December 1955

"The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Have four sound without the fury

Keep gift plants growing

These FOODS are NEWS!

Canned scalloped potatoes with ham and scalloped potatoes with cheese-- just require removing the lid and heating in the oven to be ready to serve. The one has a generous serving of ham with the scalloped potatoes, and the other is well flavored with cheese. Each 1-pound can makes 2 servings.

NEW: A "harmless" germ killer!

A drug that is harmless as water to swallow, but which kills every germ it touches in a matter of seconds, sounds too fantastic to be true. Yet this "impossible" germ killer is being used by many hospitals and medical specialists, and forms for home use can be bought at pharmacies. It is a simple-looking white powder, inert until a tiny amount is dissolved in water.

Safe holidays at home

Every year we read and hear warnings about Christmas fires. We hardly notice them-- after all, we're thinking of more pleasant things. But we all need reminders. Here are some of the important ones:

Latest Garden News

A new chemical "cure" for Dutch Elm disease has been patented by the University of Rhode Island. The chemical involved is a sodium salt of chloroacetic acid-- somewhat related to 2,4-D weed killers.

A small house can count for more

Five Star Home No. 2512 isn't a large house... if you figure it in feet and inches. But go beyond what you can measure, and it's a kind of house that lives bigger than many homes half again its size.

Decorate with living plants

Create your own Christmas traditions

Highlight your own holiday table

What yon can do with a little imagination

New gift wrap ideas--so much fun to try!

CHRISTMAS READER

HERE, Better Homes & Gardens proudly presents Mr. Charles Laughton playing to his largest and most responsive audience-- many millions of families who'll soon be trying, he hopes and we hope, to steal Mr. Laughton's act.

This family got a new home for Christmas

The Thursday night club that meets on Monday

Every week six Minneapolis businessmen plan to get to- gether on the following Thursday evening to discuss their hobby-- woodworking. Included in the schedule of events is a talk by a professional craftsman-- one who makes his living teaching the principles of operating a table saw and using a hand plane. And, if you investigated, you'd probably find that the date-- next Thursday-- is circled in red on the calendars of all five in each of their offices.

Why not give your home a gift?

Come to the kitchen, Santa Claus!

Three stages to a new kitchen

Holiday snacks

Nut candies

Too many TOYS? Or not the right ones?

There must be a catch in it. Why would a man who eats, drinks, and sleeps running a toy factory start talking about kids getting too many toys? That's what people said when they heard I wanted to tell the public not to buy such a large percentage of their children's toys for Christmas.

Let's bake a sugarplum loaf

Gadgets for holiday designs

A lesson in small-room planning

The gift that's sure to make a hit

How to make the tree on our cover

Design a colorful wall hanging

Cutouts for Christmas

Jovial Santa will greet your holiday guests if you'll use him as an outdoor figure-- or he'll be the central figure of your Christmas decorations indoors.

How to work with plywood

Attention, gift wrappers!

Use these versatile figures many ways

Look what they did with this barn!

No house has to be outdated

How to plan and plant a flower border

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

Dec. 1 Everything is upset in these parts. There is that annual gleam in Maggie's eye. When David went down to his business, she went along and on downtown. Spent the day buying Christmas presents. Oh, dear me-- the bills that will come!

What's ahead in GARDENING?

Tomorrow's gardens will be different. New plants slated for introduction in 1956 will ensure this. But the big news will be far more than just new plants.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Saw the Widow Weems at the store today, and from what she was buying, it was evident she was getting ready to make her annual batch of Christmas cookies. She bought some new cooky cutters, too-- all sizes and shapes, except the size of the neighbor kids' eyes when she calls them in to see them, and the shape they'll be in when she gets through stuffing the little rascals.