Christians make up just under 10 percent of the population of the Middle Eastern nation of Syria.

In Clement C. Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the children lie “nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced through their heads.” Although today’s children crave candy canes and chocolates at Christmas time, Moore’s poem reminds us that over one hundred years ago children longed for sugarplums.

The early nineteenth-century poem by Clement C. Moore, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” describes an old Christmas custom concerning stockings. The poem’s narrator notes that his children’s stockings “were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there.”

In ENGLAND some people still refer to the Sunday before the beginning of Advent as “Stir-Up Sunday.” The name comes from the traditional collect (or prayer) offered in Anglican churches on that day.

In the GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (2:2-14), we learn that the rising of an unusual star guided the MAGI to Jerusalem. The Magi interpreted this star as a sign that a great person was about to be born.

In parts of central Europe and Scandinavia troupes of costumed children, known as star boys, entertain their neighbors with Christmas Carols and dramas on Epiphany. One member of the group carries a long pole from which a bright star, representing the STAR OF BETHLEHEM, dangles.