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A Merry Christmas and a Glad New Year. it in 194] The name "Boxing Day" is said to come from the custom' of opening the church poor boxes on that day and sharing the proâ€" ceeds among the needy. That was a custom that went back into the distant past. In later years errand boys and apprentices emâ€" ployed by tradesmen were allowed to call upon customers to solicit donations to their Christmas boxâ€"on Boxing Day. Nowaâ€" days the postmen do it in the Old Country, after the Christmas rush. In this country, while the idea of having the day after Christmas a holiday is a very popular one, the other aspects of Boxing Day have not been featured. Here, it is still the custom for "Christmas boxes" to be given before, rather than after Christmas Day. In Great Britain the day after Christmas is observed as a sort of holiday. It is a bank holiday in England, Scotland and Wales. Of course, on that day (named "Boxing Day") there are some who work as usual, perhaps harder tHan usual, but it is very pleasant occupation. # It is over twenty years ago that The Advance first suggested, half in joke and half in earnest, that there should be a threeâ€" day celebration of Christmasâ€"a day to prepare, a day to celeâ€" brate and a day to sober up. The fact is that the Porcupine has really observed a "threeâ€"day Christmas‘" since the early days. For many years here the day after Christmas was more or less a holiday unofficially.. If the day before Christmas was one of the busiest days of the year, the day after Christmas was not so. In recent years the day after Christmas hnas been officially observed as a holiday. At a recent meeting of the Timmins town council, a resolution was passed authorizing the mayor to proclaim the day after Christmas a public holiday. Similar procedure has been the rule for several years here. * i1 LCoSpUCUCbL LVO UGIILLSbIlldis ls SUGIiIl UPu2 UTAnISs year. The call, "Merry Christmas!" will ring out here in this year of 1940 with the same old friendly and sincere tones. Merry Christâ€" mas! Merry Christmas! The people of the North have the deserved reputation of being @indly and a friendly people. Accordingly, Christmas is a time that makes special appeal to themâ€"just the sort of occasion that they celebrate with enthusiasm and sincerity. Christmas Day in the Porcupine always has been a time of goodwill, friendliness, kindrgess, generosityâ€"a real Christmas. All that is true of the past in respect to Christmas is still true this year. congregations. The attendance at Midnight Mass at St. Anthony‘s church in the earlier days of the camp meant the gathering of a record crowd each year. Attendance was not restricted to memâ€" bers of the church, many others finding interest in attending the service. There were many also who found interest in simply watching the crowds come from the church in the first hours of Christmas morningâ€"cheerful, happy people, wishing each other and everyone they met a "Happy Christmas." Christmas Day is always well observed in Timmins and the Porcupine. While it is particularly a "Home Day", the other feaâ€" tures of the celebration are forgotten. There are always special services in the churches that attract comparatively large Messrs Gibson and Stirling turned their store over to the men here at the time as a sort of hotel or stopping place for the twenâ€" tyâ€"five or so men left here to spend Christmas. The store was used as Christmas headquarters, so naturally is was a busy place, getting ready, the day before Christmas,. 1909. Every year since 1909 the day before Christmas has been one o1 the busiest days of the years in the Porcupine camp. And there are many other busy days in Porcupine at that. Despite the fact that there has been a regular campaign every year, urgâ€" ing all to "Shop Early," the day before Christmas is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in the towns of this part of the North. This makes it a busy time indeed. There are all the usual last minute things to be done before Christmas, so the day before Christmas is a day worthy of note because of the many calls upon itâ€"the rushâ€"the hurryâ€"the worryâ€"the friendlinessâ€"the good â€" willâ€"the checrfulnessâ€"the Christmas spirit. Ever since there has been a Porcupine, the day before Christâ€" mas has been a big day in Timmins, South Porcupine, Schumacher and Old Porcupine (Golden City). It has been a busier, livelier day than Christmasâ€"much more so than the day after. Even in what oldâ€"timers term the "First White Christmas" in Poreuâ€" pine, the Uay before Christmas was a busy time. That "First White Christmas"â€"to distinguish it from the Christmas celebated in Porcupine by the Indians and the other Scotsmen in the emâ€" ploy of the Hudson Bay Companyâ€"was in 1909. That was the year that Gibson and Stirling started the first store at Golden City for the accommodation of the people flocking in here in the gold rush at that time. It was a busy time for Gibson and Stirâ€" ling, who were busy getting the store ready, bringing in goods, etc. It was a busy time for the twentyâ€"five other men who were all that was left in Porcupine of the secores who had come in here. The others had gone home for Christmas. The few left here were busy planning how they could make a merry Christmas in this new land that year. THE PORCUPINE ADVANCE, TIMMINS, ONTARIO That Babe was a flowerâ€"token Of a great, undying love, For the Father‘s heart was broken When He sent His Son from above, And that precious, heavenâ€"born Flower May be planted in your heart, too, There enshrined in a sacred bower When the Christâ€"child comes to you. I often think of the Flower God gave that Christmas Day, When sang the angel choir, And the kings from far away With the shepherds came to worship To the manger where He lay, What a proof of love and friendship God gave the world that dayv! How choice in its fragrant blooming Is kind generosity, Which everything <perfuming, Makes life sweet as can be, And the poor receive the presents On the joyous Christmas morn; Like the gold and the myrrh and the incense When the Lord of love was born. The blooms of Christmas are lovely As any the summer can show, For greater than outward beauty The graces of spirit glow. At Christmas grows such flowers As the blossoms of charity, And love at home has its bowers Of heavenly ecstacy. (By Lieut.â€"Colonel H. Chas. Tutte, S.A.) Though flowers bloom in the summer, When the days are long and bright, When the warm rains cleanse the verdure And the dews refresh the night; Yet Christmas has its beauty As fragrant, tender and sweet; They are found in the Christmas duties We lay at the Christâ€"child‘s feet. The Day After Christmas The Day Before Christmas Christmas Blossoms Christmas Day Monday, December 23rd, 1940