The Washington herald., 1913-12-05
RESTFULNESS MAKES
CHRISTMAS MERRY
Expeditions Preparations for Holiday
viii Give Festival Needed Fresh
ness and Brightness.
by FRANCES sHAFFER.

From Thanksgiving to Christmas!-
does It seem any more than a breath
or so, as time moves swiftly along? But
very full breath it will be and a very
busy period. Because, in spite Of all
the warnings to the contrary, the ma
jority OF folk do not give long thoughts
to the coming holiday season until they
have taken a few days, or more, to rest
from the Thanksgiving excitement.
And, by the way, are the entreaties
for early shopping and the express
and government pleas for early package
sending sinking deep down, as they
ought to do? Once Thanksgiving is
over, time has a way Of seeming to put
on its speediest wings, quite likely be-
cause we have triied so much with the
days that have gone before that there
are not hours enough left for the Christ
mas things crying for attention.
When we were little tots thinking and
hoping ahead from one glad holiday to
the next, it seemed as IL the days went
by on leaden wings, or rather, on no
wings at all, and as IL there were no
such thing as the haste Of time. But
the many, many holidays that have
come and gone since. then have hurried
by so fast that long ago We began TO
deplore the speed with which the days
jumped away and the years bore down
upon them.
From weekend to week-end-why Il
seems no more than a day. And as they
slip BY each a little more hurried than
the last. they seem to sing. over and
over again, the words OF the old Persian
philosopher:
The bird Of time has but little way
To hutter-and the bird is on the wing.
All Of which means in part at least,
that We must be up and doing il We are
to experience the luxury OF a restful
as well as a right merry Christmas
And, of course. we has come to mean
not the world OF anxious shoppers alone,
but the big army OF men and women,
boys and girls, who serve very tiredly
at Christmas time.
These things are repeated so often
that they become rather wearisOme, but
so long as the crowds rush about until
the last shop-curtain is drawn Christ
mas Eve. the warnings will be uttered.
Because there is a big chorus made up of
the shop-keepers, the attendants, the
folk who carry our bundles all over the
world. the consumers league and a few
beside whose voices will not be stilled
until the warnings are needed.
In passing. there is so much talk re-
garding the lost Christmas spirit and so
much more concerning the wear and tear
OF the holiday season, the drain upon
purses and the tug upon human energy,
that one wonders II the burden of blame
for the excess of il all largely rest upon
women.
II left to themselves, one fancies that
the masculine end Of families-the grown
ups, at least-wOuld be rather more CharyI
Of the expenditure of spirits and perhaps
rather more cautious in the outlay of
dollars. For. in most homes, happy as
the day may be from beginning to end.
II really is overburdensome sometimes
just to make ready and meet every de-
mand. And as to the one who is called
upon to pay the money-toll for the multi
tude OF gifts that reach here and there
well there's many an anxious pater-
familias days and days after Christmas.
And one would say to the women with
the longest of lists and the heaviest
frowns of bewilderment-step rather
softly and ease up just a bit. Because
there are gifts that pass back and FORTH
year after year, that have not a particle
of fragrance about them. to the giver or
the one who accepts. They take away
from the pleasures Of the season and
they offer no real recompense.
Strangely. the tiredest women, the
women with most to say about the
strain Of rushing about and all the end
less details are not the ones who slip in
a few busy evenings to dress dolls for
little folk to whom dolls are unknown, a
few dollars to buy toys for the toyless
and a few more to spread cheer to the
cherries. Rather they are the ones who
year after year pile up their "obliga-
tions" and forget the giving that richly
repays.
And they would be happier once they
learned how to balance the expenditure
OF money and spirits
Apropos of making haste, one reads
that toward the closing days of Novem-
Der the Santa Claus Girl had 1000 OIL
her 5000 toys all purchased and ready to
be mailed TO little strangers in the by
ways-SOO trains for boys and 500 dolls for
girls.
And early in December the wrapping
committee win complete its work. Tired? Il
To be sure, they will be tired when theI
packages are all ready to be bundled in |
automobiles and carried away to the
mails, but one scarcely believes they will
be heard to complain that the Christmas |
spirit Is fading away.