Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-12-24
CHRISTMAS GIFTS.
PSeAent Your. Friend L. with Some T0k-
On OF Your Love, However,
Small 1t May Be.

Once more the happy season OF the
year is at hand, when we begin to
prepare gifts Of love for Christmas.
1t is indeed a pleasing indication Of
the rapid spread of feelings of kind
ness and good will throughout the
world that the preparation of beauti-
full articles for Christmas gifts affects
the industries of all civilized nations.
The choice of articles for Christmas
gifts is a perpleNing pleasure. .Ac-
cording to Emerson, articles of beauty
rather than of use are appropriate for
gifts. In giving we have to avoid, on
the one hand, the imposing of a sense
Of obligation, and, on the other, of
making the discharge of o just obliga-
ton the occasion for assuming to our
selves the role of benefactor. The
donation party given at Christmas to
the faithful pastor whose past due
salary is unpaid is only an unfair
method of making him appear the
recipient of a favor, while his just
claims are disregarded. Nor can we
refrain from suggesting to the hus-
band and father: Do not make a
| Christmas gift to your wife of a new
carpet or a pair of shoes or a cooking
stove, for she needs and has a right to
these things anyway. Your little boy
needs a new schoolbook for the next
session of school, but he would prob
ably experience a sense of wrong
| which it would be difficult for him
to explain if he should find it in his
| stocking on Christmas morning. And
we may suggest as al idea wholly for
| eign to Emerson that if the husband
| and father has from negligence or
p~enuriousness failed to provide his
wife with a good supply of dry, we'll
cut wood or fuel for the kitchen stove,
or the needed quantity of winter fan
nels, it would be equally inappropri-
ate for him to present her with a pair
Of big pink glass flower vases or some
| similar article. the price of which
might have added vastly to her COM
fort had the money been placed for
spending in her own hands.
Gifts for children depend but lit
tie on their value for the pleasure
they shall give. A houseful Of chill
dren can be made entirely happy by a
quarters worth of mixed candy placed
in their stockings, each piece of candy
being wrapped in a separate paper,
thus multiplying the number of gifts.
1t is very important, however, that
the gifts be put in their stockings.
| The sweet illusion adds a priceless
value to the ~veriest trifes.
And so we feel like saying to our
| selves and to our readers: Let us
prepare for a merry, happy Christ
mas; let us forget for a little while
all the environments of ii lives that
are sad and depressing; let us think
of the treasures We possess that man
did not make and cannot mar" let
| us give tokens of love to our friends,
though it should be only u geranium
leaf or a rosy checked apple. Let us
celebrate Christmas. The yoke loos-
ened and laid aside for a little will
give rest and strength to the shoulders;
| the affections of the heart called into
play and INDUCED wiz give strength
TO our soul; and both will fit us for
!. better performance Of the duties
and work appointed for us in the CON-
ing New Year.-Chicago Interior.