For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas. Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.

Tucker frames Christmas as a recurring, almost contractual rendezvous—an “appointment” that generations have honored. The line emphasizes continuity and communal ritual over doctrine: Christmas is defined less by theology than by lived social practices (fellowship, feasting, exchange of gifts) and by an emotional atmosphere (“good cheer”) anchored in the idea of “home.” The phrasing suggests that the holiday’s power lies in its ability to gather people into shared customs that reaffirm belonging and mutual care. It also implies a cultural memory: Christmas persists because it reliably renews social bonds and domestic ideals year after year.