The Lutherans gave Martin Luther the credit of introducing the
Christmas tree into Germany. He may have helped to make it popular,
but certainly there is abundant evidence to prove that it was known
long before the Reformer's time. It is generally supposed to have its
origin in mythological times and to be a vestige of the marvelous
tree, Yggdrasil.

Possibly Martin Luther thought of the old story of the tree and
imagined, as he traveled alone one cold night, how pretty the
snow-laden fir-trees along his path would look could they be lighted
by the twinkling stars overhead. But whether he had anything to do
with it or not, the tree is now one of the most important features of
Yule-tide among the Germans of all denominations.

Nearly ten million households require one or two trees each Christmas,
varying in height from two to twenty feet. Societies provide them for
people who are too poor to buy them, and very few are overlooked at
this happy holiday season.

The grand Yule-tide festival is opened on the eve of St. Nicholas Day,
December sixth; in fact bazaars are held from the first of the month,
which is really one prolonged season of merrymaking.

In Germany, St. Nicholas has a day set apart in his honor. He was born
in. Palara, a city of Lycia, and but very little is known of his life
except that he was made Bishop of Myra and died in the year 343. It
was once the custom to send a man around to personate St. Nicholas on
St. Nicholas Eve, and to inquire how the children had behaved through
the year, who were deserving of gifts, and who needed a touch of the