December 1951

Enjoy your gift plants longer

Christmas gifts for the handyman

For some reason, Christmas gifts for the head of the household are notably uninspired. Instead of piling up socks and neckties he would rather select for himself, have you thought of giving him something for his workshop?

What's wrong with this family?

Marjorie and Peter are making a commendable effort to protect their children from becoming casualties in a war between parents.

If you don't have a sunny window

Do the house plants you count on to liven your rooms in winter sag and droop as the sun sinks lower and lower in the southern sky? Would you like to flower tulips, narcissi, hyacinths, and other spring bulbs indoors, weeks ahead of their normal season outdoors-- but are stopped because you can't give them enough light?

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

An excellent way to fireproof your Christmas tree, greens, or dried foliage is to soak them in a solution of ammonium phosphate and water for 5 minutes.

Make your Christmas cards from gay wallpaper

How good a host(ess) and guest are you?

When you entertain, you want everyone to have a good time. And whether your guests relax and enjoy themselves depends largely on you. When you come right down to it, the reason for etiquette is to make everyone happier and more comfortable.

Can you predict your family's future?

Has some big or little problem of family living sneaked up and surprised you lately? A relative moving in with you, maybe. Are there "doghouse days" in your family when loved ones are downright cantankerous? Are you fed up on work, when only last week you were as full of energy as a corn popper? Is that young fellow who's hanging around your daughter going to make her happy?

Are we Christmas-only Christians?

What a day is Christmas Day, with its gladness, its giving and forgiving! What a day is Christmas Day, with its open homes and its open hearts! What a day, with a word, a drop, a morsel of cheer for every friend and for every stranger! A dollar for the newsboy! A necktie for the postman! A couple of good cigars for the policeman on the beat! What a day is Christmas Day!

Christmas is what you make it

New house in New England

Who says you can't have big windows and one pitch roofs in New England, Michigan, Minne sota, or any northern state? They work just a well in Maine as they do in California or Arizona

Low in cost, high in livability

Let's face it. With current building costs averaging $15 per square foot, a contractor-built house for less than $10,000 is going to be no mansion.

How would you change these rooms?

You can't say there's a "right" and "wrong" way to decorate a room. You might choose Modern, but your neighbor would furnish the same room with Traditional. You're both "right," and both rooms can be equally charming.

The 12 most common planning mistakes and how not to make them

These 12 mistakes turn up over and over again. They turn up in letters we receive from men and women who have decided to design their own homes. They turn up in amateur-drawn remodeling plans, and they turn up in homes we've seen which are far from being adequate for the families who live in them.

It's a small world

The best side trip we ever took

Via U. S. 66, the westward stretch between Grants, New Mexico, and Gallup would breeze by in an hour. Instead, we chose to meander south along an eight-hour detour, lured by perpetual ice caves and El Morro National Monument.

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The built-ins make this kitchen workable

A family room that can't be rumpled

The Family Car

In the days of linen dusters, goggles, Model T's, and high-pressure tires, almost anyone could put on a pair of tire chains in a few minutes. Today, although it's just as easy, many people consider it a major operation to install tire chains on late-model cars. They think it's a job that requires considerable equipment and plenty of time. This is not always true. It's possible to apply chains in less than six minutes with no more than 40 cents' worth of equipment.

Your pet and mine

If you're planning to give someone a Christmas gift puppy, you'd better do your shopping early. The supply usually falls short of the demand.

Look what happens when Good neighbors build together

"Built-initis!" There was no doubt that it was contagious! But it was the sort of contagion that spread from a problem rather than a bug. In our neighborhood, each of us faced the same problem that almost everyone who buys a house has to face: That house is rarely, if ever, exactly what you would like it to be.

December Garden Guide

Sow sweetpea seed of the Spencer type in Middle and Upper South-- the Early Flowering sweetpeas in Lower South. Buy a legume inoculant, and treat all the sweetpea seed you plant.

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

Dec. 1 Here we are with a big snow on the ground. It was 12 or 13 inches deep when it fell. Streets and roads are getting cleared off somewhat, but a safari from our garage down to the office is a travel adventure.

How to make creche

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

My big daughters wanted me to give Mom some of that imported perfume for Christmas. But just in time I remembered who used the lingerie and luggage I gave her last year at their suggestion.