Queen Victoria of England was married to a German prince, and the German custom of a Christmas tree for the children was followed in the royal palace.  Of course after the Queen had a tree other people must have one, too.  So the Christmas tree came to England.

The little French boys and girls have not had them so long.  Not very many years ago there was a war between France and Germany.  At Christmas time the German soldiers were in Paris.  They felt sorry to be so far from their own little boys and girls on Christmas eve.  But they knew how to have something to remind them of home.  Every soldier who could got a little evergreen tree and put candles on it.  The French saw them, and were so pleased that now, every year, they too have Christmas trees.

So many people from England, and from Germany, and from France have come to our country to live, of course, we too have learned about Christmas trees.  And that is why you and so many other little girls and boys have such pretty trees on Christmas eve.

THE ORIGIN OF THE EASTER BUNNY

Childish voices are asking why the rabbit is seen with the eggs and the chickens that fill the shop windows and show-cases at Easter.  The legend that established the hare as a symbol of the Eastertide is not generally known.  It is of German origin and runs as follows: 

Many years ago, during a cruel war, the Duchess of Lindenburg with her two children and an old servant fled for safety to a little obscure village in the mountains.  She found the people very poor, and one thing that surprised her much was that they used no eggs.  She learned that they had never seen or heard of hens, and so when the old servant went to get tidings of his master and of the war he brought back with him some of these birds.

The simple village folk were greatly interested in the strange fowl, and when they saw the tiny yellow chickens breaking their way out of the eggs they were full of delight.  But the Duchess was saddened by the thought that Easter was drawing near and that she had no gifts for the little mountain children.  Then an idea came to her.  The spring was beginning to colour the earth with leaves and flowers, and she made bright dyes out of herbs and roots and coloured the eggs.  Then the children were invited to visit the Duchess, and she told them stories of the glad Easter day, and afterwards bade each make a nest of moss among the bushes.  When they had all enjoyed the little feast provided in their honour, they went back to the woods to look at their nests.  Lo! in each were five coloured eggs.

“What a good hen it must have been to lay such beautiful eggs,” said one child.

“It could not have been a hen,” said another.  “The eggs that the hens lay are white.  It must have been the rabbit that jumped out of the tree when I made my nest.”

And all the children agreed that it was the rabbit, and to this day the mystic Bunny is supposed to bring eggs and gifts at Easter to the little children of the “fatherland” who have been loving and kind during the year.