ainHi»tiBniniM»nmiiiwiiiiiiiiniti»miiiimut»mmütt¡my I H om e-M ade Toys Story of the Christmas Stocking iliiJiunuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiUiiiiiiTrnniniiuiiii.iiniiiiiiurR 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, [ y .W .V .V .V .V A V .W .W £ Cleaning O ff the Si »te ¡¡ 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. A ajiuiiiiiiiuiiiniHiiniimniiiHinniHHiiiiiiiiinfiUiiniinimg Who Said Santa Clans? j B RiHumii.mminimniiiiiHimiiiiiTHiHiii'Mim iiinniimninw CHRISTMAS DOES $ NOT STAND ALONE ?! — ?! I I \i 3 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. i I $ o Ij II || ?! ?! ?! a |j\ <£ -Vi ijj fr U