=Christmas in Many Climes.= A general idea of the diversification of climate may be gathered from a description of the weather of some particular day of the year as it exists in many different parts of the world. One is too prone to assume that the weather one has on a given day prevails everywhere. For the moment one does not consider the effect of distance from the equator, proximity to large bodies of water, and elevation above sea level and above the surrounding region. When a holiday or any day of special interest occurs, while the weather cannot make the occasion a success, it can quite effectively destroy all pleasure in the event. When we approach the day of all days in the year when two fifths of the people of the world celebrate the natal day of Christ, interest in the weather increases. The little ones of our clime pray that a mantle of snow may cover the ground, so that dear old Santa Claus may come with his reindeer and sleigh. The boys and girls long for the snow-covered hillsides and the glassy ponds; and even our good old grandmother smiles in anticipation of such a Christmas Day as gladdened her heart when she was a wee tot. It may be interesting to know under what kind of skies the people of other lands celebrate this international holiday. In the Northern Hemisphere places near the same latitude may have weather conditions greatly at variance the one from the other, because of conditions previously explained. It is our winter now; not because the sun is farthest from us, for in five days the earth will reach the time of perihelion in its course around the sun, and be nearer to the central luminary than at any other time of the year, but because the inclination of the earth’s axis causes us to receive the rays of the sun at a lower angle than during any other season and its intensity is reduced. The conditions are reversed to the people of the Southern Hemisphere; they now receive the most direct rays of the sun and have their summer, which is intensified by the nearness of the earth to the sun.