Chapter 7 - Christmas For Others

By Larry Eisenberg
 
If you have ever been alone, or confined, at Christmas time, you know how empty the season can be, and how grateful and happy you would have been if cheer and loving-kindness had been brought to you. Every Christmas, in every community, there are those who need such attention and would welcome and appreciate it deeply. Either as individuals or through organizations we all have almost unlimited opportunity to serve the needs of others, at this time of year. City and country alike, in any area, have some or all of the following places, where need is apparent:

Home for the Aging School for the Blind School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
 
Salvation Army and Volunteers of America enterprises Hospital
Mental Hospital
Prison, Penitentiary, Prison Camp Home for the Needy Home for Children Home for Crippled Children Army Installation Community Center

In addition to all these, there are those who live alone shut-ins, the destitute, the aged. Sick or well, in need or not, they have in common a desperate loneliness which can, at Christmas, be relieved.

General Suggestions For Helping These Folk

1. Approach any of these people as having dignity, and as worthy of your respect. Don't condescend.

2. Give them personal attention. Everyone wants and enjoys personal attention; these folk usually have a special need of it. Perhaps have a name tag for everyone; this will enable you to speak to them by name as often as possible.

3. Be sure you have your signals clear with "the office," or the administration, where institutions are involved. Check with them well enough in advance for time, timing, and the suitability of the program you have planned.

4. In advance, if possible, send someone to check on the physical facilities the availability of tables (if you are to have crafts), running water, kitchen use, lighting, everything you will need to set up, entertain, and clear away.

5. Find out how many will be involved. This is of great importance. Prepare for the maximum number of persons who might attend, but do not count on this number for the success or failure of your program, since some will probably be absent or ill or occupied on the day of your visit.

6. In the case of hospitals, mental hospitals, and homes for the aging, be sure to know, in advance, which persons should not be disturbed, and how active or noisy a program is appropriate to the group. Consider carefully the handicap involved, if some are handicapped.

The very best method when planning for  an institution is to have someone from its staff working with you on every phase of the program.

7. Keep the plan flexible. If there are several people in your group who will lead, perform, or demonstrate, establish one of them as the leader and give him the authority to shorten the program or modify it in any way without consultation. The situation on the spot may indicate, without warning, that changes should be made.

8. Get there early. Many of these people will be almost pathetically eager for your program, and will have been anticipating it for days or weeks, during what is probably a routine, uneventful existence. Do not by being tardy allow the slightest alarm or confusion or anxiety to arise in the group on what should be an afternoon or evening of pure pleasure. The practical reasons for being early are obvious; your program will without question run more smoothly and successfully.

9. Be sure that your team understands thoroughly the principles you will establish during the program. Each one in your group should understand that your purpose is to create fun and good, warm feelings, and therefore, in games or participating stunts, the important thing is happiness, not skills. It doesn't matter how well a game is played or a song is sung; what does matter is that everyone has a chance to be part of the program.

10. Encourage the groups you wish to entertain to do things for themselves, if possible. Putting on a show for them has value, of course, but nothing will lift their spirits more than their own contributions to the program.

11. One of the greatest morale-builders for those in difficulty is the doing of something for others. Arrange for, and encourage, one group to work for the happiness of another group just as you are arranging for their Christmas cheer. Some of the projects suggested below would be fine for this, and being busy at the holiday season will alleviate the loneliness of feeling unneeded.

12. When you arrive and everyone is gathered, start with something that will bring them together in spirit, such as group singing, musical games, or mixers. Then go into the rest of the program.

13. Don't let the program run too long. Some of these folk will tire easily, others may have a limited span of attention.

14. Take along a gift of some kind for each person even if it is only a cookie apiece. This is very important, for it leaves them with a bright and cheerful remembrance of your visit.

15. Repeated visits are greatly appreciated, in most cases. If you can arrange to entertain from one year to the next, your visit becomes something to look forward to and count on.

Projects And Entertainments

1. Christmas Tree Decorating  Project. Take along a Christmas tree and let the people help make the decorations . Do this considerably in advance of Christmas Eve. (In some cases, several trees might be taken and each group or department work to have a tree for themselves. However, in the case of a single family, one tree would be enough.) Let them make decorations and then decorate the tree. This can occupy the whole evening. Take along scissors and aluminum pie tins, which can be cut into beautiful shapes. (See page 126.) Also take aluminum milk-bottle caps, popcorn, colored popcorn, needles and string. Get colorful cellophane-wrapped candy and tie the individual pieces together with cellophane tape to make a chain of candy. Used flashbulbs coated with paste or glue and dipped in glitter make interesting ornaments. Christmas cards  unfolded and placed on branches add color to any tree. Strings of cranberries are always good. Check the suggestions on decorations which appear on pages 120 to 131, and fit them to the abilities and age groups of those you will visit.

