Chapter 5 - Have a Christmas House

Decorate The Outside

Let your home, your door, your windows, call out the Christmas message. For family, for friends, for strangers passing by, you can set the joyous mood of the season days before the Day itself. It's always such a pleasant moment when we see the first lighted wreath, the first evergreen sparkling at night on a lawn. Christmas can begin at that hour for us, and extend all through the holidays.

You can decorate in such a way that you share your Christmas happiness. An outside tree, the rim of a porch, windows, gables, archways almost anything can be strung with colored lights, and nothing could be gayer. Greens and wreaths, decorated with pine cones and holly and red bows, are signs for all the world to see that you are ready to welcome the holidays and all those who come to your door to help celebrate them.

If you have a lamppost on your front lawn, what could be a more natural way for it to appear at Christmas time than as a giant candle? All you have to do is to surround the post from base to lamp with corrugated cardboard or chicken wire, then cover the tubelike enclosure with bright red or green foil or oilcloth. Or, if the weather is really rugged, you can cut a strip of red or green linoleum to the height needed to form the candle tube. Spray the top of the candle with gold glitter. The "flame," of course, will be the lamplight itself, softened by surrounding it with a cloud of angel hair,

A lamppost becomes a magnificent Christmas candle

When you are planning decorations for your lawn, or for the planting next to the house, don't forget your bird and squirrel friends. Offer them holiday hospitality by hanging, from a tree or shrub, bright tarlatan bags filled with suet, nuts or other tasty bits, Stitch up only one side of the bag, leaving the other side open for easy access. Or, if you buy the bags, make a long slit in one side.

Outdoors, a birds' Christmas tree

If you don't have a living tree, buy a small tree on a stand, shiny cornucopia cups, birdseed, and chunks of suet. The children will love to string necklaces of raisins, cranberries, and popcorn. Hang the garlands on the tree as you would tinsel, and tie the cups of birdseed and suet on with red and green ribbons. The nicest kind of bird-tree is just outside a window, where everyone can watch the birds come and go.

Giant holly leaves climb a porch column

Even your garage door can be decked out in Christmas finery. Decorate it with a wreath, a few sprays of evergreen tied with bright bows, colored aluminum cutouts, or any other adornment that seems appropriate and durable. If Junior keeps his tools and bike in the garage, he might claim this project for himself.

Massive porch columns can be handsomely covered with large, bold motifs. Here's an idea that you can try when you decorate yours: Cut oversized holly leaves from green aluminum foil and arrange them in clusters, attaching red Christmas balls for berries. Then string the clusters of leaves on a wire and wind them round and round the porch column, in a climbing vine fashion.

Don't forget your window box at Christmas time. It can be decorated in many different ways inexpensively and easily and will add its own bit of festivity to your house. One very striking and effective box arrangement is made with evergreen boughs, or just twigs and branches, sprayed white or gold, and set off by a few stately, red candles. The candles are cardboard tubes (the kind that serve as the roll for wax paper or aluminum foil) covered with red foil; the "flame" is angel hair stuffed into the top of the tube. Incidentally, boughs or branches sprayed white or gold can be arranged in an attractive sheaf, trimmed with ornaments, and tied with a red or green oilcloth ribbon to make an eye-catching decoration that's sturdy enough to withstand the stormiest elements.

Fill your window box with Christmas

For the door itself, try your hand at an asymmetrical arrangement to distinguish your entrance from that of every other house in the block. Mass greens, balls, and stars at one corner, letting the composition trail down one side and across the top of the entryway.

A door arrangement that is different

Large gold bells on your door will ring out Christmas cheer to all who ring your doorbell. You can buy them, or make them of papier-mâché (see instructions on page 94). If you buy your bells, weatherproof them by crushing gold aluminum foil around them. Papier-mâché bells can be painted gold, or likewise covered with gold aluminum. Use a bright-colored ornament for the clapper. Then make a bow of bright red oilcloth (an excellent material for outdoor decorations exposed to winter weather) and attach with the bells and a spray of pine to your door.

Gold bells on your door signal a gay welcome

Red tape creates a striking effect on this paneled door

Another durable door motif is a star full of greens and Christmas balls. It's easy to fashion by cutting a section of mesh chicken wire in a star shape, filling it with greens and ornaments, and trimming it with tinsel, gold glitter, or artificial snow.

A star of greens and glitter

A plain paneled door can be strikingly decorated, and all it takes is a pair of scissors and brightly colored gummed tape. Outline each panel of the door in tape and also accent the handle. Then add just a small wreath or spray of greenery not too much, for the beauty of this door lies in its simplicity.

Vary the shape of traditional door decorations this year. For example, instead of hanging evergreens in the usual round wreath or vertical cluster, try a crescent shape. One that almost completely covers your door will be particularly impressive. Wire evergreen boughs together and bend the wire into a large curve. Then place multi-colored clusters of Christmas balls at intervals along the crescent.

A picture window becomes old-fashioned and colonial

Decorate a Christmas tree of felt

Hang huge artificial poinsettias on copper wires from the top of your windows on the inside, between the panes and your curtains.

Here's a handy tip for hanging holiday decorations on metal or glass-door panels, or even on wooden doors and walls, when you don't want to damage the surface with nails: use paste-up type picture hangers. These can be found in hardware stores and can be fastened to any surface by moistening the back. They can be completely removed by carefully scraping with a razor blade and soaking with water.
 
If your front door is sheltered from the weather, a delightful idea is a felt tree, decorated with all the imagination your family can muster. With pinking shears, cut two pieces of felt 14 x 20 inches into a tree shape. Paste cardboard to back of one piece, leaving a margin all around for stitching. Then stitch together bottoms and sides of the two trees, but leave an opening of 5 inches on both sides to hold a few evergreen boughs. About an inch in from the edges, fasten an inside border of gummed ribbon, heavy gold twine, or contrasting rickrack. Trim tree with small Christmas balls, all the same size, arranged in symmetrical pattern.

Artificial poinsettias hung on wire

Just for the holidays, turn your modern picture window into an old-fashioned colonial window by subdividing it into small, equal-sized squares with strips of gummed tape attached horizontally and vertically on the pane. To decorate the window, cut out small ornaments of various shapes and motifs from bright construction paper, or cut ready-made patterns from old Christmas cards. Make this a family project, with each member contributing a few paper ornaments. Then hang pretty ornaments on strings in every other square of the window, securing ends of strings under tape.

A strip of felt, hung with bells

A crescent wreath, for variety 

And All Through The House

Once inside, your family and friends can smell and see and hear the essence of Christmas. Fill the house with it; have a little of the holiday in every room.

Hang fragrant pomander balls in a foyer or hallway to lend a delicious, spicy aroma to your house, and when festivities are over and your guests leave, give one to each guest to take home and hang in a linen or clothes closet.
To make the pomander balls, wrap firm, perfect oranges with narrow cotton tape, forming four equal sections. Then stick whole cloves closely together until the entire exposed surface is covered. Sprinkle with orris root and let stand a few days. Shake off surplus powder and replace the tape on each ball with red or green ribbon. Have enough ribbon so that the pomander balls will hang in a long, graceful cluster. Tie the ribbons together and top with a big red or green bow and a spray of greens.

Silk upholsterer's rope in green and white adds a sophisticated note to a colonial mantel decoration of greens, plastic foam stars, white wax roses, and a cherub, or some other pretty object with a seasonal motif. You may have a plaster-of-Paris angel, or a garland of bells, or a figurine or piece of statuary that would look equally attractive in this slightly formal and elegant setting.

Pomander balls are fragrant decorations

Silk upholsterers rope adds a bright note

A handsome poinsettia arrangement for the mantel will last throughout the holidays if made of foil. The flowers are made of 5 inch circles, wrinkled, smoothed out, and then sprayed red (A).

Fold smoothed-out circles into halves (B), then into quarters (C), then into eighths. Cut the two corners off the folded circle so that you have a rounded diamond shape before unfolding. Be sure to leave the narrow point uncut (D). Unfold, and you have a poinsettia bloom of eight sharp-pointed petals. Glue tiny yellow beads to the center.

