Produced by Suzanne Shell, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE WHITE CHRISTMAS AND OTHER MERRY CHRISTMAS PLAYS BY WALTER BEN HARE AUTHOR OF THE PLAYS "_Aaron Boggs, Freshman_," "_Abbu San of Old Japan_," "_Civil Service_," "_A College Town_," "_Kicked Out of College_," "_Macbeth a la Mode_," "_Mrs. Tubbs of Shantytown_," "_Parlor Matches_," "_A Poor Married Man_," "_My Irish Rose_," "_A Rustic Romeo_," "_Savageland_," "_A Southern Cinderella_," etc. ILLUSTRATED BY BUCKTON NENDICK CHICAGO T.S. DENISON & COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1917 BY EBEN H. NORRIS MADE IN U.S.A. [Illustration: From "ANITA'S SECRET OR CHRISTMAS IN THE STEERAGE"] THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH THE BEST WISHES OF THE AUTHOR TO FRANCES MAAS ULLMANN THE ORIGINAL "ANITA" AND LUDWIG BLOCK ULLMANN THE ORIGINAL "JOLLY JACK FROST" * * * * * "I have always thought of Christmas time ... as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time ... when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely ...; and I say, God bless it!" CHARLES DICKENS. FOREWORD In these little plays I have tried to bring before the public the two dominant characteristics of the ideal Christmas season, kindness, expressed by "good will toward men," and the inward joy wrought by kind acts, and suggested by "peace on earth." As Yuletide draws near we like to think of the swell of Christmas feeling, kindness, peace and good will, that rises like a mighty tide over the world, filling it with the fresh, clean joys and generous impulses that produce the peace that passeth understanding. Some of the plays are filled with the spirit of fun and jollity that is always associated with Christmas merrymaking; in others I have tried to emphasize the spiritual blessings brought to the children of men on that first white Christmas night when Christ, the Lord, was born in Bethlehem, and all the angels sang, "Gloria in excelsis, peace on earth, good will toward men." CHILDREN IN PLAYS.