1858.] Christmas in Germany. 363 house of wood or card-board. The garden is filled with moss and green sprigs of the fir, and in it stand shepherds, sheep, a dog, a stork, and one or more stags with gilded horns. This is intended to represent the annunciation of the birth of Christ, to the shepherds; and, accordingly, an angel is seen, suspended by a wire from the stem of the tree, as in the act of hovering in the air and proclaiming the glad tidings. The shepherds and animals are made of clay, most grotesque creatures, painted in barbarous style; the storks adorned with feathers for tails stuck into the clay; and all are propped on little pegs of wood. The whole is, no doubt, derived from the legends of the Catholie church, and displays pretty much the same degree of art and general appearance as it did ages before the Reformation. As Christmas-eve approaches, and especially for the few days before it, the shops and markets are crowded with purchasers. Christmas-trees are seen moving off in various directions, with their gardens appended, or others without gardens, the families which have purchased these having retained their garden of former years on its block of wood. The day of Christmas-eve itself, the floors of the shops are literally piled with the baskets of country people, which they have set down while they make their little purchases for their children. The important eve itself arrives. Throughout Germany, in every house, from the palace to the cottage, where there are children, there stands a Christmas-tree. In the houses of the rich and the well-to-do, there has been much preparation. According to ancient custom, about a fortnight before Christmas, Pelznichel or Knecht Rupert, has made his visit to the children. This person represents no other than St. Nicholas, as we learn from an old poem. ST. NIKLAS. VATER. Es wird aus den zeitungen vernommen Dass der heilige Niklas werde kommen Aus Moskau, wo er gehalten werth, Und als ein Heilger wird geehrt; Er ist bereits schon auf der Fabrt. Zu besuchen die Schuljugend zart. Zu sehen was die kleinen Magdlein und Knaben In diesem Jahr gelernet haben; In Beten, Schreiben, Singen und Lesen, Bring Buecher, Kleider unl auch Schuh So will ich lernen wohl Und fromm seyn wie ich soll. Amen. ST. NIKLAS. Gott gruss euch lieben Kinderlein, Ihr sollt Vater und Mutter gehorsam seyn, So soll euch was schone bescheret seyn; Wenn Jhr aber dasselbige nicht thut So bringe ich euch den Stecken und die Ruth. Amen. Which in simple prose may be rendered thus: FATHER. The newspapers say that the Holy St. Nicholas will soon be here from Moscow, where he is held in great esteem, and is honored as a saint. He is already on the way to visit the tender school children. To see what the little boys and girls have this year learned in praving, writing, singing, and reading; and to see whether they have been pretty good. He has put into his sack beautiful dolls of sugar work, with which to honor those ehildren who have been good. CHILD. Holy St. Nicholas, I pray thee very much to turn into my house too. Bring books, and clothes, and shoes, and many another nice things. So will I learn well, and be good, as I should be. Amen. ST. NICHOLAS.-God greet you, dear little children. You must be obedient to your father and mother, and then shall I give you some beautiful Christmas gifts. But if you are not so, I shall bring the stick and the rod. Amen. Pelznichel is a man disguised in a fur cap, and otherwise made awful to children by his singular habiliments, being armed with a rod, having a capacious bag or pouch hanging before him, and a large chain thrown round him, whose end being dropped on the ground as he walks, makes to their imaginations a mysterious noise. Sometimes he has a number of little bells hung about him, and thence is called by Richter, in his Fixlein, "Knecht Ruprecht, with his jingling bells." His name of Kuecht Ruprecht is most likely derived from the idea that he is the servant of the Christ child, who sends him to prepare for his own arrival on Christmas-eve. He is, in fact, some servant or dependent of the family, who engage him to undertake this office, and furnish him with requisite information. The children above eight or nine years old are let into the secret, which they faithfully keep. The younger children, as the time draws on, are often reminded that Christmas is coming, and that Pelznichel will be here, and, according as they are good or bad, will correct or reward them. If they have been bad children, he will use his rod; if good, he will bring them nuts, and apples, and cakes, from the good Christ-child. All this they receive as gospel, and with the greatest awe, and it has a strong effect upon them. They have a notion that Pelznichel, or the Christ-child, has his eyes upon them when they are not aware. That Pelznichel is going round the house at night and listening, and if they are naughty are sure to hear them. They look forward, therefore, with great awe and some anxiety to the appearance of Pelznichel. At length, some days before St. Nicholas' day, the father or mother says, "Well, children, now be very good, for Pelznichel is coming. He has sent word that he will be here on such an evening, at 6 o'clock." On that evening, all is expectation, and scarcely is tea away when there comes a ring at the door. All exclaim, "That must be Pelznichel!" The faces of the children are filled with awful expectation. All stand silent Presently is heard a distant and mysterious ringing of bells; a jingling of chains on the stone stairs. It becomes more distinct-it approaches; there is a heavy accompanying tread. There is a bustle in the passage, as if some matter of great moment was occurring. Voices are heard speaking, and amongst them, one deep and strange one. That is Pelznichel. The heavy tread, the ringing bells, the clanking chains, the bustle, and the voices are at the door; every eye is fixed on it. All are rooted in silent awe. The door opens, and in stalks the strange figure of Pelznichel-the Mumbo Jumbo of Germany, while behind him are the assembled servants of the household, full of curiosity, to witness what he will say and do. He announces that he is the good Christ-child to reward good children, and correct bad. Every 1858.] Christmas in Germany. 