Make your own poinsettias from foil

Cut wire into stem lengths.  Form a little circle on one end and glue a circle to the back of each poinsettia.

Cut out foil leaves; crinkle, smooth out, and spray green. When dry, add straight wire for stems. Arrange flowers and leaves against a background of pine.

Stately candles in a cloud of stars

Wire is also the mainstay of another decoration that will add charm to a mantle, table, or the top of the television set. Set two tall candles into a Styrofoam block. Attach gummed gold stars, back to back, at random along lengths of fine flexible wire. Next, wind the wire loosely around the candles, until you have the effect of a floating cloud of stars.

To lend an old-time touch to a mantel arrangement centered with polished red apples, greenery, and pine cones, set on each side a miniature fire-engine red lantern. (This kind of lantern burns kerosene and is even helpful to have on hand in emergencies.) Use extreme caution, always, in using actual flame; be sure that no part of the lanterns touches the greenery, and never leave the lanterns burning when you are not in the room.

Lanterns, used with caution, add to a mantelpiece

If you have a large mirror, try a striking symbol of a tree made of brilliant ribbon streamers. Start with the outside triangle, using gummed ribbon or transparent tape, sticky on both sides, under regular ribbon. Inside the triangle, add parallel diagonal strips, first in one direction and then in the other, so that the strips crisscross. For the base use three short horizontal strips. Fasten small Christmas ornaments, all the same size, at points where the ribbons cross.

Milk cartons in the kitchen, naturally; but such milk cartons! These cute and chunky trees will make a cheerful lineup on the window sill above the sink or on the kitchen table. There's no end to the basic material, and the trees are durable and easy to make.

Directions: Cut the top from a carton, wash out and dry. Cut down the carton at the four corners; cut each panel into a triangle which slopes to a point at the top. Bring the four points together and tape them, making a steeple shape. (Before the final side is taped in, add a bunch of shredded crepe paper or confetti streamers, to spray out of the tip of the tree.) Cover the tree next, with gummed crepe paper, and add whatever trimmings you have at hand. Round seals could march up the panels; you'll get a rakish effect if you glue the panels and sprinkle confetti over them. For a neat and crisp pattern, stick gummed tape in horizontal strips all around the tree. Outline the edges of the tree with tinsel, or cover the tree with leftover scraps of your prettiest gift paper; stick a small ornament at the top.

When you have finished your tree, glue it to a large painted spool, for a tree trunk.

Spangled chains to brighten an inner doorway are easy even for very little children. Make loops of colored tapes. Add strips of cellophane tape, sticky side out, and sprinkle them with sequins or glitter.

A simple wreath is always impressive. Sprayed white or silver, with white candles flanking it on a mantel, it is extremely effective.
A graceful open stairway becomes a holiday aisle with little trees in pots on each step.

A simple wreath is always effective

Watch your window, in any room, come alive with color by creating a stained glass effect; a star design lends itself well to this technique. Tape onto the windowpane eight triangles of brilliant cellophane, in a pinwheel design. The long side of the triangle is the spoke of the wheel, and all triangles should face in the same direction. With transparent gift tape, outline each triangle in a contrasting color, and make on the pane an identical triangle, facing the colored triangle. This will make eight diamond-or kite-shaped segments of your sun-catching star.

Tiny Christmas trees for the steps, A stained glass window with cellophane

A beribboned window box or rattan basket wears a new holiday look when filled with pine boughs and cones and garnished with clusters of gold-foil stars attached to flexible wire.

For the kitchen, milk-carton trees

Gold foil stars have a holiday look

Bells of cranberries

Candles represent Christmas; the more of them the better. Let them be the entire motif for your mantle, a chest or sideboard, or the tops of bookcases. Use many of different sizes, each size and color bound together with ribbon, and arranged among greens and bright ornaments. Or, make candle groupings that resemble huge peppermint sticks; start with two of the thickest, largest, red candles you can find. Set each into a separate blob of clay, and surround each with narrow white tapers, arranged with a narrow space between each taper and placed an inch or so out from the red candle. Light the inner candle first, and as it burns, the tapers, still unlit, will cast pretty shadows.

Candle groupings give the feeling of Christmas

Windows can be dressed up by the children by stringing cranberries on wires, which can be bent to form bells. Suspend a small cranberry bell inside a larger one by looping a thread through the small bell and tying the ends to the larger one. Tie a gold, or green, Christmas ball to bottom of outside bell and a bright contrasting bow to the top. Then hang the decoration from the window moldings.

A novel mesh balloon hung from the ceiling or in a doorway will be the center of attraction during the holidays. Your amazed friends will want to know how the ornaments got inside the starched string. It's simple, really; all you need is a balloon, some brightly colored yarn or string, and a bottle of liquid starch.

Directions: 1. Inflate the balloon and tie the neck. Starting from the stem, wind the yarn or string at random around and around the balloon until you've covered it with a mesh. This is for testing the length of string you'll need; unwind it now, having left enough extra to be sure, and put it aside.

String, starch, and a balloon are the basic ingredients here

2. Put some small ornaments in a paper cup and glue the cup, bottom side up, to the neck of the balloon. Set aside to dry.

3. When the glue has dried, coil the string you've measured into a bowl of liquid starch, and soak about ten minutes. Next, wind the starched string around both cup and balloon, being sure the mesh openings are smaller than the ornaments you put inside the paper cup.

4. Hang the balloon up to dry overnight. Burst the balloon then, and carefully remove it and the paper cup. Spray on snow, or brush with glue and glitter. Tie a bright red bow at the top, and hang.

A living tree for your breakfast table can be supplied from the boxwood shrubs on your terrace. A small one will readily withstand a few weeks in the house. Pot it temporarily in any handsome bowl or compote, and tie the branches with red and silver ribbons. Tuck in some white roses, either fresh or artificial.

A living Christmas tree of boxwood

Garlands of holly are a universally appealing symbol of the holiday, and making them is a happy project when the day draws to a close. The accompanying pattern can be adapted to any size, and a garland of large holly leaves would make an effective, beautiful decoration for a church hall or school.

Holly leaves, made from foil, can be joined into garlands

Paint veins on each leaf and add a bright holly berry at each end made with deep red nail polish or paint. The leaves are easily locked together, as illustrated, through the slot in each one. They can quickly be taken apart and stored for use another year.
 
Lastly, don't be put off by the feeling that the papier-mâché technique is difficult or complicated. It is somewhat time-consuming, that is true, but the rewards are great. It produces handsome, unbreakable objects which will last for many years; and it is unusually inexpensive. The satisfactions from papier-mâché are great, and, once undertaken, it's a technique that will stand by in many school, church, and family projects. To make a hanging ball:

Steps in making a hanging papier-mâché ball

1. Cut newspaper into strips about ½ inch wide and 7 to 8 inches long. Cut several thick nesses at once. If you're making a larger object, like the snowman on page 82, you'll need wider and longer newspaper strips.

2. Cover fruit that has a waxy surface (apple, orange, pear, or gourd) with wet newspaper strips. Paste one strip at a time, vertically. Cover surface, pasting each strip in the same direction. Keep the strips moist. Smooth the
surface by rubbing your fingers over the paper.

3. Continue pasting until you have 5 or 6 layers over the whole surface. Set aside to let form dry. When dry, cut through the center with a knife or saw, from top to bottom, until you reach the fruit. The two half shells pull
apart easily.

4. Take a piece of cord about 12 inches long, double it, and make a strong knot at the end. Place the knotted end into the inside top center of the paper shell. Paste it into the shell with a strip of newspaper or with cellophane tape. The string acts as a hanger when the ball is hung on a tree.

5. Match the two shells together. Take small strips of the moistened newspaper and paste over the incision so that they overlap and stretch horizontally. Keep the string hanger on the outside. When the ball is thoroughly dry, it's ready for the fun of trimming.

6. White tempera paint is best for the base coat. After the base coat dries, decorate with a colored design. Paint the ornament any color. Bejewel with sequins or rhinestones to make a sparkle.

