The modern Christmas, in which believer and unbeliever may join in feasting, is one of the triumphs of tolerance born of human understanding natured over centuries of trial and error.

Christmas is the feast, of not only man�s redemption, but of man himself. It is the feasting of humankind, because it releases � if only for a few days every year � emotions that a savage self-interest causes mankind, in the ordinary way, to repress.

At Christmas-tide tyrants grow benevolent � even merciful, misers spend, not only freely, but willingly, the fierce flames of religious and political prejudice die for a short while to a cold cinder; selfish memories are stirred by the recollection � tardy, but intense � of the neglected and the outcast.

For a few days, once a year, the atrophied souls of the grownups are filled again with that spirit which inspires the wisdom of fools and children.

So the history of Christmas, unlike the history of so many other human things, is consistently a pleasant one.

Author unknown