Evening star., 1942-12-12
Fun for the Family
Offered in Making
Of Christmas Gifts
Homemade Toys, Games
Inspire Originality and
Bring Thrills to Many

Christmas fun may be spread out
over several weeks. The whole fam.
lily may join in preparations fol
Christmas and the enjoyment of the
holiday season as they did wher
grandma was girl.
We are not spending money fol
unnecessary things this year
though each one of us intends tc
make Christmas better than ever.
This personal effort will 60 into
making gifts for friends and family
as well as preparing the food and
decorations for all the holiday enter
taihing.
We will make more of an effort to
see our friends and remember them
With gifts now that transportation
Is so difficult. We will get out the
games and ask the neighbor's chill
dren in, and plan to make the holi-
days last from a week before
Christmas until after New Year.
Let's Make Gifts.
First of all, let's make gifts. The
recreation room or one room in the
house that is not in constant use
may be set aside for the workroom
Set up the card table or cover the
ping-pong table with newspaper to
make a work area. Assemble here
all the tools and materials for gift
making. AS they are made, wrap
them and tag them and pile them in
a corner to inspire you to the next
effort
Rubber balls are few and far be-
tween-so let's make bean bags to
give to the youngsters. Cut out in
the form of animals or flowers out
of materials from the scrap bag,
they may be embroidered or painted
by the young fry, stitched up by
mother on the sewing machine and
finished and filled by the children
Small stuffed animals may be turned
out in the same way.
Be sure the seams are securely
sewed on the sewing machine. Then
the children may stuff them with
cotton, sew buttons on for eyes, and
make ears, tails and names of bright
fringed felt. Children have adored
the stuffed animals in the shops for
years. The more personal ones that
are inspired at home by various
members of the family vying for
originality will be more popular.
Doubly Valuable.
Father may get out his hammer
and saw and make toy boxes, trays,
window boxes, doll houses and nu-
merous other gifts which the rest
of the family may paint and deco
rate to finish. There are literally
hundreds of small useful household
furnishings that are welcome gifts.
The fact that they are different
from the ones usually seen in the
shops makes them doubly valuable.
The recreation room which was
originally completed to make a
play and work room for all the
family, now comes into its own. 1t
IS the center Of whirlWind of aC-
tivtiy which is both work and fun.
The new sugar rationing tickets
are available after the 18th of De-
cember. Just in time to contribute
to the cookie making which is such
q delightful part of Christmas. Of
course it will be necessary to delve
for recipes which use little sugar
There are many of these in old cook
books, and several new volumes are
published which list the favorite
recipes with corn sirup, honey,
brown sugar and molasses as sub
stitutes.
Wise Course for Mother.
It is a wise course for mother
to make the cookie and cake batter
so that there will be no waste of
materials The tedious work of
rolling and cutting cookies can be
done by the youngsters. The longer
it lasts the happier they are. Bor-
row the neighbors cookie sheets so
that as fast as one sheet comes out
of the oven another will be ready to
go in In this way no fuel will be
wasted.
1t is a long time since many of us
made bread Christmas buns were
a regular custom in the early days.
Crisp crescent rolls filled with cur
rants and citron, we're as welcome
as candy canes. Stars, Whorls and
even small figures were made of
dough, decorated with spices, can
dies and nuts to be just as fascinat-
ing as a gingerbread man.
Brown Sugar Sirup.
Many of these, baked in muffin
pans in a sirup of brown sugar are
delicious. Try the small decorated
ones, tied on your Christmas tree
for a gift to each little child who
comes in. Present pan of butter
scotch buns to your friends who
spend all day in an office See that
they get them on Christmas eve for
their Christmas morning breakfast.
Many of us feel that all we have
to give without reserve, this year, is
our own time, effort and personality.
There is much to be said for the
'superperfect' sort of Christmas
this makes. Many of us rely too
heavily on shop displays and our
dollars to buy" Christmas. which
very often falls short of our ex-
pectations.
Get busy on making Christmas
family affair this year. Rally all
the cleverness. originality and ability
of the whole family, from grandma
on down to baby sister Each one
can do things if the material and
suits in gifts will amaze you-and
the sum total of fun cannot be
measured.