Decorate With Christmas Balls

Of all the objects that can be used for decorating every room in the house, none are more festive than colored glass balls. The possibilities for arrangement are endless.

Before you start, check your ornaments from previous years. If any seem dusty, and some with rough surfaces might, restore them to their original sparkle by gentle cleaning. Dip cotton sticks into solution of detergent and water, and carefully clean all crevices.

Elegant and easy-to-make

Start with a square styrofoam block, to serve as a pedestal for the tree. Trim in an elegant way, rather than haphazardly, so that full attention focuses on the tree. Gold paper rickrack and metal foil flowers, or seals, are effective. Then, in the center of the foam block, insert the head end of a knitting needle, the I3¾" size. Use four glass balls of each size, from large to small. With the largest at the bottom, slip their wire hangers over the needle, setting four upon four until you reach the top. At the top, place a tiny ornament, or a tiny star, upside down. This is a fine idea for the top of the television set.

Christmas tree ornaments have a variety of uses

Instead of using candles in the candelabra, fill each holder with florist's clay, set a knitting needle firmly into it, and string it with pink and silver balls in graduated sizes. Stick silver tinsel in between the balls and top the "candles" with silver Christmas bugles.

Another simple but very effective arrangement is a group of balls either placed freely on a mantel or tabletop, or held in a shallow tray. A sun ball brought in from the garden might provide a focal point. Greens and tiny stars of coiled wire fill in the gaps and add sparkle.

Candelabra can be used to hold glass balls

Stand large clear glass jars on mantels, shelves, the television set, or console table, and fill them with brilliant ornaments of different sizes.

Group balls on a tray or tabletop

Fill clear glass jars with colored ball·

Or fill that treasured epergne that has been passed down in your family for generations with tiny red balls stacked to look like cherries.

Stack tiny red ball· to look like cherries

Glass curtains at the window can serve as an airy and dramatic backdrop for brightly-colored ornaments of many different sizes and colors and shapes. String them on gold twine (knotted where necessary to keep ornaments from slipping), and tape or tie to the curtain rod.

An enchanting winter window

Hang from the molding, or the ceiling, ribbons of different lengths with a Christmas ball tied on each one. A large section of wall can be quickly and inexpensively covered with this gay device.

Any small basket becomes a decoration if it is lined with pinked aluminum foil and filled with gay balls whose color is enhanced by a light bulb placed underneath.

Save your plastic strawberry baskets they make charming containers for colored ornaments. First spray the baskets gold or a bright color. Then make the containers by placing one basket upside down on another and joining them with bright ribbon where their rims meet. You can put the ornament in first, or, if it's easier, just before you completely close the baskets. Place the filled baskets on a mantle or table, or hang them with wide ribbon from the rafters or the molding of a doorway.

Balls hanging by ribbons a good wall decoration, Hang gay baskets filled with ornaments

Heirloom candelabra sparkle the more brilliantly if balls, all of the same color and preferably wound with tinsel, are suspended from the arms. (See picture, page 98.)

For a country dining room, why not make a Christmas mobile? Suspend a graceful artificial branch from the ceiling with a fine dark wire, and wire small bright balls to its twigs. Every current of air will set it revolving. (See page 99.)

Hang small brilliant ornaments, possibly in one of the fluorescent colors, from the rim of a glass-topped table. Any size or shape of table will do. Use narrow ribbons for hanging.

Rim the edges of cafe curtains with dozens of tiny glass ball ornaments, all one color. This decoration is as easy and charming as can be, particularly effective in the dinette or the nursery, or on sheer white tier curtains in a bedroom.

Fill a foil-lined basket with colored balls

Always remember, when using glass ornaments, to hang them high, and well out of the reach of children. Very young children, un-watched for a moment, might be tempted to sample their flavor, with truly disastrous results. This caution applies also to the home with a dog.

There are on the market now quite handsome ornaments made of plastic. They resemble the glass ornaments and are tar sturdier, and safer to use, in any place where children and dogs can possibly reach them.

Make the most of any permanent wall decoration in your entrance hall or foyer. Hang evergreen roping gracefully over wall light fixtures, and fill the lavabo with colored ornaments. (Securing the ornaments with modeling clay will keep them from falling out.)

Houses have hanging lights again. Whether you have an old-fashioned chandelier or a bright brass pulley lamp, hang small glass balls on gilded string from the rim of it. On a modern lamp it can take on the nostalgic look of a beaded fringe.

Hang glass balls from the candelabra

Decorate a desk in a study or a teen-ager's bedroom with a stylized tree. It's small and simple enough not to interfere with working space, yet it serves as a pleasant reminder of Christmas whenever the student looks up from reading. The tree is made from a gilded dowel set into a dirt-filled, gold-sprayed container, such as a flower pot or refrigerator container. The tree itself is a jumbo Christmas ball, perhaps in a favorite color, and studded with beads, sequins, stars, and glitter. Set it, upside down, on the dowel.

A stylized tree for the teen-ager's room

In some families, particularly fine Christmas tree ornaments have been preserved through the years. An imaginative way of displaying them safely is to put them in a shadow box that may be hung in a window or against a wall. The box is made of dowels or lath crossbars in a frame; this itself may be a prized family possession. (See picture, page 100.)

Whenever you're not using your serving pieces during the holidays, make them festive. Fill a tiered piece with tinsel or greens, and glass ornaments. Place your prettiest stemmed glass on the top tier, also filled with greens, and crown with a top-of-the-tree ornament. If you have a handsome lazy susan, make it even more decorative (when it's not in use), by filling each section with Christmas balls of different colors and shapes.

Make a mobile for the dining room

Ornament a glass-topped table

Hang small glass balls from ceiling lamps

Display choice tree ornaments in a shadow box, Huge ornaments suspended from the ceiling are impressive

A few ornaments on a very large scale make an impressive decorative accent, yet they simplify the problem of what to do with a bare wall, or a mantel-less fireplace. Hang the very largest you can find at different heights from the ceiling.

Decorate With Greeting Cards

Greeting cards not only bring messages from loved ones at Christmastime, but can be made into a holiday display themselves. Share the gayest ones with everyone who comes into your house!

Cards may be arranged on a mantel, on bookshelves, or in fireside niches. Greens in the background make the display into a decoration.

If some of your shelves have knickknacks on them during the year, you might consider moving them for the holidays so that there will be enough room for everyone to see and fully enjoy your cards.
 
Christmas cards can also be displayed in tree form. One way that allows for the steady increase in mail is to tape the cards together in a vertical line of six or eight. Use two more of these lines to outline your tree on a wall, then fill in the center as more cards arrive.

Your cards can make a charming welcome, if you have a glass door. Arrange them carefully against the panes.

A tiered serving piece can be used for decoration

A wreath for your cards from your circle of friends - seems the perfect shape in which to hang them. If there's an old hula hoop in your house, suspend it with bright ribbon against a wall, tape your cards as you receive them, from the back of the hoop with transparent tape. Or have the man of the house make a wire hoop, of wire strong enough to hold its form. You might wind the hoop with greens, ribbon, expandable metal foil or crushed foil in colors, cotton batting, or anything your fancy dictates. If there's a youngster in your family especially thrilled by his Christmas mail, put up a smaller wreath, lower-hanging on the wall, for his cards only.

Christmas cards make decorative displays

A wreath of friends, big and small

A permanent card tree, for use year after year with just a change of ribbon, is simple to make from moderately heavy wire, or wooden dowels, or garden stakes; with whichever material the handy person in your house works most comfortably. From the back, tape on bright lengths of stiff ribbon, metallic tape, or heavy foil. Tape, glue, or pin your cards onto tree.
 
In your cellar or attic, you might have an old picture frame, or the gilt frame of a useless mirror, which could be used to make the very picture of Christmas, for your cards. Cover the picture, or mirror, with corrugated paper or construction board; then cover this with gold, silver, or any solid-colored paper. If you decide to keep the frame only for Christmases, you might spray it with gilt paint, or snow, or bright glitter. Cards can be fastened with map tacks, thumbtacks, or tape.

