Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-12-30
A Young Christmas.

n IOUnS CnrlSU1naSs
One Of the most blessed things about
Christmas is that it makes so many peo-
pie feel young. 1t is the one season of
the year when everybody feels that they
can dismiss abStruse thoughts, put dig
nifty aside, forget the worries of the
world and for a time return to their
youth 1t always seems a pity that men
try to conceal this feeling so often at
Christmas. Only few men are capa-
BILE of being gracefully caught in the act
of making a miniature train of cars go
over the carpet. Catch them at it a
night or two before Christmas, and nine
out of every ten will instantly get up
from the carpet, brush the dust from
the knees Of their trouSers-for dust will
get on the carpets of the best-regulated
homes-and Immediately begin to apollo
gize. / have often wondered why men
resent being caught in this way. But a
woman feels differently, and it is
blessed thing that she does.
[ must confess that | like to see
woman dress a doll, and the older the
woman the better like to see her. There
is something extremely fascinating
about it to me. / can watch her by the
hour as she straightens out the miniature
petticoats, fits on the lilliputian stock
ings, or tucks on the wonderful little
bow at the throat which always makes
Il doll look SO fetching to me, and with
out which | can never imagine the dress
of a really Well-bred doll to be COM
plete. All this makes a woman feel
young again, and why should it not? The
good Lord knows we have enough in this
world to make us grow old; why not
have few things to make us feel young?
And nothing brings this feeling with
such perfection as the full and keen
enjoyment of Christmas and its toys.
Some of us have not children for whom
we can buy. toys or dress dolls But
even then there is always some child
whom we can make happy at Christmas.
tide, and the very fact that she is be-
slowing happiness makes a woman feel
young. For Christmas makes us hap
by and young just IN proportion as we
enjoy it with others and make them
happy. A selfish happiness, an enjoy
ment of our pleasures alone is no happi-
The real delight of Christmas, that de-
light which brings the color to the cheek
and the sparkle to the eye, and the feel
ing of Joy to the heart, which nothing
else in the world can bring, is the delight
of sharing the happiness of the day with
person feel as happy as we do ourselves.
it is in this that the real essence of
Christmas happiness lies.
A Christmas full of joy and glee, which
will make us feel like children, is only
possible where envy, malice and hard
feelings are IOfSOLIeu, anu NHeIe we
merge our own happiness into that of
others Then it is that we grow young
again Why should we be ashamed 10
be like boys and girls again for . day?
What means more than the glad haDpi-
ness of youth? We are happier this year
rs nation; let us be happieT as indi-
viduals, forgetting the world and its
worries for q day and being once more
as we were years and years ago. The
children who see us will be the happier
for it, while we will feel the younger
because of it. And the feeling of youth
will not harm us if it lasts Tor some days
after Christmas. So to my readers this
year I Go not say, after the usual trite
fashion: May you have a merry Christ
mas, but say: May you have. young
Christmas day when you may forget
that you are 40, so or 60, and feel that
you. are once more back to boyhood days
and girlhood years. Once such a Christ
mas comes to you it will be the happiest
of all your life. And that is the sort Of
Christmas | wish for each and every
one Of my readers this year-the happiest
in merriment. the youngest in feeling
Edward w. Box in Ladies Home Jour
nal.