A Christmas Glee: Helen Chase

​Come, haste, let us seek it,
The dear Christmas holly—
Its crimson lights gleam brightly forth from the snow;
See it reach out its bonnie green boughs as an offering—
A rare Yule-tide gift on its friends to bestow!

Go seek it, ye children,
The dear Christmas holly—
Seek it first for the home-shrine with swift, loving hands;
Bring its sheen and its glow to the place made most sacred
By tears and by joys, throughout kingdoms and lands.

Go seek it, ye yeomen,
The brave Christmas holly—
Make a forest of emerald and red in the kirk—
Bring the rarest of sprays for the altar—and to it
Come, worshipers, all—be ye Christian or Turk.

Go seek it, ye skeptic,
The dear Christmas holly—
As you clasp this bright emblem of Yule-tide—forsake
Your scorn of the truth and your grim speculations,
And of the deep joy of the Yule-tide partake.

So gather it, good folk,
The dear Christmas holly,
Let it glow from the altar, and shine at the feast—
May the glory and love of the Christ-child surround us
As shone the light down from His star in the East!
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The Christmas Night: Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Responsory for the Virgin: Hildegard of Bingen