Arrange Christmas cards in a glass doorway

Hang cards from red ribbon Christmas tree branches

A card pocket for everyone

The very picture of Christmas

long, long piece of felt, attached to the molding near the ceiling and stretching down to the floor, makes a card holder for the whole family. Father's the only one who can reach the top pocket, and the bottom pocket is reserved for the littlest one in the house.

Directions: With pinking shears, cut a strip of felt six inches wide and as long as necessary. (Of course, you may buy a yard, cut it into strips and sew the strips together at the ends.) Sew on in a contrasting color, as many pockets of felt as you will need for your cards. To give the panel body turn over a one-inch hem at the top and insert a pencil. Slide ribbon or gold twine through the hem, for hanging. Trim with rick-rack or sequins, if you wish.
 
Over the hall table, or the console in the foyer, put up a lacy, shiny mesh tree, made of strips of perforated plastic ribbon. It's pretty even when it's empty; as cards arrive they can be attached with straight pins through the holes. Cut out and cover cardboard in the shape you desire, or use heavy construction paper reinforced with a "tree trunk" of corrugated cardboard attached from the back. Turn an inch of the perforated ribbon around the edges of the tree, and tape from the back, as you place the ribbon in strips, horizontally. Top with a star, and don't forget to add a piece for the base.

Decorate With Living Plants

All through the holidays your house can have new beauty and meaning if you decorate with living flowers and greens. You don't need many it's where you put them that counts most, and how you combine the new ones with those you have.

Perforated plastic ribbon, ready for pinning

The results are so right, so in tune with the new life that Christmas ushers in, that you'll want to continue the practice each year. You can arrange them gaily, or make them reverent. Either way, live and growing plants will bring something fresh to these happy days.

Make your own experiments; the ideas that follow are intended to inspire your own arrangements of plants and objects that convey the holiday story.

See what you can do with your prize ivy plant, and candles. Try special Christmassy flower-pot wrappings for house plants that you've nurtured through the year, and see what perfect decorations they make for your mantel or bookshelf. Place flowers or plants in front of mirrors, and stand around them candles to blend with their colors.

D racaenas, sansevierias, aspidistras, dieffenbachia, azaleas, and begonias are all good plants for the season.

Of course the first plant of Christmas is the poinsettia. It is a perfect symbol of the holiday, and almost anywhere in the house is the right place for it; a modest pot with two blooms in the kitchen and a giant plant inside the front door will both call out "Merry Christmas" every time you pass them by.

A poinsettia ~ first of all Christmas plants

The first Christmas came to the world in a far-off land and a warmer climate, far from snow and spruce trees. A beautiful way to remember this holy time is with small crèche figures in a living, green surrounding.

A lovely nativity scene

Use any plants that resemble palm trees, with long stems and a sheltering leaf. Philodendron dubium is a good choice, or any other available plant like it. Wrap two pots in gold paper; stand one tall candle behind them higher than the "trees," to symbolize, when lit, the star. Place the simplest group of figures together, and your lovely nativity scene is complete.

One fine red azalea may be sufficient, among the pretty clutter that fills the house during the holidays. Azaleas need quite a lot of water at a time. So set the pot it will be a big one on a large plate or tray.

You can add small pots of variegated peper-omia to wreathe your azalea and furnish interest before the stockings are emptied and ribbons and wrappings tossed about. Short poinsettias can be just as decorative.

Christmas begonias stay covered with flowers for several weeks, given plenty of water. But enjoy their gorgeous color while you can. When it's through, it's through. Place them against a wall where their contrast will be vivid not too close to the Christmas tree where nearness would waste their extravagant beauty.

Azalea and peperomia plants make an interesting grouping

The Star of Bethlehem is a cut flower growing in popularity at Christmastime. Shipped by air from Africa, and available in department stores and through mail order houses, it arrives in a budded state, and with proper care will open and bloom for about six weeks. In order to have it at its peak at Christmas it is necessary to order it early, since it must be kept in the dark for about two weeks. This lovely and unusual white flower will arrive complete with explicit directions for its care and best display.

An amaryllis adds dramatic shape and color anywhere at all in the house, since it can flourish in a dark corner as well as on a sunlit window sill. The flowers will open and remain lovely for a week or more.

Christmas begonias are vivid decorations

A new hybrid amaryllis will add excitement, too. As the big stems rise and the 6- to 8-inch flowers unfold, everybody watches. They can't help it, once the performance starts. For Christmas, the best colors are the scarlet, salmon, white, or rich crimson.

Do you know the luxurious feeling that flowers in the house in the cold of winter give you? With potted plants, that feeling can be extended long past Christmas, if you know a few simple rules. Perhaps you've bought something you're not familiar with, or have received as a gift a variety of plant you've never owned before. Either way, it will arrive from the florist's trained, well-fed, pampered, and trimmed in such a way that you can enjoy it at the peak of its perfection.

Some plants, with proper care, can brighten your house for days or weeks; some for extra years. For the holiday season itself, it is important to remember that all plants must be kept in a cool room, no higher than 75°, no lower than about 55-60°. Keep them out of drafts. Water them regularly as soon as the soil surface gets dry even though you'll be busy with a hundred other things.

The following plants most commonly associated with Christmas will give bloom at other seasons with proper care.

Azaleas. After the blossoms fade, feed once a month with a balanced plant food. Water every two weeks not oftener with acidified water. This water is made by adding ¾ teaspoon of vinegar to a quart of water. In the spring,

move to a pot that is a size larger. Use pure peat no soil to fill around the soil ball. Grow in a sheltered, shady spot outdoors until fall.

Amaryllis plants lend a dramatic touch

Poinsettia. Keep constantly moist until the blooms fade. Stop watering when the leaves drop. Store in a cool spot until mid-spring. Cut the stems back to 4 or 5 inches. In the North, sink the pot in an outside border when the soil warms up. Bring inside before frost. In mild areas of the South, plant directly in the garden.

Amaryllis. Cut off faded flowers, and continue to water until spring. Sink the pot into soil outdoors in summer. Pick a spot in partial shade. Bring inside before frost, and water once a month until new growth starts. Then feed and water regularly.

Begonias. The showy, large-flowered Christmas begonias bloom for several weeks, but do not make good permanent plants for the home. The smaller, everblooming begonias should grow and bloom all year. Pinch the tips and feed regularly to keep compact.

CycL·men. These big-leaved plants need lots of water and good ventilation. Keep in a cool room in a sunny window. Feed with liquid plant food. Keep water off crown as much as possible. Keep in shady spot outside through the summer.

Christmas roses are a gift that will make many, many Christmases beyond this year more beautiful. Planted in the spring or fall, they will bloom through the snow, providing flowers to cut and bring indoors: a lovely, living gift with enduring white flowers and shiny, leathery green leaves. Order Hellebores Orientals or Hellebores Niger; delivery follows at planting time in the spring. If you have a similar plant of your own, announce your gift with blossoms of your plant.

Decorate With Candles

Be original and make your own holiday candles. The molds and decoration can be found at home. Just save up your old candles, or collect them from friends, get out some kitchen equipment, and you're set for the fun of making candles for the holidays. Your imagination can be the springboard for unusual and original ideas for candles from decorating tapers for the dinner table to making flat ones that float in a pretty tray or bowl for a special luncheon centerpiece.

To ornament candles, drizzle wax down the side, use colored cellophane tape or sequins, or sprinkle them with brilliant gold or silver sparkle dust. A used candle that has become crooked may be straightened by putting it in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and hanging it up with a safety pin through its wick. All these decorations are easy to make and the children will love to help. In all of the following wax-pouring projects, give the molds a thin coating of mineral oil before you start. It will keep the wax from sticking and will make it easier to remove the molds when you are through.

Boots, houses, and bells can be made from plastic tree ornaments. The bells are open at the bottom, of course, or, you can cut out the bottom with a razor. Slice the bottom carefully so that you will have an opening for the wax. Stick the wick from a small candle through the hole at the hanging-top of the ornament, and secure with a little softened wax. Turn the ornament upside down, in a glass (to hold it steady), and pour in wax, making sure the wick remains vertical. Allow the wax to cool a little before pouring, so that it does not cause the plastic to melt out of shape. When candle is thoroughly hardened, remove the plastic mold.