2. Crafts for Others. Set up card tables, covered with newspaper. For the floor, use a painter's drop cloth. On one table, have samples of what can be done. On supply tables, have scissors, cellophane tape, paste, glue, cork, felt, feathers, seeds, buttons, pins, construction paper, toothpicks, raisins, prunes, marshmallows and the like. A good rule to follow is that all are to work at making favors, but anyone who wants to keep his may do so, if he makes a duplicate. Here is a chance for confined people to do something for others! One part of a hospital can make favors for the trays for another part, for instance.

3. Giant Picture Christmas Card. Get someone of skill to outline a giant card on a large piece of poster board, or even the cardboard from an outsized packing box. Have the group paint it, and send or take it to someone who will appreciate it. All can sign their names, to make it interesting. This card could be sent from a group to another group, with the names of all those to whom it is sent also written on.

4. Christmas Friend Mystery Friend. Where names can be obtained and passed around, have each person in the sponsoring group "adopt" a person in the institution and send him periodic gifts and cards. Then at the final party, get the Christmas friends together.

5. Adopt-a-Child Plan. Many Children's Homes are happy to cooperate in allowing their children to go out into private homes to celebrate Christmas for the season (a weekend, week, even longer). The child is taken in and treated as a member of the family, and there could hardly be a more appropriate observance of the meaning of Christmas. Often adoptions take place as a result of this plan.

6. Adopt-an-Adult Plan. A family can make a lonely adult very happy by "adopting" him or her as an uncle or aunt or other relation for the Christmas celebration. Organizations can sponsor this idea, and homes for the aging or indigent will cooperate.

7. Small Gift or Card Shower. A group may meet in their regular meeting place, write cards and wrap gifts, and send them to shut-ins, people who are away from the group, those in hospitals, prisons, Children's Homes, or other institutions.

8. White Christmas. This is a custom of many groups. Gifts of food, toys, mittens, books, and other objects are brought to a central meeting place, wrapped in white paper. These are delivered, then, to such institutions as Children's Homes.

9. Caroling. Groups love to work up some Christmas carols and then go to sing to shut-ins and those otherwise confined. In some cases, it is a good idea to get some of the people in institutions  to join the caroling group in singing to others.

10. Santa's Repair Shop . Gather broken, unpainted toys, repair them and freshen them up, and then take them to families or groups where they are needed. Or, instead of doing this at your accustomed meeting place, take selected ones of the toys to some such place as an Old Men's Home, along with materials needed, and help those who live there help someone else have a good time at Christmas.

11. Christmas Tour. If you'd like to help people who are able to get out, take them in cars or a bus to see the Christmas lights. If they can't get out, perhaps a good photographer can make time-exposure color slides and show them.

Movies and slides on the Christmas theme can help the folks get beyond their walls.

12. Take Color Slides of the Party, Show them Next Time. If a return trip will be possible, take color slides with flash cameras of the activities and show them the next time you come. This always stirs interest, for we are always interested in seeing ourselves.

13. Tape Recordings. A tape recorder, too, is fun for all. If the group is large, more than one recorder should be used. Children, youth, adults, we all like to "hear how we sound."

Have something for everyone to read or say (such as "The Night Before Christmas") so that no one will be lost for words. Then play back what was recorded.

14. Puppet-making. There are several kinds of puppets that can be made and used as part of a single afternoon's or evening's entertainment, if you have chosen with some care the suitability of such a project. Divide the group into small groups of five or ten persons each. Give each one paper bags, scissors, construction paper, paste, crayons, cotton, and other materials for making paper-bag puppets. The bag should be square-bottomed, for best results, and about 5 or 6 inches wide and as deep as you can find, since the depth gives the illusion of a costume.

To make a puppet, turn a paper bag upside down and cut holes for "arms" thumb and fourth finger. Three middle fingers move the puppet's head.
Turn the bag upside down, so that the bottom of the bag becomes the top of the head of the puppet. Cut as shown, or in any other way that will allow the fingers to protrude, as arms, and help to animate the puppet. Then faces can be made, by pasting on eyes, nose, and mouth that have been cut from brightly colored construction paper. Faces can also be drawn or painted on. Decide which would be better for your group, or provide help with all three methods. Ears can be cut out and pasted on, or drawn or painted on. Hats, bow ties, ribbons or lace doilies can be pasted on to simulate costumes, and the part of the bag below the "arms" decorated to resemble all kinds of costumes.

