By Clement A. Miles, from Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, published 1912 in England by T. Fisher Unwin.

Christmas is a microcosm of world religion. It reflects almost every phase of thought and feeling from crude magic and superstition to the speculative mysticism of Eckhart, from the mere delight in physical indulgence to the exquisite spirituality of St. Frances.

Ascetic and bon-vivant, mystic and materialist, learned and simple, noble and peasant, all have found something in it on which to lay hold. it is a river into which have flowed tributaries from every side, from Oriental religion, from Greek and Roman civilization, from celtic, Teutonic, Slav and probably pre-Aryan society, all mingling their waters so that it is often hard to discover the far-away springs.

At no time has so much been made of children as today, and because Christmas is their feast its luster continues unabated in an age upon which dogmatic Christanity has largely lost its hold, which laughs at the pagan superstitions of its forefathers.

Christmas is the feast of the beginnings, of instinctive happy childhood; the Christian idea of the Immortal Babe renewing weary, stained humanity. It blends with the thought of the New Year, with its hope and promise, laid in the cradle of Time.