Plastic tree ornaments make good candle molds

Make funny-face candles, using a stemmed glass for the squat shapes; then make sequin or button faces. Suspend the wick as shown, tied around a soda straw, and dip in warm water to loosen the candle from the glass when it has completely hardened. Gelatin molds may be used also, for fancy candles.

A festive bottle-shaped candle makes a pretty memento when decorated with Christmas legends, glitter, and ribbon. Make it with a soda bottle as the mold, again holding the wick out carefully. When the candle is hard, put the bottle inside a paper bag, for safety, and hit just hard enough to crack, break, and remove bottle.

A treasured candle, to burn from year to year

Gay candles are fun to make and give

With a large rubber ball, the kind with which a young child plays (eight to ten inches in diameter), you can make an imposing and beautiful candle that can be saved from year to year. Burn it only for a few hours each year, perhaps on Christmas Eve; it will become a treasured object and a beloved custom.

Decorations With A Tradition

For tradition, for decoration, and for kisses, too, hang an English kissing ball. Suspend it in the hallway, or over the stairs, and it will quickly become an American custom in your house.

Fill two plastic berry containers with Oasis (available at florists). Invert one basket and wire both together, as in tying a package, and leave a long piece for hanging. Soak in water. Thrust small sprays of boxwood or pine into Oasis through the basket mesh, forming a ball; trim evenly. Tuck in sprays of mistletoe. Wire a ribbon bow to a wooden pick and insert at side.

Jule-nisse is a jolly Danish goblin. Bend a 9-inch blue pipe cleaner into legs (A) and a 9-inch red one into arms (B). Fold a 4-inch strip of blue mat stock in half and taper from l¼ inches at fold to ⅜ inch at top. Slip legs into fold, and staple or paste arms ½ inch from top. Fold a 3-inch strip of peach gummed crepe and, with fold at bottom, cut head and ears (C). Slit fold enough to slip over neck and stick together (G). Add gummed dot features. Cut a beard with paste tabs at top from white mat stock. Make V-shaped cuts here and there, as shown in illustration, and stick in place. Fold 5-inch strip of brown mat stock and cut pointed hat with fold at bottom (D). Slit to fit head. Bend front part forward and trim for visor (E). Cut shoes from folded strip of brown gummed crepe (F) and stick over foot.

An English kissing ball

A Danish goblin

A charming centerpiece, with a history centuries old, is this St. Lucia's crown. Before the Middle Ages, so the legend goes, the custom of the crown was brought from Italy to Sweden; for hundreds of years girls throughout that country have worn it on their pretty heads.

Directions: To make the crown for a centerpiece, make a cone of chicken wire, which is 8 inches high and 6 inches in diameter. Cover completely with holly, fir bough, or any greenery, and allow it to skirt out a bit at the bottom edge of the wire. Stand six or eight white candles, 8" tall, a couple of inches in from the edge, around the bottom. Scandinavians add Christmas berries and a bright gold star. Use flameproof greenery, or spray on flame proofing; even so, do not leave the centerpiece unattended even for a moment when the candles are lit. It's a lovely and time-honored decoration, but be sure to light and enjoy it when everyone is at the table.

Danish bells are a touch of traditional decoration, and mighty pleasing to the eye as well.

Begin with a jar lid, 3¾ inches wide. Use it to trace circles on a cloth-back foil of several different colors. Cut circles in half. Knot the ends of 18-inch colored cotton string. Put two more knots in each end, 2 inches apart.

Form a half circle into a cone, keeping a knot inside the point so that the bell won't slip down on the string. Staple the edges together, then staple other bells, one above each knot, so that there are three bells on either end of the string, of different colors,

Scandinavian spirals have motion and color and shine, if you make them of foil or construction paper sprayed with gilt. Start by tracing 2 circles on a piece of the paper you've chosen (A). You can vary the size of your spiral by using a compass to make a circle of almost any size. Why not a very large one for an important place in the house?

St. Lucia's crown, from Sweden

A Scandinavian spiral

Danish bells

Cut out the circles with small, sharp-pointed scissors, Beginning at the very edge of each circle, draw a line that gradually widens to ⅜ inch (B).

When you have cut into the circle to the ⅜-inch width, you can continue cutting a strip ⅜ inch wide until you reach the center of the circle (C).

Be careful to keep all your strips the same width while you're cutting. You can vary the width of your strips if you want variety.

The next step is to paste or staple the ends of the two spirals together as pictured (D). In this fashion, you have a continuous spiral twice as long as before. For a different effect, try fastening spirals of 2 colors together.

Any small trinket or toy can be suspended from the spiral, but to be truly Scandinavian, make a plump pig or a miniature apple from heavy cardboard or plywood. Paint with a bright color. Loop a string or thin wire (fastened to the pig or apple) over the center of a circle spiral, as shown in drawing (E).

Last of all, loop a string over the other center to hang your spiral from the tree.

An Austrian star

To make an Austrian star, cut two six-pointed stars from two different colors of mat stock. Slash to the center from the top of one and the bottom of the other. Punch holes on either side of the top slash. Slip one star over the other and thread cord through the holes. Decorate any way you wish with gummed dots, stars, or seals.

For the United States, we have a Santa Claus mobile. Enlarge diagram 8 times. Cut hat from red mat stock; fur trimming, beard, and mustache from white mat stock. 

A Santa Claus mobile

Eyes: 2 small blue Christmas balls.

Nose; Small Styrofoam ball glittered with red.

Eyebrows: Short pieces of white pipe cleaner.

Pompon: Fringe 2 circles, slit, put together,

Fur band: Fringe edges of white stock.

Beard: Slash, curl on a dull knife blade.
Suspend (on black thread): eyes, eyebrows from hat; beard on thread through nose to hat; pompon to tip of hat; Santa himself from his hat. Merry, Merry Christmas mobile.

Stockings for the family are decoration, too 

Have The Fun Of Stockings

Make it a custom to hang a stocking for every member of the family, old and young; put them up several days before Christmas for the cheer they bring. Deck the mantel simply, with boughs of pine and frosty white candles. Bookshelves will serve the same purpose as a mantel.

The stockings may be made at home of felt, cut in the traditional boot shape and trimmed to the fancy of the maker or to the known tastes of the recipient. Or the stocking may be cut in a more whimsical shape, trimmed with appliques, sequins, beads, bells, ribbon, and bow.

The lady of the household would be charmed with a stocking designed like a Gay Nineties boot. It could be made of red or green corduroy, decked with sequins, and finished off with a bit of embroidery in colored yarn and tinsel thread. (See picture, page 114.)

Use a simple and charming handmade stocking for distributing gifts of hard candies to large groups of children perhaps at Sunday School. Maybe the Ladies Aid, the Girl Scouts, or the sewing class at school would undertake making them as a holiday project.

Use starched cheesecloth or tarlatan, cut to the size you have decided upon. Crochet around the edges with yarn; metallic yarn would be perfect. At the top, back corner, crochet a loop to use as a hanger. Glue sequins or other decorations on the front.

A decorated stocking of felt

A Christmas stocking for a lady

An easy-to-make cheesecloth stocking

Decorating The Table Itself

The table itself can be decorated in such a way that it will light up the room for the holidays. For both the holiday dinner and for parties make a handsome Christmas tablecloth.

If you have a colorful cloth (red or green), dress it up in a happy way with little Christmas bells, sewn to its hem. Get two dozen of the little kind that tinkle; sew them on in bright thread for the great dinner. The young girl of the house can manage it simply, and everyone will be rewarded with occasional jingles at the table as they brush against the cloth.

Decorate the tablecloth with Christmas bells

Another idea for a colored Christmas tablecloth is to fringe one, and cut giant letters from heavy white paper to spell NOEL. (When the letters are removed, the cloth can be used for gala occasions the year round.) Use any bright-colored cloth that you have, or make one from linen like, colorfast cotton, 54 inches wide, and yards of white fringe; both of these materials are inexpensive.

