Transcriber's Note

1. There is an editorial error in the original edition of this book: "The Star Song" by Robert Herrick is listed in the Table of Contents but not included in the text. For this edition "The Star Song" was removed from the Table of Contents.

2. In the "Inexhaustibility of the Subject of Christmas" by Leigh Hunt the following sentence:

"There are two p's, observe, in plenipotential; and so there are in
plum-pudding. We love an exquisite fitness,—a might and wealth of
adaptation).

is transcribed:

(There are two p's, observe, in plenipotential; and so there are in
plum-pudding. We love an exquisite fitness,—a might and wealth of
adaptation).

3. In "Christmas Holly:"

I sing the holly, and who can breathe
Aught of that that is not good?
Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,
That hangs over peasant and king;

was changed as follows to correct an error and to preserve the symmetrical verse structure [4,8,8,8,4]:

I sing the holly, and who can breathe
Aught of that that is not good?
Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,
That hangs over peasant and king;

4. In "Sery" by Richard Watson Gilder:

At a very queer sight
In the dim starlight.
As plain as can be
A fairy tree

was changed to:

At a very queer sight
In the dim starlight.
As plain as can be
A fairy tree

5. In Christmas Dreams, the word "stravaigging" was corrected to "stravaiging."

6. "Hang up the Baby's Stocking" was not attributed in the Table of Contents or in the text in the original edition. For clarity this edition attributed both as follows: [Emily Huntington Miller]. Attribution makes the text more readable. Without it one could believe the poem to have been written by Andrew Lang; especially after Haven inserts an extra poem by Southwell, "A Carol" following "The Wassailer's Song," which is unlisted in the contents.

7. Finally, the 1907 edition includes a story called "Golden Cobwebs" at the close of section IV that was not included in the 1968 edition used for this transcription.