Each group can be helped with puppet-making and given suggestions for putting on little shows for all the others. If this would produce too many shows, number off the groups and have number 1 put on its show for number 2, and number 2 for number 1, and so on. In this way each group has an audience and each group is an audience without taking up too much time.

Puppets can be made from fruits and vegetables, also. A hollow rubber ball, painted to resemble a head, is effective, and can be made to move realistically by cutting a round hole, where the neck would be, and inserting the middle finger. Crepe paper or cloth, gathered to the middle finger with a rubber band and with holes cut in the sides for "arms" (which are the fingers of the hand, of course) complete the illusion.

If you think it is appropriate to the age group you'll be with and your surroundings, plan and make a simple puppet stage. It can be contrived easily out of a large carton with the back cut out, and the front cut away as doors.

Children love to work on and operate puppets, even this simplest kind. But you may be surprised at how much adults like them, too, if you can overcome their inhibitions!

15. Lumpy Stocking Idea. This is especially good for children, but older adults might enjoy it as well. About December 10, send each person whom you will entertain a long empty stocking. Then send a succession of gifts, each day or two, to be added unopened, by a third person, to the stocking. Have the little gifts wrapped in odd-shaped packages, so that guessing what they are will be difficult, and fun. The child may feel, rattle, or smell his lumpy stocking during the days before Christmas, but he may not look inside. On the night of the party, match up the donors with the children, and have a grand opening. It is important that each child have the undivided attention of someone as he finally gets to see his gifts. Take care with the little ones, who believe in Santa, that this stocking is not confused with the "real thing."

16. Simulated Stained-glass Windows. If there is time, lovely simulated stained-glass windows can be made from butcher paper on which the window designs have been drawn. Colors are kept apart by using black in the same way as lead is used in a regular window. If a light coating of raw linseed oil is applied when the "window" is finished, this makes it translucent. Mounted, it looks very much like a stained-glass window. Try this yourself at home, before you undertake it for a group, so that you will have constructive suggestions to make at the time of the party. It will be most effective if you bring along an example of the result, and show how pretty it is when the light is shining from behind it.

17. Story-telling, or Story-reading. Even adults like stories, and often at the climax or at the end of a program, story-telling adds the finishing touch. Try some of the stories in this book, taking care to choose one that is likely to be most effective with the age and status of the group you will read to. The readings will be especially good if done around the fire, by low light or candlelight.

18. Hanukkah  and Christmas. In some situations, Jewish folk are involved, yet the Christmas celebration is called for, too. Then let the program recognize both Hanukkah and Christmas, giving something of the story, origin, and music of each.
 
19. Finger-painting. Any arts or crafts store can furnish the material. Children love to finger-paint, and they can be asked to make decorations in finger-painting for their rooms or for the home, the dining room, or for the sponsoring group. It is good to bring along men's old shirts for them to protect their clothing. While you are finger-painting, Christmas music or records  can be played. Water-resistant table tops are needed for this; oilcloth will do the job.

A good recipe for making finger paints yourself, economically, follows. The ingredients given will make about one pint of paint; for larger groups enlarge the recipe accordingly. Remember to provide different colors. A large batch can be made and then separated into smaller quantities and tinted.

1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
½ tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons corn starch
3 tablespoons powdered coloring (artists' dry colors)
1 teaspoon glycerine
1 pint water

Dissolve gelatin in ¾ cup cold water and set aside. Mix dry ingredients with remainder of water. Add glycerine to this and boil, stirring constantly. Remove from fire and stir in gelatine mixture. Pour into jar and allow to set.

20. Performing for the Group. Work up a Christmas play and present it. Or bring along special Christmas musicians, carolers, duets, quartets, choruses. These are always enjoyed. Or have a ceremony surrounding the lighting of the Christmas tree. Give the story of the Christmas tree. Entertainers, whether using the Christmas theme or not, are always welcome.

Often radio and television personalities will join you in presenting an attractive program to needy or confined people. Older folks often appreciate watching performances more than they would enjoy trying to perform themselves. It is good to have them join you in performing only if they can, and are willing. All, however, of almost any age and inclination, can participate by making requests for the songs that are to be played or sung.

A Typical Program Lineup

When going out to groups, you may have such a plan that an actual "program" is not necessary. If you are doing a Santa's Repair Shop or Crafts, that may be enough. But let us show how a program might be arranged which would bring in several elements of variety, and give a "party" effect.