Fringe and lettering make a holiday cloth

Nylon net is the secret of a fascinating yet practical Christmas table. To a piece of such net, large enough to cover your own vivid tablecloth, appliqué whatever Christmas designs strike your fancy: large red felt poinsettias and holly leaves, for instance, with sequins pasted on for sparkle. The nylon net can be saved from year to year, and the cloth used without it for other occasions.

Make a bright holiday runner for a cloth of a different gay color: a red oilcloth runner on a green cloth, for instance. Edge the runner with gold rickrack and make a white rickrack tree. Packages are easy to make with squares of oilcloth in contrasting colors and rickrack string.

Decorated nylon net goes over your tablecloth
 

Make a decorated holiday runner

For a long, outsized table such as the refreshment table at a Christmas party for the Sunday School sew together two strips of 36-inch red flannel.

 Gold rickrack edging, pasted on, will make hemming the cloth unnecessary. Make felt cutouts in appropriate pretty designs, and attach them with snaps to the cloth, to be removed when it is laundered.

A huge red flannel cloth, easy to make

Make A Tree

Christmas trees have come a long way since the first one was cut down in a forest and dragged home. Today, people who live in apartments are much more likely to buy a small artificial tree scaled to the size of their dinette table. But with imagination and ingenuity one can make one's own Christmas tree with a result so unusual that it will excite comment.

A funnel tree is easy to make. Buy three funnels graduated in size, 5½, 8¼ and 11½ inches long, and cover the largest and smallest with green foil wrapping paper, the middle one with red foil.

If you like, drill a few holes in all three funnels for light to flicker through when the tree is mounted over a fat, lighted candle, securely set on a decorated base. Decorate around the holes in the tree with gold lace paper doily cutouts and large sequins. Trim the edges of the funnels with fringed gold braid and small strings of multi-colored beads.

A tree made of three funnels

A simple, espalier-type tree may be made by wiring pine branches to a plywood or construction board mount. Then decorate the branches with colored candles, beads, small blown balls, sequinned animals, and loops of silver or gold thread.

A more elaborate espaliered tree that is striking enough to place in a picture window is the golden bell tree. The frame is dowels, the base is a wood block; the bells are paper drinking cups gilded and sprinkled with glitter, and clappered with small gold balls which are wired on. Tie the bells to the dowels with saucy red ribbons. A gold star is on top of the tree.

A little artificial tree, white or silver or pink, can become especially pretty and suitable in a young girl's feminine bedroom. It usually comes on a stand of its own. Deck it with artificial rosebuds and gauzy butterflies which can be bought at notion counters and in party departments. Trim the base with swags of red silk cord.

A tree made of chicken wire will cast pretty shadows, especially when there are candles nearby. Since it's flat, and takes up little room, it might be just the thing for a buffet table.

Directions: With wire snipers, cut pieces of chicken wire and form the shapes desired. A good size for the tree is about 7 inches wide at the base and 10 inches high. With pliers, bend the raw ends of wire inward, to make a neat edge. For a standing base, bend the bottom row of wires back at least one inch; use transparent tape to secure the bottom rim of wire to the table. Paint tree with white or gold paint; be sure to cover both sides of the wire. When dry decorate to suit your whim tiny ornaments hung in every opening are effective, as are larger ones hung in a pattern. Add other bits of sparkle, if you like. For a tree to stand at a window, you might hang bright-colored transparent ornaments, which will catch the glint of daylight in a lovely way.

A tree of golden bells

What could delight children more than a Santa's boot that's good enough to eat? They can even help make it.

A light and charming tree for a buffet table

Children can make this candy boot and eat it later

Just take a simple bread board or wooden tray, and with paste or water-soluble glue, attach enough wrapped candy balls or peppermints to form a boot, tree, bell, star, or whatever shape you wish to create. Then prop the candy-studded board or tray in a prominent place in the breakfast nook or dinette, or mount it on the wall.

Young children often find that Christmas is too long in coming and too quickly gone. Decorate the kitchen beforehand, and make the waiting happier.
 
Even easier to make is a miniature tree of bow-tied evergreen twigs (they might be cuttings from the Christmas tree), set at angles into a large apple as a base. The moisture of the apple keeps the greenery fresh.

Christmas In A Child's Room

Have a bit of Christmas in a child's room; your youngster will wake to it in the morning with pleasure and recognition all through the holidays. If there's a wide window sill, stand a tiny tree on it; decorated with icicles and little gold ornaments, it will glitter in the winter sun.

A tree made of evergreen cuttings

A symbol of the whole world's joy at Christmas is appropriate to a child's room. Cover the base of a world penny bank with greenery, or cotton, and stand small, snow-covered trees in a circle around it. Disguise the money slot with a red ribbon bow. Variety stores have very inexpensive banks and trees, and ornament-studded trees of place-card size.

Still another way to symbolize the holiday that comes to children everywhere is with the use of little dolls from many countries. On a pretty tray, or on cotton, place a ring of dolls, touching hands, around a festive tree. Such dolls are made in many sizes and of many materials; wood, plastic, cotton, china, and even candy. Though very young, a child will grasp the meaning of Christmas in many lands.

Christmas is for children everywhere

A toy-and-trinket tree

For a small fry party, or for the children's table throughout the holiday season, make a trinket tree that you'll use for many seasons. Children love tiny things: little dolls, animals, toys, houses, fruits, beads. Have the children make very small gift packages with one fat gumdrop inside, not to be opened until the tree is put away. Tie things on with thread, so that they swing a bit in currents of air.

Make the tree from a 1" dowel, stuck into a square wood base. Drill 3/8" holes in the upright dowel for branches. Shellac and paint, if desired. Top the tree with an ornament, or two very large gold stars pasted back to back over the tip of the dowel.

Having a child decorate his own tree is a practice that might happily become a tradition in your home. Young children, who don't see the real tree being trimmed (since Santa comes so late at night!), can enjoy a felt tree, attached to a wall of their room. For a real toddler, start at the baseboard, for easy reaching. Cut out cardboard in the shape you want and cover it with green felt. Give him gummed seals, gummed ribbon, a damp sponge, a blunt scissors, strings of tiny bead-ornaments, miniatures of all sorts, ribbon bows from last year, and a pot of paste. Let him paste away to his heart's content, not necessarily all at once; he might well love to stretch the project out for days.

If you have a spot of ground to plant it in, on your child's first Christmas you might like to buy a living young evergreen tree to decorate and enjoy indoors. After the holidays take it outdoors, to grow in front of your home and be an always-green reminder of your child's first Yuletide. Since the baby will be too young for toys, decorate the tree for sheer beauty: artificial cherry blossoms, nylon butterflies, birds, and the like. Keep it in a cool place while indoors.

Decorations For The Children To Make

Start with a couple of restless children, anxious to get the Christmas season under way, and add construction paper, casein glue, a couple of pairs of scissors and well, oddments.

A child's own tree

Supply gummed strips, cellophane tape, picture seals, pipe cleaners in white and colors, dots, stars, sequins, old greeting cards for cutting up, little ornaments, tiny bells, ribbon, rickrack, tinsel there is no end to what might be used. Some of the accompanying shapes can be duplicated (closely enough) even if the child cannot follow directions well.

For young children you might cut out a few trains, or Christmas trees, or houses, and show them, on the first one, how much fun it is to pretty them up, Cut out a green paper tree, for instance, and trim it with four rows of white rickrack, for tinsel, and four rows of sequins, for ball ornaments. Top with a sequin or a star.

Make a train, as an example, of purple paper, white rickrack, a blue motorman's cab, and green wheels. Cut out a house of the tall, funny kind that children love to draw, with one door, one window, and a chimney.

Shapes the children might duplicate

Let the young ones experiment freely and don't expect that there will be much perfection, or that every object will be usable. If you can convince a child he should decorate both sides, hang one of his trees up over his bed, or in the bedroom window. Or paste a village scene, with houses and trees and a church, on the kitchen window. Let the child practice and discard, but use those that he himself is proud of for a very tender, happy kind of Christmas decoration.

