Spirit of Christmas  2

All over our country there have grown up new ways and customs of keeping Christmas, founded on those of long ago. At Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a great Christmas star set high on a mountain side is visible for miles around, sparkling with welcome from a city named for the little village where the Christ Child was born. Close by at Allen-town and Nazareth, the Pennsylvania-Germans, more com­monly called the Pennsylvania-Dutch, go to infinite pains to set up a Putz or Christmas village, a landscape of buildings, trees and animals.

Sometimes a whole room or the main part of the house is occupied by these elaborate displays. Creches or cradles are constructed with the tradi­tional characters in life-size. These also appear in minia­ture in many homes.

Increasingly the cities and towns of the United States are celebrating Christmas by decorating streets, public buildings and squares. In my opinion displays are usually most attractive, in the small communities, where there is more personal interest and pride in them. It is one of my own Christmas pleasures to journey, when possible, to such towns as Bethlehem, Allentown, Emmaus, Nazareth York, Lancaster, Reading or Gettysburg, to see the beauty and variety of the decorations.

Yet the proper place for keeping Christmas is in the home. Here each member of the family may contribute something to the celebration and every decoration may be fondly contrived. It is the purpose of this little book to make the decoration of the home for the happiest season of the year a real labor of love.

This calls for originality, patient self-criticism and an open mind for new ideas and fresh material. It means that you will often think of Christmas through the year, while walking, traveling, working in the garden or enjoying the infinite beauties of nature. From the world without, many lovely things may be taken indoors in mid-winter as beau­tiful and fragrant gifts to the Child whose birth Christmas celebrates.

For a long time I have enjoyed more than any other of my lectures the talks and demonstrations which have sup­plied the material for this small volume. I hope now that you will find as much delight in carrying out these sug­gestions as I have had in presenting them. I hope, too, that you will experience real creative joy as each year you MAKE YOUR OWN MERRY CHRISTMAS.

make your own Merry Christmas