"When Father, Son and Holy Ghost unite
That man may saved be."

It is expected that those who have a _presepio_ are ready by this time
to receive guests to pray before it and strolling musicians to sing
before it, for the _presepio_ is the principal feature of an Italian
Christmas. It is made as expensive as its owner can afford, and
sometimes much more so. It is a miniature representation of the
birthplace of Christ, showing the Holy Family--Joseph, Mary, and the
infant Jesus in the manger--or, more frequently, the manger awaiting
the infant. This is a doll that is brought in later, around that each
person in the room may pray before it, and is then solemnly deposited
in the manger. There are angels, and other figures several inches
high, carved in wood--usually sycamore,--prettily colored and
introduced to please the owner's taste; the whole is artistically
arranged to represent the scene at Bethlehem which the season
commemorates. When the festivities cease the _presepio_ is taken apart
and carefully stored away for use another year.

During the Novena, children go about reciting Christmas pieces,
receiving money from those who gather around them to listen, and later
they spend their earnings in buying eels or some other substantial
delicacy of the season.

The _Céppo_, or Yule-log, is lighted at two o'clock the day previous
to Christmas, on the kitchen hearth in provinces where it is
sufficiently cold to have a hearth, and fires are lighted in other
rooms, for here as elsewhere fire and light are necessary adjuncts of
Christmas. During the twenty-four hours preceding Christmas Eve a
rigid fast is observed, and there is an absence of Christmas cheer in