December 1949

Decorate with Christmas cards

Decorate your table for Christmas

Give them a chance to be cheerful!

There is a popular impression that the years when one is growing up are a time of complete happiness. A great many of us gaze back upon our own childhoods through a nostalgic haze. We are inclined to envy all boys and girls as lucky beings without worries, responsibilities, or real woes. We're wrong. Actually, children can be quite as unhappy as adults. They, too, get out of step with their friends and the world. They, too, worry.

How to use a power jointer

A skilled craftsman can hand-plane the edge of a board to perfect straightness and square. But with a power jointer in your home workshop, you can do the same job with a fraction of the work, and in so much less time that comparison becomes absurd.

How to make foil trees

Double-deckers

HAVE YOU HEARD?

If you find large gray patches of dead grass on your lawn in spring, the chances are that snow mold is responsible. It is a fungus that likes the cold, wet conditions it finds under a protecting snow blanket. It is prevalent in states where snow remains on the ground for any length of time, and causes most of the so-called winter damage in such areas. Early winter is the time to prevent it.

Storage as you want it

Merry Christmas

Make yours a Merry Christmas. A house that glows a welcome to Dad when he comes home from his day's work. A house that sets the stage for the youngsters' excitement in the mysterious packages, the dangling fireside socks, and lighted Christmas tree. A house that says "Hi" to guests as they come up your front walk.

Your rooms can look bigger

Treat yourself to a midwinter garden

Space where you need it

Where do you need the most space in your home? Not for sleeping, certainly, and not for eating. You need the most space for living, both indoors and out, and for working, whether that work is cooking, washing, or making and repairing things.

Love enough to go around

The Julius Burgers of Kansas City, Kansas, have solved most of the problems that beset American families. We who have been rearing 1, 2, or 3 children know how endless and involved those problems seem to be. What makes the Burgers' solutions so significant is that they have been tried and proved successful with 14 children.

How to arrange furniture

Pine has a warm, family feeling

Fireplaces that will start conversations

Must you slow up after 35?

When I was 20, I fully intended to be a success by the time I was 30. Now that I am 40, I no longer make such rash predictions. I attempted to explain this change of attitude to Mrs. Williams the other day.

Candies with holiday glamour

Gifts FOR KITCHEN AND TABLE

These serve hot foods hot

Is one of your biggest cooking bugaboos keeping food hot from the time it's ready till it's eaten? It's a major problem-- particularly in cold weather, when someone's late, at buffets, or when there's some distance between the dining room and the kitchen.

An old-fashioned pomander

Household tips for the Christmas rush

Christmas festivities center around the home so you'll want it looking its best. Here are tips that will add pleasure, save time and trouble during the holidays.

Quick gifts yon can make

Lanky clown. You'll need ½ yard 36-inch canvas for clown's body; scraps of various-colored felt for mittens, hat, jacket, and shoes (or ¼ yard 36-inch felt if you want accessories all the same color); and also washable material for stuffing.

You can install kitchen cabinets

Dollar-saving picture framing

Fireplace windows five ways

WILL YOUR CHILD BE SCARED OF SURGERY?

What would you do if your youngster had to have an operation? Chances are, you've never thought about it. Most parents have an it-can't-happen-to-my-Johnny attitude. When it does, they go to pieces.

Don't be an armchair Eskimo!

All through the snowy months of this year, the northern hills of America will echo to the shouts of children. Their bright figures will skim down the white slopes, thousands of frozen ponds and rivers will be dotted with flying color and flashing skates, and the mark of steel runners and plodding overshoes will be stamped upon every back yard.

DECEMBER GARDEN GUIDE

Plant both hardy and half-hardy annuals in the Middle and Upper South; you're taking a chance with the half-hardy ones, but the better success resulting from early planting is worth the risk. Plant sweetpeas, using the Spencers in Middle and Upper South, and Early Flowering in Lower South.

Save dollars by mulching your plants

You can lose plants, time, dollars, and be much inconvenienced if you don't protect your plants by mulching. Mulching your flowers is the last most important job you'll do outdoors this year. The flowers you want will be there next season if you act now.

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

Dec. 1 When I arrived home late last night from a long business trip, was greeted with the news that Maggie is doing over her kitchen-- new unit cabinet, new paint job, with the linoleum man phoned for. And David did no outside work while I was gone.

Your dog and mine

Our dog is making life miserable for our neighbors' cats. We're afraid he'll kill them. Can you help us?-- J. A. P., New Jersey.