365 little heart beats with hope or fear. He addresses them by turns, beginning with the eldest. He asks them how they have pursued their studies; perhaps calls for their books; pronounces an opinion on their progress, and by what he says gives them intimations that he is aware of their general conduct, and of particular acts, good or evil, which fills them with surprise. If they have quarreled on their way to school; if they have been ungenerous or revengeful, they are sure to be told of it. He turns to each child in rotation, and adapts his rewards to the age and character of each. The very little ones often propitiate him by addressing him in a neat little rhyme the moment his eyes are turned upon them, and which the nurse has taught them for the purpose. Christ kindschen komm; Mach mich fromm: Das ich zu dir in Himmel komm. Which is literally, "Christ-child come; make me good, that I may come to thee in heaven." The aspect of a little child standing in awe and in faith before Pelznichel, and in the soft innocent tones of its voice making this simple petition in the truth of its heart, as I have seen it, is one of the most beautiful and affecting things in the world. Pelznichel talks sternly, and with menacing agitations of his rod, to those who have been stubborn, lazy, or disobedient, and commends those who have been otherwise. He hands the rod to the father, and commands him to use it when necessary, or he vows to come and use it himself. He seldom, however, proceeds on this occasion to any actual chastisement, as it is intended rather as a means of reformation, by instilling a salutary fear; and he adds that, on Christmas-eve, Christ-kindschen will come; and, according as they behave, in the mean time, will reward them for good and ill. If for good, they will find many nice things on and under the Christmas-tree; if, on the contrary, he will himself probably be ordered to fetch them, and carry them into the woods in the mountains, and there to shut them up in a cave in the rocks, in the cold and darkness, where snakes hiss, owls hoot, toads and salamanders crawl, and fire runs about the ground. He generally ends by dealing out, from his bag, nuts, apples, and little cakes, to each of them-and throwing others on the floor; while they are busy in scrambling for them, he disappears. In the country, Pelznichel goes about on a donkey, and actually often chastises the children of the peasantry. His visit in town or country has mostly a decisive effect. The parents remind the children of what he has said. They congratulate them on the commendations they have received; they remark on the faults he has related of them; and the fact that they are seen and observed often when they little think of it. They encourage them to begin seriously to correct and improve themselves, and to secure from Christ-kindschen a certain token of approbation of their conduct. The ensuing fortnight is a season of self-watchfulness and probation. The day arrives. The drawing-room, or in Germany, the saloon, is closed. Only the person who is entrusted with each one's secret is admitted to it, and has the key. All the young people of the family, in fact, have been previously busy in preparing the tree, gilding walnuts and apples, and hanging them upon it; hanging on it also sundry little cakes, and figures of sugar-work of various colors. This has been the source of great delight to them. The tree has been set in its place, and then the room consigned to the one confidential person, who has laid out, in tasteful array, the presents intended for every person, each in a group by themselves. As soon as it is dark, and tea is over, the doors of the room are thrown open at the ringing of a bell, and a scene of splendor and beauty is revealed which produces one general exclamation of delight, and strikes, with a charming surprise, a person who has never witnessed such a one before. The whole room is filled with light. Opposite to you soars aloft the Christmas-tree in its fairy-land beauty; and around extend tables covered with, and hung in front with drapery, often displaying great taste and elegance in its disposal and ornaments; and on these tables lie the various presents which have so long been secretly making and procuring It would be difficult to describe either the wonder and admiration of the children, as they gaze on the whole brilliant scene; on the lovely tre, glittering with golden and silver fruit, seeming at the same time rich with innumerable flowers of various shapes and colors, and irradiated with lights. The mutual surprise and pleasure of the different members of the family, as they are shown what presents are there laid for them, and hear