A curious mode of giving presents on Christmas Eve belongs particularly to Sweden, though it is also found--perhaps borrowed--in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and other parts of Germany. The so-called _Julklapp_ is a gift wrapped up in innumerable coverings. The person who brings it raps noisily at |279| the door, and throws or pushes the _Julklapp_ into the room. It is essential that he should arrive quite unexpectedly, and come and go like lightning without revealing his identity. Great efforts are made to conceal the gift so that the recipient after much trouble in undoing the covering may have to search and search again to find it. Sometimes in Sweden a thin gold ring is hidden away in a great heavy box, or a little gold heart is put in a Christmas cake. Occasionally a man contrives to hide in the _Julklapp_ and thus offer himself as a Christmas present to the lady whom he loves. The gift is often accompanied by some satirical rhyme, or takes a form intended to tease the recipient.{71} Another custom, sometimes found in "better-class" Swedish households, is for the Christmas presents to be given by two masked figures, an old man and an old woman. The old man holds a bell in his hand and rings it, the old woman carries a basket full of sealed packets, which she delivers to the addressees.{72} There is nothing specially interesting in modern English modes of present-giving. We may, however, perhaps see in the custom of Christmas boxes, inexorably demanded and not always willingly bestowed, a degeneration of what was once friendly entertainment given in return for the good wishes and the luck brought by wassailers. Instances of gifts to calling neighbours have already come before our notice at several pre-Christmas festivals, notably All Souls', St. Clement's, and St. Thomas's. As for the name "Christmas box," it would seem to have come from the receptacles used for the gifts. According to one account apprentices, journeymen, and servants used to carry about earthen boxes with a slit in them, and when the time for collecting was over, broke them to obtain the contents.{73} The Christmas card, a sort of attenuated present, seems to be of quite modern origin. It is apparently a descendant of the "school pieces" or "Christmas pieces" popular in England in the first half of the nineteenth century--sheets of writing-paper with designs in pen and ink or copper-plate headings. The first Christmas card proper appears to have been issued in 1846, but it was not till about 1862 that the custom of card-sending obtained any foothold.{74} |280| [Illustration: CHRISTMAS MORNING IN LOWER AUSTRIA. _By Ferdinand Waldmuller (b. 1793)._] |281| |282| |283| CHAPTER XII CHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS