The Coolidge examiner., 1931-12-18

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cause Of the paper on which they are printed.
There are a great many stocks with shiny sur
faces, black gold or silver; bright candy stripes
dash gayly across others, and one very popular
paper is rough-surfaced and almost spOngy in
texture and brings out any printed design Of
lettering in clear-cut outline that is most effec-
tive.
Time was when Christmas dinner was many
weeks in the making and many hours in the
serving, but that was in the days before the
grocer around the corner was brought even
nearer by the telephone and quick delivery serv-
ice, and every nearby restaurant offered a menu
rvaling mothers own. Today Christmas
dinner may be procured in cans, and fortunate
ly So Imagine a modern woman in her neat
white enamel and shiny chromium plate kitchen
cite mixing together this recipe for "shred pie"
old English Christmas favorte: 1.-TWO bushels
of flour, 20 pounds of butter, geese . turkeys.
rabbits, wild ducks, woodcocks snipe
partridges, meats tongues, 3 curlews 7 black
birds, 6 pigeans" Or even let her undertake
the days cooking with which little Sally Fair
fax Of Virginia writing in her diary in 1771,
credits her mother: -. q. Mamma made six mince
pies, and seven custards, twelve tarts, one chick
ing pie and four puddings .w
When Christmas feastng was in its heydey
scarcely a self-respecting menu but included
"Beefe, mutton and porke,
Shred pies of the best
Pig, veale. goose and capon,
And turkie well drest"
There was also the famous boar's head lemon
in mouth and ears wreathed around with rose
mary; the peacock, roasted, sewn back into it's
own skin with every lovely feather in place;
generously garnshed and carried in on a golden
pIa with of
ison, plum porridge, frumenty and the steam
ing hot wassail drink The shred pie, unlike it's
modern descendant the mince pie, was baked
in long dish, shaped like the cradle or manger
of Bethlehem. However this lavish outlay of
food may, in the reading, make the mouth wa
ter there was probably in the tasting another
side to the story. Imagine the fastidious and
vitamine-cOnscious gOurmand of today seated
in some huge smoky baronial hall before
dinner served up by a nOndescript retinue Of
servants from mysterious dark cellars and smelly
kitchens and consisting of :" thirty-pound
buttered eggs, pies of carp's tongues, pheasants
drenched with ambergris, and a single peacock
covered with sauce made from gravy of the
bruised carcasses of three fat wethers!"
Nevertheless it is to this old-time cookery
that owe many of favorite Christmas
dishes, and at no other time of year does the
modern kitchen show such furry of old-fash-
ioned activity as now. The Christmas turkey is
of course Americas contribution to the feast;
and is found on almost every American table
Time was when one of the most important
duties of the last few days before Christmas
was to cut, bring into the house. and set up the
Christmas tree which had been marked out from
its sisters in the old back woodot months ago
for this very purpose, and tenderly watched over
ever since. Onto its fresh, fragrant branches
went homemade tapers, fancy paper cut-outs
strings of popcorn prepared with much ado by
the children themselves.
Its glowing lights, its shining tinsel strings
its sparkling colored balls, represent the age
old love man has felt for warmth and light.
for the sheltered companionship of the open
hearth for the life giving rays of the sum- In
them the Christmas tree carries on the purpose
of the old heather festival to which our mod
celebration in some ways corresponds ex-
pressing their JOY at the return of the winter
solstice, when the sun once more became friend
ly to men, when days commenced to lengthen
and spring was not so far away. Our modern
Christmas tree decorations are thus in one sense
merely modern symbols of the sun, descendants
of the burning barrel and the flaming torch with
which the ancients used to worship it Martin
Luther uade the first Christian use of the tree
when he set up in his home in Germany for
his children, little fir tree, and hung it
with Candles like the stars, he explained to
them, which lighted the night of the Nativity
The fir tree is still regarded as the Christ
mas tree par excellence particularly in the
northeastern and lake states, because of it's
long, spreading and springy branches and it's
deep green and fragrant foliage which stays
fresh longer than that Of almost any other type
In the western states fir, while abundant it
is harder to reach and cut, and its place is
largely taken by lodgepole pine and spruce
while on the Pacific coast white fir is most
popular.
70 by Western Newspaper Union.I