THE SHOPS AT CHRISTMAS.
OF all " sights of the season," that of the shops atChristmas is the most seasonable. This week the Metropolis has assumed its holyday aspect : the streets are thronged with mammas and aunts, furred to the chin, and looking easy end contented, surrounded by groups of little girls in pelisses and boys in cloaks, with eager eyes and rosy cheeks. The shops are set out with more than ordinary at- traction : the tempting baits fairly lure you in to buy the things themselves seem to have an eye on your purse. At other times they are set in the windows as a matter of course, or to be ad- mired; now they seem placed there to be bought, and people look as if they had come out. for the express purpose of making pur- chases. It is quite surprising how one's wants increase at Christ- mas time, and what a tide of generosity suddenly sets in : the most close-fisted folks relax their gripe, and yield to the genial impulse Gay-coloured scarfs, embroidered reticules, and all the supernu- merary items of female attire, suddenly become necessary articles of dress ; and smart caps and bonnets look irresistibly becoming. Velvets and satins are the only wear ; their rich hues carpeting the counters, and the parterres of artificial flowers blooming on every side, make Waterloo Houses fairy bowers—the enchanter's wand being the yard-measure : once entangled in the mazes of party-coloured ribauds, the unwary victim falls an easy prey to the fascinations of some smooth-tongued Adonis of mercery. Those very prim young gentlemen who stand sentry at tailors' doors, with a smile or satisfaction on their waxen faces—the natural result of a perpetuity of new suits, that always fit—look particularly blooming at this season ; and the little feet in the hosiers' windows, that sport lace socks, point their toes as if to re- mind their fellows in the mud and lambs-wool of coming quadrilles. The jeweller's glittering display, at other times only a pretty sight, now recalls numerous little debts of kindness to be ao- knuwledged; and a sudden thirst for information seizes children at the sight of a bookseller's, which it would be very unparental to repress.
But the grand feature of the shops, after all, is the provision made for feasting : the universal appetite suddenly becomes vora- cious, and eating is the order of the day. People are divided into two classes—the inviters and the invited : an inquiry into the "state of parties" would just now be satisfactory to both sides. Dining and dressing fur the time divide the attention of the whole adult community ; the Pantomime and Twelfth Night characters absorbing the attention of the juvenile portion.
The very sight of a butcher's shop is enough to cause an indigestion, and a walk through Leadeuhall Market would throw one into a surfeit. It is a sign of the insatiable craving of the Christmas stomach when the appetite for meat can outlive such a satiety as feeds the eye. Beef' is in full blow : the butcher, with conscious pride, glances round his shop, red with the 11,44 garniture of the shambles,—his eye resting with solid satis- faction on the gigantic carcase of a prize-ox loaded with fat. The poulterer's is hung round with a valiance of turkies, fringed with pheasants and hares. The porkman converts his shop into a stye for some plethoric pig, that looks like a living coliar of brawn; and even rabbits aspire to fatness. The grocer's windows are brown with plums, embroidered with citron and cinnamon t and, by the by, we should like to know how many plum-pud- dings will be boiling between the hours of eight and four to- morrow ? This would be a curious item in the culinary statistics of Mr. DONOVAN'S book. Then there is the greengrocer, whose shop is an arbour of holly and mistletoe; where Betty with her basket is apt to loiter, and only punishes a gallant put-boy, who is too civil, with a gentle rap of the street-door-key. The con- fectioner—But the reader, already oppressed with the glut of good cheer, cries " Hold! cueugh."
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