A butterfly is made of two identical shapes pasted over pipe-cleaner antennae, and decorated.

A lace doily can be cut out, pasted on silver paper, and stiffened with cardboard. If they were decorated on both sides, several of them could be hung free in a child's room.

Try a butterfly, or a cutout doily

A fat fish could be decorated on both sides and hung by a thread from the tree.

Paste together three paper loops, and run ribbon through slits in them, for an impressive decoration. (See picture, page 122.)

An ornamental bird consists of narrow strips of colored paper, all cut to the same length, then shaped to form head, neck, and tail. Use colored sequins to make the eyes and to decorate the tail feathers. For a glittery look, make the bird of colored cellophane or colored foil instead of plain paper.

Cut a gay, whirling ornament from a circle of thin cardboard in any size and color you like. Decorate both sides with dots and stars. Starting on the outside, draw a continuous line spiraling to the center. Cut on this line, and punch a hole in the center for attaching a thread to hang your spiral by.

Gumdrop stars are very easy to make and the only problem will be to keep the children from eating up the materials. The stars are nice to hang from the tree, or an archway, or perhaps from a lighting fixture in the kitchen or dinette: a colorful, and tasty, Christmas motif. To make, stick one end of a colored toothpick into a small gumdrop, the other into a Styrofoam ball. Use about 20 such gumdrops-on-toothpicks, spaced haphazardly around the ball.

Almost the simplest tree decorations of all are candy canes made out of pipe cleaners. They have the added advantage, for young children, of being entirely un-messy. There's nothing to spill or stain or cut, and hardly any way for the child to come up with less than a fine-looking little cane. To make, bend chenille-type white pipe cleaners into the shape of a cane.

A decorated fish or paper loops are easy, Try a bird of paper strips, or a whirling paper spiral

Twist red ones around the white ones to resemble stripes.
Gumdrop stars to hang from a doorway

White and red pipe-cleaner candy canes
 
If you've a feminine little girl in your house, make, together, a lace-paper tree for her room. Fold large doilies in half, pleat them, and attach to a dowel, set in a wood block. Alternate a tier of white with a tier of gold doilies, growing smaller toward the top.

A tree of paper doilies

Table decorations are something children love to make. A spool centerpiece is not beyond the six-year-old, if he has a little help. He takes four extra-large spools (such as empty 500- or 1000-yard spools) and paints or sprays them white, then glues a piece of red paper around the center of each. Gold letters spelling N-O-E-L are then pasted on, and tiny candles inserted. (Don't light the candles, however.)

A spool centerpiece, easy to make

Children can also make place settings for the holiday table. Mats are cut from stiff Christmas wrapping paper, or from shelf paper, bordered with shiny gummed ribbon. Holly-decorated cellophane tape trims plates, tumblers, silver; it will not affect foods.

Holiday place settings that children can make

Children will love making a snowy scene from plastic foam balls. Use a pine cone for the tree, and let the youngsters improvise for the snowman's hat and scarf and face. Two gold stars pasted together on a toothpick will adorn the tree, and almost anything else can be added with enough ingenuity.

A snow scene from plastic foam

Even the very smallest member of the family can help make snowy soap-flake ornaments. Cut shapes from white or colored cardboard, or cover gray cardboard with bright paper. Coat with plastic starch and shake in a paper bag with soap flakes.
Spun-glass snowflakes, stars, bells and other cutouts adhere with water to mirrors and windows, and come off easily. The youngsters have a fine time sticking them up.

A nice whirligig star can be made in a few quick minutes. The brighter the colors, the better; the more decoration on it, the merrier! It's a good tree ornament (and a fine pick-up for a package).

Ornaments with soap-flake snow

Spun-glass ornaments for the mirror

To make, form a pattern of cardboard or brown paper before cutting out the pentagon. Each side measures 3 inches.

Select two brightly-colored papers. Place them together and cut one form from each (A). Use pinking shears to make an interesting edge.

Attach the two pentagons to each other by gluing them at centers. Draw a 1¾-inch circle around the center point.

Cut from each pentagon point to the circle edge (B). This will give you five triangular wedges for shaping.

A whirligig star from colored paper

Curl the left-hand point of each triangle down toward the center (C). Glue these points together where they meet. Now your whirligig star is formed.

To add the finishing touch, decorate the center section by gluing on circles which you have trimmed with sequins, shiny paper, and wire (D).

Adorable little angels can be made from the aluminum foil plates that frozen pies and pot pies come in. They are in several sizes, so choose whichever you wish; the height of the angel will be approximately equal to the diameter of the pie plate.

Cut off the rim of a foil plate, then mark off six sections on the circular bottom, as shown (A).

Cut along all lines with scissors; cut out the two small V-shaped sections at the top. Then draw in the head on the middle part, and cut out (B). The semicircle at the bottom forms the skirt, the two other parts make the wings (C).

Bend the lower section backward to form the skirt. Make slits in the top of the head, curl forward for hair. Cut the apron and crown from colored foil (D); curl the top of the apron, forming a ruffle. Paste the crown to the head.

Glue the apron onto the skirt; paste colored sequins onto the head for facial features (E). For variety, curl a small piece of metal pan cleaner, or yarn for the hair. Another change would be to cut the apron from a paper doily or from colored lace ribbon. Make the cap of paper lace, if you prefer.

The following are easy ornaments to make, and lots of fun for the very young ones in the family. Spaghetti and macaroni come in all sorts of odd shapes and sizes; buy as wide a variety as your biggest store supplies. Using food colors, dye them all sorts of different shades. Let the little ones string them on golden string, no matter how haphazardly, and they'll be cherished, personal, tree decorations.

Slightly older children can make more elaborate macaroni ornaments. Dip pieces of macaroni in hot water to shape them, then stick on a crinoline backing; let them dry. Natural starch holds the pieces in place. Color them with nail polish or paints.

Funny paper stockings for decoration, not for filling are perfect for hanging around a party table, or at the mantel before real stockings are hung. Cut front and back pieces from Christmas paper, and paste them together; trim with contrasting paper, ribbon, lace doilies, or anything that strikes your fancy.

An angel from an aluminum foil pie plate

Colored macaroni tree decorations, Paper stockings ~ for decoration, not for filling

Shape macaroni against a crinoline background
 
For the slightly older child, who is able to trace and fold more accurately, here is the basic pattern for making angels to decorate your tree and mantel. First trace this pattern on thin paper. Then cut the tracing out, place on any heavy paper, and draw around the outline. Cut out and bend down on the lines marked A. Bend up on the lines marked B. Bend down on the lines marked C. Crimp the wings to make them stand. Make a cone of the angel's dress and paste or staple the flap D under E. Now you can begin to decorate. You can cover the dress with colored wrapping papers, tissue papers, or tinfoil, pasting it on. You can add bits of cotton or edges of lace paper napkins for trim. You can give the angel eyes, nose, and mouth, and write music notes on the sheet of music. Any number of interesting and pretty combinations can be made from this one basic pattern.

An impressive angel, from cut and folded paper

A Christmas silhouette will make the Babe in the Manger scene in your window; it will stand out boldly against the daylight, and at night the light from your room will show the Crib to those outside. Trace the accompanying figures on black paper, or use them as a model for enlarged figures. Use rubber cement, glue, or paste, to secure them to freezer wrap or cellophane. Make a cardboard frame. Hang it in your window.

A suggested grouping of the figures is shown here, but arrange them in any other pleasing way you wish.

A silhouette of the Christmas scene

Patterns for silhouette

A green and gold paper tree, made of doilies

A project for the nimble-fingered older child is a green and gold paper-doily tree that is inexpensive to make, handsome in effect, and useful for many years, if carefully stored.

Plastic foam l½ inches thick is used for the base and trunk. Make the trunk 3 inches wide by 18 inches long, and taper it at the top. Fasten it with toothpicks to the base, which is 5 inches square.