from whom each comes. The course of explanations that goes on; the sudden recognitions of the cause which has prompted such and such presents from such and such persons; the pleasant amazement; the thanks; the laughter; the tears of affection that come into the eyes of the different members of the happy family, are more readily imagined than described. The family with whom we then lived at Heidelberg, as is the custom in Germany, as in Scotland, under one common roof, though occupying different stories or flats, as the Scotch, and stocks as the Germans, calls them, undertook to arrange the whole for us; that our children might participate in a real German Christmas; and everything was managed as I have described. Our children, up to our eldest boy of ten years of age, were as completely influenced by it as German children could be. Though the two elder boys, of ten and seven, had strong inklings and glimpses of the real nature of Pelznichel and Christ-kindschen; yet they were not the less affected by the presence of Pelznichel. Even the eldest, a sharp and penetrating lad, showed a face of real awe and of wonder, when Pelznichel informed him of certain passages or pranks on his way through the city to school, to the truth of which he testified by his astonishment on hearing them thus stated; and of the manner of Pelznichel's discovering of them, he could by no means form a conception. Even he ran and fetched his school-books when Pelznichel asked for them, and showed a strong anxiety to point out the weekly good certificates given by his master. But the little fat boy, of three years old, looking up with his was most touching. Christ-kindschen komm; Mach mich fromm Das ich zu dir in Himmel komm; Our drawing-room having been thus prepared and opened, I may here more particularly speak of it. At the farther end of the room, next to the wall, rose the Christmas-tree in all its sheen. From it, coming away, 1858.] Christmas in Germany. 367 on each side in a crescent form, went the tables, and then stretched down each side of the room, draped, as I have said, and covered with the various presents. Along the fronts of the tables burned no less than seventy small wax-lights, rising out of a border of green moss. Other lights shed their radiance from the chandelier, and in the tree burned many little colored tapers, like stars, altogether a hundred and twenty lights. On the front of the table on which the tree stood, was disposed a festooning of scarlet cloth on the white drapery; and the whole scene was, on its opening, a perfect fairyland of light and loveliness. As for presents to and from every one, they covered the whole two ranges of tables; the room was like a bazaar. One was quite surprised at the number of things as they lay all in one display. There were muffs and boas, and even dresses; beautifully worked cushions, beautiful purses of silk and bead-work; fine worked collars; many elegant little knick-knacks; memorandum-books, ball-books, boxes of that blue-and-white enameled composition resembling china, which figured at that time so conspicuously in the German shops. There were books, a reading-desk, paper-knives, slippers of various kinds and colors, warm winter gloves, drawings, portfolios, and many similar things. There also lay, in most tempting order, all the presents for the children. A magic-lantern, various games in boxes, colored engravings; for the two youngest a host of dolls, cattle, and other things, which excited the utmost delight. It was pleasant to see the eyes of wonder which they opened on the whole scene; on the brilliance of the place, the splendid tree, the various articles, but, above all, on their own toys. Each had to be taken up and admired, and laid down and taken up again. But the prettiest sight of all was to see the stout little fellow of three years set out his gifts of kitchen utensils in the middle of the floor, and sitting down amongst them, forget all about him in arranging and rearranging them, pretending to cook and make coffee in true childish style, till the wonders of the magic lantern called him away, and then to go off to bed, happier than any prince, with a load of toys under each arm, to stand by his bed to greet him on waking. The Christmas-tree was truly superb. It was, as the best trees generally are, a young spruce fir, possessing a fine dark green, a distinctness of branches, and a graceful tapering figure. It had been got out of the woods and fixed into its frame by a neighboring peasant, who entered into its preparation with the spirit of a child, and had been for weeks before manufacturing animals of clay for its garden, and drying them by the kitchen stove. They were in the true quaint style of those sold by the country people. Two stags of chocolate color, with gilded. horns; a funny sheep; two birds representing, however ill, storks-one silvered over; a dog, and two shepherds with their tall staves, and arrayed in purple and blue, with green hats. All these were half lost in a wilderness of moss and heath, or issuing out of a wood formed of the twigs of the fir-tree. On the pales of this enclosure were stuck gilded almonds and nuts; and on the tree itself, a rich crop of very various fruits. Gold and silver walnuts depended from the boughs; silver apples; cakes of different colors and forms, like so many strange but beautiful flowers; colored confections and fruits; and musical instruments-trumpets, guitars and harps; colored hearts crowned with gilded |