1. Greeting, hello. Have name tags on all of the visitors and get them on all of the "home group" too. Start with some lively songs or mixers.

2. Report on the mystery friend. (Who is it who has been sending those cards, presents, or the "lumps" for the "lumpy stocking"?)

3. A game, in small groups such as clapping out the rhythm of a Christmas song, for every one to guess. (See page 188.) A good way to divide people into groups, quickly and simply, is by their birth dates. A substitute idea for this stage of the program might be for small groups to do paper-sack puppets, or some other "Christmasy" assignment. Then they will either put on acts for the whole group, one at a time, or else for each other, with group number 1 doing theirs for group number 2, and vice versa.

4. A Christmas festival, skit or drama, presented for everyone. The skit which follows on page 185 is the kind of performance that is very successful at this type of gathering.

5. The giving of Christmas presents (if that is planned).

6. Refreshments.

7. Carol singing (on request), story-telling, or reading the Christmas story from Luke.

8. Good night, Merry Christmas!

A Visit From St. Nick

NOTE: This is best usable with a fairly large group. It calls for a narrator, who reads the material, and for having different people in the audience to spring to their feet and read the phrases capitalized, when their number is held up by the narrator. (This means that the narrator must have 27 cards to hold up at the appropriate time. If there are many more people than this, and more cards and rhymes are welcome, they can be added to, beyond 27. Have someone in your group think up interesting, funny remarks of the same nature as those that follow.)

Narrator Reads:

I was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring ... 1. but the cook MIXING COOKIES!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hope that St. Nicholas ... 2. would darn ALL THEIR HOLES!

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar plums ... 3. made them DROOL IN THEIR PILLOWS.

And mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains ... 4. by visiting A PSYCHIATRIST.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter I sprang from the bed ... 5. to tell them to pipe down!

Away to the window I flew like a flash Tore open the shutters ... 6. and threw them ON THE DYING FIRE.

The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave the luster of midday ... 7. on the bicycle WE FORGOT TO PUT IN, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh ... 8. with hydromatic drive.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it ... 9. was the fuller BRUSH MAN.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled and shouted ... 10. and raised HIS BLOOD PRESSURE.
 
Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid ... 11. on, sauerkraut and wieners!

To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! ... 12. and a DASH OF TOMATO CATCHUP.

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle ... 13 pile UP IN THE CORNER,

So up to the housetop the coursers they flew, With a sleigh full of toys ... 14. and some BUBBLE GUM TOO! And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing ... 15. of a television REPAIRMAN. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came ... 16. KNOCKING SIX BRICKS LOOSE.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his feet,  And his clothes were all tarnished ... 17. and READY FOB THE CLEANERS.

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler ... 18. in the (local) GROCERY EMPORIUM.

His eyes, how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses ... 19. but not so expensive!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow

And the beard of his chin ... 20. needed trimming A LITTLE.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth And the smoke it encircled his head ... 21. LIKE A CIGARETTE AD WREATH.

He had a broad face and a round little belly, That shook when he laughed ... 22. like a TELEVISION PICTURE.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him ... 23. my WOOL UNDERWEAR TICKLED ME.
 
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Soon gave me to know ... 24. he'd gotten a CINDER IN HIS EYE.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work And filled all the stockings ... 25. but the ONES WITH HOLES IN THEM.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew ... 26. like the down OF A THISTLE?

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all" ... 27. aren't you GLAD THIS IS OVER?

A CARD FOR CHRISTMAS  (For three boys and three girls) By Agnes Curtis Cast of Characters:

DIANA SNOW the girl who sends a Christmas card to Loretta Mills

LORETTA MILLS the girl to whom Diana sends the Christmas card

PRISCILLA HART the girl who wouldn't send Loretta Mills a card for anything

HUGH HINES the boy who is helping at the post office during the Christmas rush

GEORGE BANKS the boy who wouldn't send Loretta a card

JAMES PIERCE the boy who thinks Loretta is a joke.

(They all wear street clothes except Hugh. Hugh wears any home clothes.) TIME: The afternoon before Christmas. PLACE: The post office at the small town of Rugby. The post office boxes may be easily simulated by blocking off into squares for boxes a large piece of cardboard. In the middle in the upper part of the cardboard is a post office window. Directly below is a slit for letters. Between the extreme left side of the cardboard and the wall is a vacant space, at the end of which a person can be so well concealed that he will neither be seen nor heard. At the right center is a post office desk. On the desk are some pens, some blotters and some ink. Above the desk is a window. An ordinary glass window will serve the purpose. The one exit is at the lower right. The curtain goes up with Diana Snow on the stage. She is standing beside the desk addressing cards. She is humming softly under her breath. Presently Priscilla enters and catches sight of Diana.

