December 1940

HAS "Merry Christmas" BECOME A MOCKERY?

NORTH, South, East, and West. the Christmas trees are in bloom. Transplanted from their snowy hillsides to our warm hearthsides, they flower overnight into light and color and spicy fragrance. And around their green Gothic spires we gather again to celebrate the great feast of home and family life.

It Sounds Once More

Hold the Lie, Please!

WHEN Don Ameche invented the telephone, he probably never suspected he was undermining the morals of his fellow countrymen. His idea was simply to provide the public with a quick, direct means of two-way communication. He could not foresee the day when Mr. Smith, hearing an unwelcome voice at the other end of the wire, would squeak into the transmitter, "Velly solly-- Misseh Smiss he no home. Goo'-by now!"

The Man Next Door

At certain moments I feel that children would grow up to be better men and women if their parents actually carried out some of the Santa Claus threats they make just before Christmas.

A Christmas Message From America's Scrooge

WHEN Lionel Barrymore awakes on Christmas morning he isn't just Lionel Barrymore, the distinguished motion-picture star. He's Old Ebenezer Scrooge, out of Dickens' immortal "Christmas Carol." Barrymore has relived Old Scrooge's transformation so many times in his annual Christmas broadcasts that he actually feels like Scrooge, the favorite of all the hundreds of roles he has played in his sixty-two years.

Garages Without Regrets

EYE-DELIGHTING but simple in form is the James J. Clune home in Binghamton, New York. It simply makes no bones about flaunting a two-car garage. Within complete sight of the street, it proudly displays the fine shingled walls of the garage and the paneled doors with their graceful hinges.

23 WAYS TO SHOUT MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sound Advice

WATER rippling down a brook may be musical, but rippling down a drain in the bathroom or kitchen, it's a mighty annoying noise to live with.

French Provincial Takes to the Hills

YOU take the highway, they said. You stay on the highway until you come to a queer little dirt road off to the right, and you take that. And then you come to a redbrick-paved driveway, and there you are.

Yours Personally

EVERY year about this time 'leventeen million people are muttering to anyone within hearing distance: "I am going to do something about Christmas cards right away. No more of this last-minute stuff!"

Two Gardens

WHENEVER Ervin Adams has a few minutes to spare, he lays a brick. Most of us, before we tackle a chunk of garden-building, wait for a week end or vacation.

"Jack" Never Built

ONE day last spring, while soliciting for the Red Cross, I came upon a picket gate. Peering thru, I could see no house because of clustered shrubbery and trees, yet it was quite apparent someone lived there.

GARDENING GIFT GUIDE For Indoor Gardeners

For Outdoor Gardeners

Deck It Joyously

STABLE YOUR HOBBY HERE

HOSE famous little rodents in "Pigs Is Pigs" had nothing on a good healthy hobby when it comes to multiplication. Before you know it, if you're an ambitious and uninhibited hobbyist, you're practically perched on a shelf, pondering which way to jump to avoid squashing the latest acquisition. You are, that is, unless you're smart enough to dedicate the shelves to the hobbies and rope off breathing space for yourself and a runway for the family.

FIX YOURSELVES A GAME ROOM

I'LL wager that the most delightfully old-fashioned spot in your home is your game room! Surprised? We do think of our basement, attic, rumpus room, or whatever you call it as a pretty smartly modern idea. But the fact is that just as bustles and hoops and leg-o'-muttons swing around in cycles-- so do game rooms.

Santa Says

Edna May Oliver's Home Is Just Like Her

A LINE-UP of glamour-girls from Hollywood to New York wouldn't have a thing on Edna May Oliver. Because Edna May Oliver has her own special kind of glamour --the glamour of a great and seasoned trouper, of a rich personality, of a magnificent wit. And her home is just like her.

FUN With Festive Fare

WELL, here comes that jolly bewhiskered gentleman again-- up to his old tricks of warming up the carolers, loading up the larder, and swinging glorious Yuletide parties! Let's pitch in and help make the old fellow's annual outing a big success-- and our own holidays ones to be long and joyously remembered.

Gifts to Glorify Good Eating

Books Your Child Will Cherish

MRS. ROBINSON stepped into my shop and announced she'd decided on books for Christmas this year for her three children. The Robinsons illustrate exactly my favorite ideas on book selection. Bobby is 5, Sally 8, and David 12. They fit almost perfectly into the picturebook age, the learning-to-read age, and the rapid-reading age.

A Cornerstone Library

"One Man's Family"

CHRISTMAS Whims and Hobbies

Dedicated this month to perhaps the most exciting hobby in the world-- giving. After you read these experiences, kick yourself good and hard when you find yourself complaining that there aren't generous people in the world.

WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS-Two Big Easy Chairs Labeled "Private"

DON'T let your man be a comic-strip male, seeking dolefully thru the house for a spot to call his own. Give him a break-- and a big easy chair absolutely and utterly his. Then watch him overflow with good will and loving kindness. He'll heap praises on your nice little dinner, amiably tinker the can opener into working order, even agree that the concert Friday night is one of your better ideas.

Mister, I Like that Plan...

Christmas Time and Christmas Chimes

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

There is a great cat and dog mystery in our household, but with no Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan hereabouts it is as yet unsolved. Why is it that whichever door I open first in the morning, the dog and cats are there, ready to rush in? How do they know which door I'm going to open?

"Gifts to Glorify Good Eating"

THE following manufacturers make the Christmas gifts in the photographs on pages 48 and 53. Items in this listing are numbered to correspond with the numbers of the photographs. Shop for these in your local stores. If you cannot find an item in your community, ask your dealer to order it for you.

Pudim de Xuxu!

EAT GIFTS"

Stuffed Prunes: Wash prunes; place in colander or steamer over hot water; cover with towel. Cover tightly and steam 30 minutes. Pit; stuff with chopped candied lemon or orange peel and California walnut meats; roll in confectioners' sugar.

A SUGGESTION...

Christmas Birds Win Over Holiday Breads

"Now there's a stuffing you can get your teeth into!" joyously exploded our taste-testers-- and straightway pinned the blue ribbon on a scrumptious bird from Illinois. So Roast Chicken With Celery Stuffing, sent by Stella Erwin of Jerseyville, Illinois, becomes $5 first-prize winner in our two-way Cooks' Contest for "Ways With Chicken" and "Breads That Are Fancy."

Comfort Plus at a Bargain

NEIGHBORS, good ones, are the salt of the block. But there's one thing not even your best neighbor will tell you, or will like to admit-- that your house is better than his.

Adventures in Mud-Slinging