The daily sentinel., 1913-12-24
| Ona~
(By Adeline ii. Sperry.)
Christmas Cheer.

nope DeloTe next christmas some
one will have invented a Christmas
sticker that will STICK. And while
they are about it | hope they will
have the forethought and ingenuity
to put in a more tasty flavoring, rose
extract or vanilla, or something of
that sort. The stickers they make
now taste like a cold storage egg
which has escaped the eagle eye of
the pure food law. After | have put
up a couple dozen Christmassy look
ing packages my tongue tastes like
the cork in mucflage bottle and
my appetite for turkey has gone and
is slow to return. Christmas is n
queer, the lovely. sort of time. any
way. Every year / am rushed to
death to get ready for the merry
Yule-tide. About the card of De-
cember, in a fever of hectic haste,
commence sewing strips of scrim and
cretone into eccentric looking bags
and table runners and send them to
people who have no earthly use for
such things, and then, when it is
everlastingly too late think of some
perfectly lovely and useful things /
might have made in half the time
and which would have delighted the
recipient beyond measure" The
day after Christmas when / go wear
lily around and pick up the crumpled
tissue paper, ribbon and tinsel cord
and put them carefully away to use
next Christmas time (and never find
them for two weeks afterward) then
it is that l decide ii is all a stupid
farce the way We go at 1t and
make a solemn vow to my pale and
haggard soul that we will go about
1t very differently next time. When
In July and August | see women sit
ting around leisurely embroidering
and hemstitching Christmas presents
look at them with a sort of COM
passionate envy and keep on fooling
my precious time away making dress
es for the nine-year-old, making over
the nine-year-old dresses for the four
-year-old, darning heels for the ten
year-old, sewing on buttons for Him
self, and trying to plan cool and
sumptious meals out of half a can
of peas, six stalks of celery, four po-
tatoes and a bunch of rhubarb. OF
course these women who take their
time about. getting ready have their
packages wrapped in last years pa
per (Which they had carefully iron
ed out and put away in certain
drawer and indeXed said drawer in
their housekeeping books have the
names on the Merry Xmas" labels.
and everything in readiness by the
early days of November Some way
simply cannot get enthused about
Christmas until about the first week
in December and then / get in ter
rible way, make out list of the un-
fortunate loved ones and put next
each ones beloved name the perfect
ly beautiful article | expect to buy
for them; hastily seek the Shopping
district" and buy with feverish in
tensity as long as my money lasts
which isn't long enough to draw a
crowd or attract any particular at
tention to my prodigal display of
cash. l hurry home with my spoils,
happily consult my list and find that
| have not bought one single thing ]
had written down, nor one thing
that Will suit person on the list,
then | get out my piece bag and get
to work. Merry Christmas" in
deed Weary Christmas suits my
mood better. ! love to give but | do
want to give intelligently and sanely
and | find it cannot be done in fif-
teen minutes, nor with fifteen cents.
am going to start in this year as
soon as spring cleaning is done to
make my gifts for next Christmas
and try and win back the friends |
have probably lost this year.