Santa Claus has come! There was no snow to crunch under the hoofs of his Reindeer, but in some manner the jolly old fellow has made his aerial trip and opened his packages beside the chimney. Some time during the wee hours of the morning, he slipped in with his gifts unheard and as noiselessly when back up the chimney and off to his unknown hiding place. There all alone he will sit and make his toys and wait until the time is ripe for him to gladden the world again.
The weather man was taken by surprise. Certainly he was asleep at his switchboard. So uttlerly had he forgotten to prepare for Santa Claus that he actually permitted the violets to hold up their heads in the yards of scores of Charlotte residents. Not once during the long Fall has he permitted Jack Frost to get a good wallop at the little purple flowers, and they have clung on to their stems, seemingly defiant to all the elements of Winter. |Those in whose yards the violets are still blooming declared that never bhefore have they seen them linger on as they have. It is scarcely believable that they should continue in the open with proud heads right up until Christmas Day.
But they have! And, perhaps, old Santa got the surprise of his life when he beheld them Christmas Eve night. With the mercury rather bold in its attempt to scale the thermometer and the violets waving in the breeze, it is indeed an unusual Christmas for this section. In truth, it is an Indian Summer Christmas.
Saturday found the streets crowded with shoppers and the stores packed tightly all day. Merchants fairly overdid themselves in an effort to deliver their orders before nightfall. The usual Christmas rush was experienced everywhere in the city. Santa Claus in disguise mingled at will among the people. The stores remained open until nearly midnight to satisfy the late comers.
Christmas Eve night itself was full of revelry. Not since pre-war times have fireworks been displayed as they were during the evening. Dances in various parts of the city attracted those who felt that they wanted to “shake a wicked hoof,” and the streets and houses took on a holiday aspect from one end of the place to the other. Funmakers by the score worked their ways in and out among the shoppers until the crowd began to thin. Merriment echoed everywhere. All but the tired business man joined in the mirth, and even he had a smile on his face as he started with weary step to tumble in his bed.
Monday will be the holiday proper in the city. Many of the city offices and departments chose to take WSaturday off, but the majority of the city preferred to designate Monday. The post office, banks, freight houses and other such places will remain closed throughout the day. It will be a day of rest and recuperation from the rush of the holiday shopping season.
From The Charlotte News, Dec. 25, 1921
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