I like to read about the way Christmas was celebrated in various Russian palaces. Whose Christmas is being described here? Why not have a guess, and add another Christmas extract for us to read?
"At Christmas my Father was particularly joyous, and Christmas was the peak of our year. Days before, the trees would be brought out and set up. Then the doors of the great reception hall would be closed; then mysterious preparations, half-sensed, would go forward all around us; then, and only then throughout all our year, would the brooding calm of that great palace be driven away and replaced by a joyous and delicious agitation. As Christmas Eve approached our excitement became so intense that it required all the vigilance of our nurses to keep us from stealing a look behind those closed doors. To calm us they would take us driving, but Christmas lights and decorations and the gay holiday spirit of the crowds that thronged around our carriage in the streets only excited us the more. Finally the great moment came. When we were dressed Father came for us. He led us to the doors of the closed reception hall and made a sign. The electric lights within the hall were snapped off, the doors thrown open. Before our enchanted eyes appeared, in that immense dark room, the magic trees, ablaze with candles. Our hearts stopped beating, and tremblingly we entered after our father. He made another sign; darkness vanished; along the walls appeared tables covered with white cloths and on these tables were the gifts. Our first glance at those tables, our first confused, rapturous attempt to see everything at once ~ no joy that I have experienced in all the years since can be compared to that!"
A very Happy Christmas to all AP members!
