The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-12-20
WHY NOT HAVE
 A DECORATIVE
 CHRISTMASTIDE

Decorating the home has become almost as important part of the Christmas celebration as decorating the table, and making the Christ mas table attractive is essential las having the turkey properly sea- |soned and the plum pudding piping hot. Certainly, the traditional use of holly and mistletoe is as accep- table as ever; but many new and unusual treatment have been de- veloped for those who crave some thing a little different, a little gay and festive.
 Of course, the Christmas tree itself belongs to the children and should be decorated to suit them with all the gay little ornaments 50 dear to their hearts. During re- cent years, many people have used only one color on the tree. such as blue or silver A red, white and blue scheme might be tried, with one layer of blue glass balls, one of red and one of white or silver-and so on, up the tree. An added bit of joy might be provided by appliquing @ two dimensional Santa Claus on q sheet, which would be suspended on
 nical skill on the execution will make
 this feature even more amusing
 In many homes, the tree is placed
 in nursery or upstairs sitting rooms
 and for these, a tree of different type might be used than for the | living room decoration. Flat trees, made of such materials as plywood, sheet metals or folded cellophane.
 might be placed on the mantel shelf
 )r against bare wall space; while cal trees in miniature sizes are attractive on either side of the fire place or at the entrance door to the room. The artificial trees could be in any color to match some dec orative note of the room and might tassels, ropes of tinsel or painted pine cones, as well as the more usual out always lovely glass balls. An airy fairy type of tree might be constructed by pasting feathers or a cardboard tree; while nothing could be lovelier than tiny ever green, hung with flowers, particu- larly some flowers of white
 The decorative touches for the room itself may be either as simple
 or elaborate as is desired. A huge bowl of the ever present glass 1 Christmas tree ornaments may be placed on the piano; while a mass
 of fruits and sweetmeats, surround ed by sprigs of holly would be effective on the mantelpiece. Very inexpensive white lamp shades
 can be decorated with printed de-
 signs of Santa and his reindeer ior hung with sprays of real leaves and poinsettias. Another idea is
 to place the candles in the wall brackets and have the entire room beautifully candle-lit.
 More pretentious schemes provide for the decoration of the walls themselves. Swags of leaves may be suspended from the picture moulding, draped up at intervals with glass balls, mistletoe or poin- settias, the leaves being green on white walls and silver, gold or white against various colored back grounds. If preferred, the reverse scheme, with swags of colored balls caught up with sprigs of hol- ly or pine cones might be developed. Windows too, may be given a fes- tive air by swags of red or green cords or ribbons, entwined with painted berries; or if the drapes do not permit of extra decoration. wreaths made of the glass orna- ments, silver leaves or tinsel and poinsettias combined, may be hung from the tassel or cords.
 The center of interest in the din ing room is the table and host of new ideas are available in pre- pairing for the Christmas feast. For the children's table, tiny Christ mas tree might be hung with strings of popcorn or cakes baked in interesting designed. Tiny gifts. placed around the table, might be attached to the tree with red and green ribbons. For the elders. the basis of the scheme might be a tablecloth or tarleton or doilies of oilcloth, decorated with figures painted on or cut from gift paper. Painted cones could be used for place cards or candle holders and the centerpiece might be bowl or glass ball or a cornucopia of fruits, surrounded by poinsettias, holly leaves or gilded nuts and berries.
 Very little expense, combined with
 ingenuity and thought in handling
 the decorative scheme will add im-
 measurably to the festive spirit
 and the joy of Christmas day. -