Foreword

The celebration of Christmas has two familiar and important aspects. Its real significance is religious, a festival kept with reverence by people of many faiths. But there is also the joy of Christmas. It is a time of jollity and good will, of family gatherings and happiness for children.

Most grown people, aside from the spiritual meaning of the day, look at Christmas through the eyes of children. Its more familiar symbols, for both young and old, are Santa Claus, the tree, filled stockings, beautifully wrapped gifts, wreaths on the doors, holly, mistletoe and other decorations throughout the house. For nearly every American, these mean Christmas.

Then there are the customs of Christmas, borrowed from many lands and many ages. Carol singing, sleigh bells, Yule logs, turkey, plum pudding, mince pies and cookies, crowded streets and stores, parties and merry­making—these also mean Christmas in America.

Most people have hobbies. Stamp collecting, painting, fishing, gardening and a host of others fill the spare time of all sorts of people. It has been one of my own hobbies for many years to invent and make Christmas decorations. The idea is to devise decorations that are easy to make, not too expensive and yet effective. The elaborate adorn­ments found in churches, stores and some stately homes at Christmas time are the work of highly-paid profes­sionals; it costs a lot of time and money to produce them.

But the average American is likely to be short of both time and money at Christmas.

The season is a busy one for everybody. Shopping, addressing and mailing cards, gift wrapping, preparing cookies and fruit cake and special dishes take up a lot of time. It is extraordinary, in fact, how hard nearly every­one works in preparation for the holiday. It seems worth while to make, if we can, our own seasonal decorations quickly and at small expense. The time needed is little compared to what is required to prepare a dinner for many Christmas guests, and the decorations last much longer than the dinner.

Another argument for making your own is that the result will be, or should be, suitable to the size, character and color scheme of your home, which "store-bought" decorations might not be. For all these reasons, plus the satisfaction of doing it yourself, it is very much worth while and a lot of fun to Make Your Own Merry Christmas.

It is a matter of universal experience that creative work of any kind increases and prolongs the enjoyment of the worker. We like the things we buy for a while, but we love the things we make for a long time. It seems to me that those who create something useful and beautiful in honor of Christmas, with their own hands and hearts and imaginations, will live in the true spirit of Christmas long after the tree comes down. If they do, in some degree they make this world a better place.

foreword continued