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I H om e-M ade Toys
Story of the
Christmas Stocking
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NYONE who has priced toys will
realize that a very great saving
is possible in making toys at
home. For instance, from scraps that
have accumulated one can make ani
mal toys, as rabbits, dogs, cats, bears,
elephants, as well as many of the char
acter dolls that will proye to be a
perfect delight to small children.
Patterns can easily be procured for
making animal and doll toys from any
place where patterns are sold.
One
clever mother went even farther by
making “bunny," “cat" and “ bow
wow” slippers for the youngsters that
are a never ending source of pleas
ure.
She outlined the face o f a
bunny, cat, or dog in black p made
ears and fastened them on with but
tonhole stitch, and used tiny shoe
buttons for the eyes. The scraps she
used in making the slippers and many
of the animal toys were largely from
odds and ends that are usually thrown
away in making over garments.
A grandmother is making use of old
black and white silk stockings by mak
ing them up into character dolls. The
eyes, nose and mouth áre embroidered,
a gay calico dress is , made, a white
apron, and a red cape.; ~ This makes a
typical mammy that will prove a great
favorite with the children. Another
idea which she carries out is to make
the body half white and half black.
That is, put a white dolly on one end
and a black one on the other. Arrange
the clothes in the
middle Of the body
and make them
suited to each
character. As a
suggestion, make
a Dinah for the
black
part,
so
that
when
the
black head is up
the doll will be a
pickaninny,
and
so that when the
white head is ex
posed it will be a
white dolly.
A
black
stocking
tuny be unraveled to furnish kinky
hair.
One can also make small dolls out
of odd scraps of ribbons, voiles and
silk combined with clothes pins. Paint
the faces on the head of the clothes
pin with ink or water color.
Rag dolls are perhaps the most be
loved by small children.
Any little
girl would love to have a “ Raggedy
Ann,” for her very own. “ Raggedy”
is manufactured from unbleached mus
lin, stuffed with cotton; her features,
hair and shoes painted on with water
colors. She is especially proud of her
feet, because they so closely resemble
Charlie Chaplin’s. Her eyes may
look large and glaring, but even if
they are two large shoe buttons, they
are always full of love for her small
owner. In making “ Raggedy” be sure
to stuff her neck, hands and feet full
of cotton, so that she will not become
limp and discouraged looking.
It is also possible to make a doll
house and doll furniture that will be
a delight to little girls.
Get a box
of suitable size and put partitions in
it. Two rooms above and two below
Is the ideal arrangement. Scraps of
wall paper can be used for covering
the walls and small rugs can be made
for the floors.
These may be knit
or crocheted out of rags, torn fine. The
outside of the house can be painted
some soft color. It should have
three coats of paint to look well. The
first coat should be a priming coat.
For this use the same paint and color
as for the final coats, only thin it
down with turpentine; three pints to
one gallon of paint is the proper pro
portions. After this has dried shellac
all knots and sap spots.
Then give
it a coat of paint. I f this looks well,
another coat will not be necessary.
If enamel is used for the work, apply
a coat of flat paint hrst.
One cán also use plain wall paper
on the outside instead of paint, using
narrow strips of a harmonizing color
for the-trimming. Often samples of
wall paper can be used to advantage
in the decoration of the interior and
exterior of a doll house.
. V . V . * v . v , v . v . v . v . v a v m w . w . i
Aurora, on the Pacific Highway
Doll furniture may be 'made from
the thin boards that come in boxes.
and Southern Pacific, midway be After it is made, enamel it to make
it more attractive. Remember that one
tween Salem and Portland is in the
must always apply flat paint before the
One mother who made her
'■ '■ V i*•V i V heart o f one of the richest sections of enamel.
little girl a lot of doll furniture used
Marion county.
The surrounding odds and ends of gay cretonne instead
of paint for covering it. Small cush
country is devoted to grains, fruits, ions may be made of cretonne to fit
in the little chairs or settees.
