Pass the minstrel throngs;
Hark! they play so sweet,
On their hautboys, Christmas songs!"

--_Carol._


One would naturally imagine that such a pleasure-loving people as the
French would make much of Christmas, but instead of this we find that
with them, excepting in a few provinces and places remote from
cities, it is the least observed of all the holidays.

It was once a very gay season, but now Paris scarcely recognizes the
day excepting in churches. The shops, as in most large cities, display
elegant goods, pretty toys, a great variety of sweetmeats, and
tastefully trimmed Christmas trees, for that wonderful tree is fast
spreading over Europe, especially wherever the Anglo-Saxon and
Teutonic races have settled.

Confectioners offer a tempting supply of _naulets_--little delicate
cakes--with a sugar figure of Christ on top, pretty boxes made of
chocolate containing candy in the form of fruits, vegetables, musical
instruments, and even boots and shoes, and all manner of quaint,
artistic sugared devices, to be used as gifts or table decorations.

Early in December, wooden booths and open-air stands are erected
throughout the shopping districts for the sale of Christmas goods. At
night they are lighted, and through the day and evening they are gay
with shoppers. Many of the booths contain evergreens and fresh green
boughs for making the _arbre de Nau._ This is a hoop tied with bunches