmas.”

Celebrating Christmas as a season in which wonder is allowed full imaginative scope · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Hope
• Joy

“And why should not the bees and the cattle give thanks as well as we?”

Playfully imagining gratitude as something shared by the whole living world · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Joy
• Nature

“Thousands still come reverently to the place where their bones lie in Köln city.”

Reflecting on the enduring power of pilgrimage and inherited belief · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Memory
• Time

“They followed a wandering star to a mean stable in a little Jewish town.”

Contrasting the grandeur of spiritual purpose with the humility of its destination · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Hope

“They shod themselves with faith and followed a wandering star.”

Using the journey of the Magi as an emblem of trust in uncertain guidance · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Hope

“Wise men took simplicity to them for their cleading.”

Presenting simplicity as a chosen strength rather than a lack of sophistication · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Truth

“Why not, indeed? Wilder fancies may be devised, and stranger things have come to pass.”

An engaging defence of wonder and imaginative openness · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Hope
• Tradition

“The bees sing the Gloria in their dark skeps outside.”

A vivid fusion of Christian devotion and traditional animal folklore · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Music
• Nature

“In every stall and stable the horses and cattle receive human speech for an hour.”

Preserving a striking folk belief in a temporary communion between human and animal worlds · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Nature
• Tradition

“At midnight on Christmas night all water turns into wine.”

Recording one of the magical transformations associated with Cornish Christmas folklore · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Tradition

“Nor need we flinch from the pretty Cornish fancy that at midnight on Christmas night all water turns into wine.”

Delighting in folklore without demanding literal belief in it · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Joy
• Tradition

“Nor need we doubt that the lucky man is he who is born on Christmas Day.”

Repeating an old belief with affectionate rather than sceptical amusement · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Hope
• Tradition

“The birds may find one meal sure on Christmas Day.”

A small but memorable image of kindness towards other living creatures · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Joy
• Nature

“Nor is there any reason why we should not hang up a sheaf of wheat.”

Extending Christmas generosity beyond people to the natural world · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Joy
• Nature
• Tradition

“The Christ-child, passing by outside, may not miss His way in the dark.”

Giving a tender imaginative purpose to the lighting of Christmas candles · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Childhood
• Faith
• Hope

“In other countries lighted candles are placed in every window.”

Finding beauty and meaning in the simple ritual of a welcoming light · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Beauty
• Faith
• Tradition

“Mary and her Son may enter in and bless the merry companies.”

Expressing the devotional meaning underlying a traditional midnight custom · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Joy

“The custom of leaving the house-doors wide open just as the clock strikes midnight.”

Evoking a Christmas household symbolically opened to the sacred · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Tradition

“English Christmas-keepers would do well to borrow from their neighbours in the Netherlands and in Austria-Hungary.”

Welcoming worthwhile traditions regardless of national origin · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Friendship
• Tradition

“Even the Good People—the Gentle People, the Fairies know, and keep sacred this piece of Yule.”

Blending Christmas tradition with the fairy lore that fascinated Chesson · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Faith
• Tradition

“The Danish custom proclaims the Julafred or Yule Peace, and punishes any breach of it by a heavy fine.”

Finding practical as well as symbolic value in a seasonal truce · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Hope
• Tradition

“We may do worse than copy the Danish custom which proclaims the Julafred or Yule Peace.”

Commending the ideal of peace as a Christmas observance · Essay, Christmas Customs, English Illustrated Magazine, 1899

• Hope
• Tradition