One
stocks and to raising hops. Surround* mother made a little sun parlor in
* -r^r? is one o f the greatest hop the house and placed a tiny, swinging
seat in it.
Compo board can also be used In
isi'ng sections o f the state.
The
making doll houses. It is light and
town is supplied with pure artesian one can easily use wall paper on both
the inside and outside.
Doll furni
water by a municipally owned water ture may also be produced from it.
Fathers will find it possible to make
works and lighted electrically. The
toy wagons, sleds and airplanes that
streets are graded and improved with will give a great deal of delight to
the little boys. A grocery store can
ement walks. There are two banks be made from a box that will prove to
be a never failing source of pleasure,
one newspaper and two churches. Be for all children love to play at “ keep
ing store” and selling things.
sides grains and hops, the country
Many things can thus be fashioned
i around is going into all kinds o f fruit which will be durable, washable, un
breakable and will all make Christmas
| raising, and the Aurora section o f the presents for the children that will de
light them fully as much as the store
county is in one o f the richest sect toys.—M. Palmer in Successful Farm
ions o f M arion county.
A paved ing.
always come to visit you at Christmastim e each year*
But every time I come along I miss a face that’s dear;
Some girlie is a woman grown, some boy is now a man,
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ighway through the center o f town,,
Hangers for Towels.
Nails driven through corks make
and located exectly midway between good hangers for dish towels-—hangers
r, ,,
,
i that will not tear or rust the cloth.
Portland and Salem.
*
EARS and years ago stock
ings were not hung on
Christmas eve as we hang
them now.
No one ever
heard of such a thing as
hanging up a stocking .for
Christmas gifts.
And if
children had thought of such a thing
they would have said, “ What a foolish
idea! A stocking wouldn’t hold half
the things we want.” So the children
throughout the world placed crocks,
big brass basins, and copper kettles
on the hearth on Christmas eve and
left notes in them telling Santa to
fill them to the brim. Each year the
children left larger Vessels to be filled,
children left larger vessels to be filled.
Up in the great white north Santa’s
reindeer no longer pranced and pawed,
impatient to be off on Christmas eve,
as they once had done. They hung
their heads and a tired look came
Into their big brown eyes, for they re
membered how heavy the loads had
grown and how many more trips they
were forced to make year by year.
St. Nicholas no longer rested now
through the summer months, as he
once had done, but labored every
day throughout the year, and often he.
built toys late Into the night, for a
great many gifts had to be made to
fill the baskets that the greedy children
left. The twinkle left his merry eyes,
and he no longer sang about his work,
for he was sad and thought of the
time that would come when he could
no longer build enough presents to go
around.
Late one December day St. Nicholas
stepped from his workshop into the
deep snow.
Facing the south, he
stretched out his tired arms and
called: “Hear, oh hear, children of the
earth, my loved ones, can you not see
you are becoming selfish and that your
greedy demands are too great a task,
even for St. Nicholas, king of the
Christmas spirit? Can’t you see, my
children, that you are killing the spirit
of Christmas?”
His chin sank upon his chest and
tears glistened in his kindly eyes. A
soft white snowflake fluttered down
and nestled against his cheek, and a
tiny voice whispered into his e a r:
“ Santa, I will help you."
“ Who are you?” asked St. Nicholas
“ I am a snow fairy,” answered the
tiny voice. “ As my sisters and I have
danced about the air we have often
swirled about your sleigh on Christ
mas eve, and have seen tlie great
loads you have always parried and
how tired you have looked.”
“ What, O what, shall I do?” asked
Santa.
“ Just go about your work as usual,”
answered the fairy. " I arid all my
sisters will help you.”
“ Oh, thank you— thank you,” cried
St. Nicholas. And the fairy floated out
among the other snowflakes.
As the children went about the
snowflakes whirled around them, and
It seemed as if they heard the chant
ing of tiny voices, and as the snow
flakes nestled against their ears they
seemed to sing: “ Just a stocking—
hang a stocking up on Christmas eve.”
