=AMONG THE SHAKERS=

The Shakers observe Christmas by a dinner at which the men and women both sit down at the same table.  This custom of theirs is the thing that serves to make Christmas different from any other day among the Shakers.  During all the rest of the year the men and women eat their meals at separate tables.

At sunset on Christmas day, after a service in the church, they march to the community-house, where the dinner is waiting.  The men sit on one side of the table and the women on the other.  At the head sits an old man called the elder, who begins the meal by saying grace, after which each one in turn gets up and, lifting the right hand, says in a solemn voice, “God is love.”  The dinner is eaten in perfect silence.  Not a voice is heard until the meal comes to an end.  Then the men and women rise and sing, standing in their places at the table.  As the singing proceeds they mark time with their hands and feet.  Then their bodies begin to sway from side to side in the peculiar manner that has given this sect its name of Shakers.

When the singing comes to an end, the elder chants a prayer, after which the men and women silently file out and leave the building.

=AMONG THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS=

“You’d better look out, or Pelznickel will catch you!” This is the dire threat held over naughty boys and girls at Christmas-time in some of the country settlements of the Pennsylvania Germans, or Pennsylvania Dutch, as they are often called.

Pelznickel is another name for Santa Claus.  But he is not altogether the same old Santa that we welcome so gladly.  On Christmas eve some one in the neighborhood impersonates Pelznickel by dressing up as an old man with a long white beard.  Arming himself with a switch and carrying a bag of toys over his shoulder, he goes from house to house, where the children are expecting him.

[Illustration:  A VISIT FROM PELZNICKEL]

He asks the parents how the little ones have behaved themselves during the year.  To each of those who have been good he gives a present from his bag.  But—­woe betide the naughty ones!  These are not only supposed to get no presents, but Pelznickel catches them by the collar and playfully taps them with his switch.

=IN PORTO RICO=

The Porto Rican boys and girls would be frightened out of their wits if Santa Claus should come to them in a sleigh drawn by reindeer and should try to enter the houses and fill their stockings.  Down there, Santa Claus does not need reindeer or any other kind of steeds, for the children say that he just comes flying through the air like a bird.  Neither does he bother himself looking for stockings, for such things are not so plentiful in Porto Rico as they are in cooler climates.  Instead of stockings, the children use little boxes, which they make themselves.  These they place on the roofs and in the courtyards, and old Santa Claus drops the gifts into them as he flies around at night with his bag on his back.