THE WHITE CHRISTMAS
AND OTHER
MERRY CHRISTMAS PLAYS
BY
Walter Ben Hare
AUTHOR OF THE PLAYS
"Aaron Boggs, Freshman," "Abbu San of Old Japan," "CivilService," "A College Town," "Kicked Out of College,"
"Macbeth àla Mode," "Mrs. Tubbs of Shantytown," "Parlor Matches," "A PoorMarried 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.
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 theirshut-up hearts freely ...; and I say, God bless it!"
Charles Dickens.
FOREWORD
N these little plays I have tried to bring before the public the twodominant characteristics of the ideal Christmas season, kindness,expressed by "good will toward men," and the inward joy wrought bykind acts, and suggested by "peace on earth." As Yuletide draws nearwe like to think of the swell of Christmas feeling, kindness, peaceand good will, that rises like a mighty tide over the world, fillingit with the fresh, clean joys and generous impulses that produce thepeace that passeth understanding.
Some of the plays are filled with the spirit of fun and jollity thatis always associated with Christmas merrymaking; in others I havetried to emphasize the spiritual blessings brought to the children ofmen on that first white Christmas night when Christ, the Lord, wasborn in Bethlehem, and all the angels sang, "Gloria in excelsis, peaceon earth, good will toward men."
CHILDREN IN PLAYS.
The love of mimetic representation, either as a participant or as aspectator, is an ineradicable instinct of childhood and adolescence.Most of these plays call for a somewhat large number of children. Thisneed not daunt the producer as the chief characters are few and manyof the parts have very few lines to speak. Many e