“ Just a stocking—just a stocking,”
rang through the hearts of the children
on Christmas eve. And in place of
leaving the great vessels as they once
had done they just hung up their
stockings.
Some children were too selfish to
hear the song of the snowflakes and
left the great baskets as they always
had done. But when they saw the
great joy the unselfish children had
in their gifts and how contented and
happy they were these selfish ones
were ashamed, and they, too, began
to hang up only their stockings when
Christmas eve came round.
When St. Nicholas found stockings
in place of the great baskets and
barrels the twinkle came again into
his laughing eyes, his cheeks grew
ped, and he sang as he drove through
the merry sea of snowflakes,
With just stockings to fill St.
Nicholas had time to rest, and he
grew strong and well, and the spirit
of Christmas lived. So this is why
nowadays we hang up our stockings
on Christmas eve. All this we are
told by a writer, who learned it from
a Christmas fairy.
;; l T he Christm as
By" MARY
GRAHAM
I: Card
BONNBRj
j
Copyright, 1921, Western Newspaper Union.
GJt AM a Christmas Card.
I was
- II born shortly before Christmas of
* * 1913. I was put away in a box
after Christmas and the next year I
came forth again, and the price put
upon me had risen from two cents to
five.
The next year I cost ten cents. Stilt
I did not sell.
“ We’ll have to charge a quarter for
that card,” my owner said, “ and get
up the prices of some of these others,
or they won’t be bought.’’
So I was a quarter.
And then I
cost 50 cents and was purchased.
Tfie price mark has been left on me.
I ’ve been traveling with It written on
my back ever since. Sometimes, too, .1
get around to a number o f places
around Christmas time, especially if
I ’m started off early in the first place.
So far, too, I ’ve been greeted with
joy, and an exclamation I do not quite
understand.
“ Oh, good! Here’s a card which is
marked fifty cents. Who would believe
it possible, but no matter, it did! And
it’s not written on, either!”
I do not understand their joy over
me, but they never keep me with
them!
Christmas Fish.
fish which resembles a cod is
considered by the people o f Sweden
as an indispensable adjunct of their
Christmas feast. This fish is buried
for days in wood ashes or else soaked
in soda water, then boiled and served
with a milk gravy.
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CHRISTMAS DOES
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NOT STAND ALONE ?!
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F CHRISTMAS stood alone it
would be an idle mockery,
But it does not stand alone.
It is part of a year. Yet it is a
peculiar part. It is that brief
period in which the child rules
the world. '
It marks nowadays the cul-
mination o f a civilization which
lias had a leading principle.
The selfish, the hard, the grasp
ing and the unsparing are out
and apart that one week from
the gr|at flowing tide o f the
development of the world’s
progress. The man or woman
who does riot know this or see
it or feel it is alien to the Chris
tian spirit and to all t^O prod
ucts wrought hy the Christ
spirit in the twenty centuries
last past.
Christmas day, then, brings a
K message. But it also sings a
sbng of hope and calls aloud a
prophecy. The message is that
gentleness is stronger far than
force and that the greatest pow*
er on earth Is the compelling
power of tenderness.
Every Christmas tree is lit
with that light. Tlie great flood
of presents bears this as its
message.
The
cheer
and
charity of the whole season are
fed by this love.
I f the result of this process
is only a century flower, how
ever, or one that blooms even
only once a year, then of what
use Is this more than that, this
grotesque
fact
than
that
stranger plant? It is a curious
phenomenon only, a hothouse
spectacle and not an abiding
food product.— Rev. Dr. David
j| ^ M. Steele, Philadelphia.
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C E N T E R P IE C E H IN T .
To launder heavy embroidered round
or oval center pieces, wash and starch
quite stiff. While wet, divide into
fourths or eighths, place paper on rug
and pin to floor, as you would stretch
curtains 6n a stretcher. When dry re
move pins, and you will have a center
done up beautifully, without any iron
ing.