Continuing a generous tradition even older than Christmas itself

One of the many theories about this predates Christ's birth by some 500 years, so we cannot claim that that particular custom was associated with our Christmas, even if it perhaps gave birth to the general idea, albeit in the very long term.

More than 500 years before Christ, there was a pagan custom at the feast of Paganalia. It was instituted by Servius Tillius, who was reputedly the sixth King of Rome.

He reigned for 44 years, but one of his great achievements was the foundation of a system which classified the people. He was anxious to include everyone, rich and poor, worker or ruler, in his political decision-making.

So that he could count the people, he produced a very simple idea. Every person - man, woman and child - had to place a coin on a box which stood on an altar erected especially for that purpose.

Every town and village was ordered to erect one of these altars and, in this basic manner, he knew the number of people with whom he was dealing. But what happened to all that money? He gave it to the needy.

Clearly, there was no Christmas at that time, but Servius Tillius arranged for this custom to be practised at the start of each new year, just one of several similar pagan acts of generosity in ancient Rome.

It is claimed this prompted a similar custom when Christianity was founded. In the beginning, the Christian system, based on those pagan ideals, was conducted at the new year, but in time it became part of the Christmas celebrations.

Long before the Reformation, parish priests in England placed boxes before the altar into which casual gifts, usually of money, were placed. The boxes were in position throughout the year, but were opened at mass on Christmas Day.

The collected money was known as the Dole of the Christmas Box or Box Money, and later merely as the Christmas Box.

The money was counted and distributed by the priest to the poor and needy the following day - from which Boxing Day gets its name.

In this simple way, there began the notion of giving presents at Christmas, not only to the poor and needy, but also to one's friends, family, acquaintances and staff.

Apprentices would visit their master's customers while bearing boxes into which they hoped gratuities would be placed.

Even now, we continue to give presents to those who have been considerate to us during the year, not only members of our business or office, but others such as the letter post person, the milk delivery operative, the waste disposal team and others whose titles we must now speak and write in silly but politically correct jargon.

Christmas gifts do not necessarily consist of money and I have come across a strange custom which, before the Reformation, was practised in Scotland and the North of England.

It was known as Yule Firth, firth being an old word meaning truce. I believe Yule Firth had to be declared by the local sheriff and it meant that no criminal proceedings could be initiated in the week preceding Christmas.

Furthermore, all legal proceedings in the week following Christmas were temporarily suspended in honour of the feast.

Clearly, this must have encouraged criminals and law-breakers to have a wonderful time in the run up to Christmas. They could kill, steal, plunder, get drunk or commit any kind of offence without fear of prosecution, provided they did so during the week before Christmas.

It seems, however, that the authorities of York had a rather cunning plan to cope with this. On the feast day of St Thomas (December 21), the sheriff made a proclamation at the City of York pillory in which he announced that, during the 12 days of Christmas, all manner of thieves, gamblers, loose women and other unthrifty folk were welcome in the city.

It did not matter whether they arrived late or early, but they had to come in reverence to the High Feast of Yule. Not surprisingly, however, there were conditions.

One was that they behaved themselves in York (ie they had to keep the King's Peace) and, furthermore, they had to submit to certain regulations while in town. One of them, it seems, was to attend daily mass at York Minster.

The dates of this custom are difficult to ascertain, but it seems it was being practised before the Reformation, certainly until the time of Henry VIII, but it appears to have ended in the middle of the eighteenth century.

So what was York's cunning plan? It was quite simple. This offering of a legal amnesty brought lots of villains into York, which meant the authorities knew exactly where they were and what they were doing. And by imposing conditions on their presence, they could be severely dealt with if they infringed any of those local rules.

One of the most persistent of beliefs associated with Christmas is that cattle, indoors for the winter, fall to their knees at midnight on Christmas Eve to honour the birth of Christ.

I can remember this being discussed within the last 40 years or so and indeed there are lots of contemporary accounts supplied by people who claimed to have witnessed this.

Some even went further by adding that cattle weep at midnight for the same reason, while the American Indians also used to believe that deer knelt in worship to the Great Spirit at this time.

A variation of this belief is that some cattle perform this act on old Christmas Eve, which now falls on January 5 - the night the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury is said to bloom - and those who make this claim say the cattle know, beyond all doubt, that the calendar should never have been altered.

They say the cattle persist in the belief that January 5 was the true Christmas Eve!

If you wish to test this theory, all you have to do is walk into a cattle byre full of beasts at midnight on Christmas Eve. As you do so, you will disturb the sleeping animals, whereupon they will rise to their feet - and most, if not all, ruminants (cows, sheep, deer, camels, etc) rise with their rear legs first.

The chances are that you will see a herd of cows all on their knees as they struggle to stand on all four feet - and so your belief in this old legend will be confirmed.

Slightly more puzzling is another belief that cattle were able to speak in the human language at midnight on Christmas Eve. However, this notion was tinged with caution because if you chanced to overhear them, you would surely learn of your own premature death.

This belief was once widespread in Europe, especially in England, France and Germany and it was also thought that such cattle were able to foresee the fortunes of their owners' farms during the coming year. Even if the cattle discussed it, the owners must never listen to their chatter - to do so was a guarantee of ill fortune.

Two more beliefs surrounded cattle byres at Christmas. One, dating to the pre-Reformation period, was that the farmer should visit his animals in their byre on Christmas Eve and say an Our Father and a Hail Mary to safeguard them over the coming year. Another was to toast each animal individually with a strong drink so they could be sure of a fruitful year to come.

My correspondence this week has been dominated by stoats. Following my comments about ermine stoats, I have received letters from two readers as far apart as Northallerton and Malton.

A reader from East Rounton near Northallerton noticed a stoat in full ermine running along the side of the beck in Scugdale near Stokesley. So intent was it upon following a scent that it passed within a few feet of my correspondent, completely oblivious to her motionless presence. The date was February 1987 - some years ago.

My Malton correspondent tells a similar story. She and her husband noticed a stoat in full ermine running along the banks of the River Derwent near Malton and she also witnessed a stoat running rings around an unfortunate rabbit until it was able to seize it - and drag it away despite the rabbit being larger than its captor.

I wish all readers a very happy and contented Christmas