Get one package each of 6-inch, 8-inch and 10-inch green lace-paper doilies. Cut all doilies in half; pleat each half; and gather all the doilies on one thread, beginning with the largest size (A). Wrap the threaded doilies around the tree trunk (B), supporting the spiral at intervals with 3 x 5-inch lengths of wire, pushed into the plastic foam trunk. Before inserting each wire, bend one end of it to form a hook for hanging a tiny gold ball (C).

F inish off the creation by hanging with balls and pinning or pasting wide gold paper ribbon around the base.

The Tree Itself

Be sure that at some time in your family's experience you have an old-fashioned American tree, with popcorn, strung cranberries, cookies, and candy canes. Or at least add these things to the other ornaments for your tree. They lend a homey, family note to the Christmas tree that's deeply in keeping with the spirit of the season.

If you have very young children who feel that Santa brings the tree, intact, and who'd be disturbed to find on it popcorn that they'd popped and strung by themselves, then perhaps trim an outside tree for the birds. Or have a second little tree in the house, decorated in the old-fashioned way to commemorate the early American family who lived in a simpler time.

Never overlook the simple paper chain as decoration for the tree, or the mantel, or to festoon windows or drapes. With a kit of paper strips that are already gummed, even the youngest child can turn out long chains. Progress seems fast, and everybody's turnout can be linked together and stretched all the way down the hall; output over several days can always be joined without trouble. If you'd like it to be a bit fancier for the tree, tie on ribbon bows at the high point of each swag of paper chain.

Don't forget the old-fashioned Christmas tree, Decorate paper chains with ribbon bows

If you are truly cramped for space, yet the Day wouldn't seem like the Day with merely a little table tree, here's a solution to your problem. Cut all the branches off one side of the tree (the thinner side, of course), and back the trunk of the tree up against the wall. Half a tree, in this fashion, possesses all the majesty of a full tree, and is especially pretty when the ornaments and lights are not too large, and are more or less of the same size.

Some of the cut-off branches may come in handy to fill out bare spots on the side of the tree that faces outward. Whittle the base of the branch to fit into a hole drilled in the trunk.

Another space-saving tree, more formal and dramatic, is the espaliered tree, which takes practically no floor space at all. Make a frame of wooden dowels, and wire on a variety of evergreens for the richest, densest tree-look. For a striking, sophisticated appearance, trim the tree with fruit, (See picture, page 132.)

Anchor it firmly in a heavy wooden base. If possible, attach the tree tip to the wall. This applies if the tree is loaded on one side with fruit, which is heavy. Unless fastened at the top, the fruit-laden tree will be top-heavy.

Do you have a picture window? Here's a brilliant way to use it, and trim both your room and all outdoors at the same time. Make an espaliered tree, with a framework of wood, up against your window; make it of commanding size. Wire hemlock twigs to both sides and decorate the tree with lights, tinsel, and glitter. Use decorations that will give the most light at night and catch the most reflected daylight during the day.

To save space, back half a tree against the wall, To save space, make an espaliered tree

A corner tree of arborvitae is another attractive tree to have in a room where space is limited or where you cannot move the furniture around conveniently. Prune the tree on three sides and brace it on a triangular stand; fit it snugly against the walls.

How To Treat A Christmas Tree

Since the Christmas tree will be the center of all our holiday activity, we should keep in mind some do's and don't's concerning it. We want it beautiful; we also want it to be safe. Every year we hear warnings about Christmas fires, but we are sometimes so occupied with more pleasant things that we hardly give them a thought. There are some important rules, however, that should be noted.

A fire extinguisher in the home is an excellent precaution at all times, but this is especially true during Christmas, when fire hazards are increased us a result of the general air of happy confusion that prevails. If you buy one, learn how to use it before Christmas. Stopping in the middle of an emergency to read directions doesn't make sense.

After you buy the tree, keep it outside until it is to be trimmed, so that it won't dry out. Natural evergreen trees cannot be fireproofed; they are always potentially dangerous. Trees can be treated with fire-retardant chemicals, but every twig and needle must be coated thoroughly. Even then, the flames will simply be slowed down. Should you wish to make your tree as fire-resistant as possible, you might try doing the following: In a basin or pail mix a solution of a gallon of warm water, one cup of boric acid powder, and one and one-half cups of borax. Dip evergreen branches in the solution and wet thoroughly.

Put a glittering espaliered tree in a picture window, Fit a tree of arborvitae in a corner

Where do you place your tree? In most rooms the best place is a corner. Don't put the tree where it may block a passage into or out of a room. Keep it away from curtains, draperies, and other flammable materials. Keep it away from fire and excess heat. Don't place it near a hot stove or radiator.

Use a base or stand which will keep the tree from being knocked over or accidentally bumped. Before putting the tree in the stand, make a diagonal cut through the bark about an inch above the end. When you put the tree in the stand, set the tree in water so that the cut is immersed. Use a container, if necessary. Be sure to check to see that there is enough water in it. If needed, add water periodically all during the time the tree is up. This will not only preserve the tree and prevent it from drying out, but will decrease fire hazards.

Place a cloth or a sheet beneath the tree before you start decorating it. This will be a big aid in keeping the tree area clean during the entire time the tree is up and while it is being dismantled.

If you use an ordinary sheet or fabric at the base of the tree, be sure that you have similarly treated it with the fire-retardant solution. It is best to use fire-resistant fabrics in the first place, however, and you can buy such fabric already treated. But remember, "fire-retardant" doesn't mean "fireproof."

If your tree is a little bare in some spots, you can pretty it up by drilling a small hole in the trunk of the tree and inserting a branch from a fuller section of the tree. It might even be wise to buy a few extra branches for just such use, To give additional support to the false branch, tie one end of a piece of colored string to the middle of the branch, the other end to the trunk of the tree. Any extremely long branches that start to droop before the season is over can also be tied back in the same way.

When you decorate the tree, it is best to have all your lights, ornaments, and toys right at hand, near the tree. Don't use lighted candles on trees only electric lights. Don't let the lights touch limbs, twigs, or needles. Check the tree from time to time and if the needles near the lights are becoming brown, move the lights.

Before stringing the lights, check them carefully to be sure there are no frayed wires and that all of the lights are in working order. The best way to string lights is to run the extension cord up through the middle of the tree, tying it to the trunk, and then string the lights from the top downward and outward. Place lights that are close together near the top of the tree, and place large ones at the bottom because this gives the tree a more balanced appearance.

Don't place tinsel or metal foil near lights. A small piece of metal in a lamp socket can cause a short circuit. Place cords where they will not be stepped on or tripped over. Be careful that you don't overload any of the plugs. Strings of lights take little power, but they may overload the circuit.
 
Should you decide to use brighter lamps, such as flood lights, remember that these get very hot quickly. Keep them away from fabrics and place them where they cannot be reached by children or animals. Check the circuit for overloading.

You may want to place a tree outside, on your porch, terrace, or lawn. For such outdoor lighting use waterproof electric cords and sockets, and lamps which will not crack when they get wet. Don't use indoor strings of lights outside. Outdoor strings have rubber or synthetic rings around each lamp to keep water out of the sockets. The lamps do not break very easily and usually burn independently. If you need an extension cord use the outdoor (heavy rubber-covered) type. Tape all connections with electricians' rubber tape.

You will find in some shops three relatively new products for outdoor lighting: (1) Plastic underground wire ("direct-burial cable"). (2) A projector lamp mounted on a stake which can be driven into the ground, together with a set of glass filters of various colors. (3) An outdoor-type double outlet, also mounted on a stake; there are models for underground and surface wiring.

Keep a watchful eye on the needles of your tree. As soon as they begin to drop, it is a sign that the tree is getting too dry for safety.

There are several ways to expedite removal of the tree. If it is an overly large one, you can saw off all the branches and tie them together. In this way you will have only a bundle of branches and the trunk to remove. If the trunk is large, you may want to saw it in several sections. If the tree is not too large, just tie the branches close to the trunk so that you will have an easier time in moving it through the doorways. When you start the actual moving, it is a good idea to wrap the branches or tree in an old sheet, to save yourself the trouble of picking up hundreds of dropped needles later on.

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