Evening star., 1922-12-10
VIENNA CHRISTMAS
PLANS PROGRESS
This Years Celebration to
Stress Idea of Giving as
Well as Receiving.
special Correspondent of The Star.

VIENNA, December 9.-There are
bright spots in the story of Christ
mas preparations ~ red Vienna. BY
one means or another something
thoroughly "Christmassy" will find
it's way into the shabby stockings of
thousands of little war children. All
the little children of Vienna are war
children; their faces tell you wltn-
out remembering that 1914 was eight
years ago. Only those now grown
beyond the age in which Christmas
is the finest. most exciting day of the
wear remember how Kris krinsle
came before the war: for many OF the
others. who have never seen penny.
who can sing the international but
know not "a word of the old Austrian
anthem. who relate milk not to cows
but to Ouakcrs and municipal oln-
cia s-for many of these strahge
urrhins of IA strange world Christ
mas, ls22, will be better than before.
Plan Christmas Trees.
Churches and charitable institu-
tionS have arranged Christmas tree
celebrations, where tiny PACKAGES OF
candy. dolls. economically improvlsed
given to the children. The skilled
workers, whose wages, thanks 10 the
stubborn policy of their unions. have
kent pace with cost of living. viii
manage to make the day Pheasant.
er one than others for their KINDER.
The middle class the men and women
of fixed incomes. will find the day
almost as difficult as will the poorer
workers and the growing army OF
unemployed, except that many OF the
middle class still have damask table,
cloths. silver candlestickS or furS to
pawn.
For the grown-ups generally, al
WAYS excepting the Inillionaires and
the handful of foreigners. II must be
a drab Christmas. with thoughts OF
the bitter winter just begun. coal
piled high at the railroad stations,
hut in price out of reach of the ma
jority. and thought of that proble-
matical foreign credit
Groups to Give to Groups.
DR.. Max Winter, former mayor OF
Vienna and now head of the Chill
dren's Friends" organizations. is the
originator. In the past, he says. and
particularly since Vienna Joined the
International bread line. the children
of the poor have been made to feel
Christmas. They have been used,
says DIR. Winter. to touch the hearts
of egotistical grown-ups. They re-
ceived only aL.d We're made to feel
that they gave and could give moth
in- Things should be arranged so
that they could give. too, lest the
spirit of the day be lost. Moreover.
the parents should be enabled to give.
These are the outlines of the new
democratized Christmas: Each of the
many children's groups organized by
the "Children's Friends" will have a
Christmas tree. One group will CO.
operate to buy presents for other
groups. Presents will be given and
received by the group in common.
BY this method it will be possible to
put under the trees of these poor
youngsters presents of value truly
unhead of splendor-a bobsled. for
instance; box of tools. modern
building blocks. electrical accessories,
the universal express wagon" and,
as DR.. Winter says, "books, books,
books"
Personal Presents Allowed.
Little personal presents will be
given and accepted. too. DR.. VIM
ter's progrfam makes what conces-
sionS that are economically possible
to individualism.
Even if Santa Claus yawns or in
dignantly exclaims over these plans
to use Christmas for the intoxicating
of lessons in equality and co-opera-
tion, the kids. who won't have to
speak any pieces or say 'thank-yous"
to grand strangers, will doubtless
vote it fun and dance around their
Christmas trees almost as merrily as
will the youngsters in America,
where there are still pennies and
oranges and striped candy canes.
Copyright, 1921