Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-04-15
The Victims of Christmas.

Given good custom, prevailing with
moderation in every other country, and
the eager American temperament may
safely be trusted to take 1t up and carry
1t to perilous extreme, says a writer in
Harper's Bazaar. Our very virtues lead in
that direction; the very conscientiousness
of the Puritan Inheritance, it's pupctilious-
ness in discharging to the uttermost
whatever presents itself is a duty. Nay,
this is case where new duties are
created; when the list of home presents is
fairly made out, and the total duly under
taken, then there are the cousins next
door to be provided for, and other cousins
next to all other doors; and there are the
prosperous friends who have given us
presents, and the unprosperous ones who
were unable to give us any and the
stranger within our gates, and-endless
computation-all the other strangers who
dwell outside of them-all are to be re-
membered. The children of the nearest
orphanage are to be provided with
Christmas tree, even though 1t be sand
WICKED in with difficulty between another
tree which they are to attend at their
church and another prepared expressly
for them at a neighboring hall. The rich
must give presents because they are rich,
and the poor must make up in ingenuity
what they want in wealth. Then, after
all the gifts are bought and sent home,
they must be refolded and repacked, and
tied and ribboned, and addressed and for
warded, without a mistake in Just the
right succession of time, according as the
gift is to be dispatched to Main street or
to Alaska; and all this up to the latest
moment of Christmas eve. And then when
the work is done, and the tree garnished
and stripped, If tree there be-then, as
weary nature at last seeks repose, begins
the new toll of sending letters of thanks
for ones own presents, ten, twenty or
hundred; and before these are all dis
patched there arrive the inevitable head
ache, and the languor, and that sudden
Hash of neuralgia pain in the back of the
neck swift as the saber OF Saladin, which
says to the most needless, Thus far and
no farther"
Why should we do it all? No other
nation does it. The German Christmas
tree is loaded with all sorts of gifts, no
matter how simple. for every one within
the house; but 70 German undertakes to
maze the distribution of presents in
clude all his acquaintance outside. For
these he has printed or engraved greet
ing which costs little trouble to distribute
and which answers, like Ophelia's rose
mary, for remembrance. The whole
fashion of Christmas cards in England
had the same origin; and even this, when
transplanted among ourselves, was soon
carried to excess and became itself a
burden. But it was better than the habit
of profuse and exaggerated value-exag
gerated in quantity if not in value-on
which we have fallen back, in its decline.
1t is a common thing to encounter at
Christmas time women of moderate in
come who have personally put up and
distributed sixty seventy or a hundred
presents. For this is a duty which, like
all others. falls most severely on the
ENTHUSIASTICALLY women-who not
merely bear one another's burdens, but
choose and distribute and pack one
another's gifts The presents bear va
rious names of givers, but it is upon the
mother or the sister or the maiden aunt
that the whole responsibility comes.