PRISCILLA: Hello, Diana!

DIANA (turning and looking at Priscilla): Oh, hello!

PRISCILLA (stamping her feet and clapping her hands): Cold, isn't it?

DIANA: I'll say so.

PRISCILLA (her glance falling on the cards): What? Haven't you finished your Christmas cards yet?

DIANA: Almost. Except one. I have just one left.

(Holds up card for Priscilla to see.) PRISCILLA (looking at the card): Very pretty. A nice person deserves it. Who's going to get it? DIANA: Oh, I don't know. (Saying the first thing that comes into her head.) Guess I'll send it to Loretta Mills!

PRISCILLA (staring at Diana): Of all things! Have you gone completely mad? Whatever made you say you'd send the card to that thing! DIANA: Don't call her a "thing," Priscilla. (Teasingly) Just what have you against her? PRISCILLA (indignantly): Well, of course, if you want to be treated as she'll treat you when you send her that card, why just go ahead! It's your party! (Looks in post office box.) Aha! Mail for me! (Starts to open box, but Hugh is too quick for her.)

HUGH (taking mail from box and holding it out the window to Priscilla): Christmas service! One! Two! Three!

PRISCILLA (laughing and taking the mail): Thanks, Hugh.

HUGH (laughing): I always help out at Christmas! I don't know how the postmaster would make out if I didn't.

PRISCILLA: Well, Merry Christmas, Hugh! Merry Christmas, Diana!
 
HUGH AND DIANA (in chorus): Merry Christmas!

(Priscilla goes out.)

HUGH (sticking his head out of the office box): Diana, what have you decided to do about that card? DIANA (swinging the card in her hand back and forth in an absent-minded sort of manner): I don't know. (At that moment George Banks.enters.) GEORGE (in a hearty voice): Hello there, Diana. Hello, Hugh! HUGH: Hello.

GEORGE: My Christmas mail HUGH (taking mail from box and holding it out to George): Ready for you.

GEORGE (taking the mail): Whew! What service! HUGH: It's Christmas!

GEORGE (looking at Diana): Diana, why are you looking at that card in that way?

DIANA: I'm getting ready to send it to Loretta Mills.

GEORGE (in disgust): What?

DIANA; Yes!
GEORGE (with mock gravity): My dear child, you surely have taken leave of your senses! Loretta Mills never sends any cards to anyone!

In the first place, she's too stingy and, in the second place, she's too mean. (Hugh is seen at the office window, listening intently.)

DIANA (looking directly at George): The more reason why I should send her a card, maybe.

GEORGE: Oh, don't let me keep you from doing your good deed, my child. But beware the consequences! So long, everybody! (Goes out.)

HUGH (reflectively): Loretta's not so popular in this little town of Rugby, is she?

DIANA (definitely): I should say not. (At that moment James Pierce comes in. He is carrying a package and some letters. He walks up to the post office window.)

JAMES: Here, Hugh. A package.

HUGH (taking the package): O.K.

JAMES (dropping the letters in the mailbox): No mail for me. Got it just fifteen minutes ago.

(Turns to Diana.) Hi, Diana! What's on your mind these days?
 
DIANA (earnestly); I'm trying to decide whether or not I should send this card to Loretta Mills.

JAMES (bursting into laughter): Ha! Ha! Ha! That is a good one! Send a Christmas card to Loretta Mills! There'd be only one answer to that in my mind: "No!" What a joke! What a joke!

HUGH (sticking his head further out the post-office window): You don't like Loretta Mills, I take it?

JAMES (retorting): Like her? Who does? She's a regular old sourpuss! This is the way she goes along the street! (Draws mouth down into the most disagreeable manner imaginable.) Like this. (Imitates Loretta's manner of walking which is decidedly furtive.) Looks neither to the right nor to the left. Humph! Send her a card if you want to! (Both Diana and Hugh laugh.)

DIANA: Oh, James! She's really not as bad as that! You know she isn't!
JAMES: She is, almost. Makes me think of a vinegar jug! If she'd smile once in a while! Well, I'm going now. Merry Christmas!

HUGH AND DIANA (in chorus): Merry Christmas! (George goes out.)

DIANA: Do you know, I'm rather sorry for Loretta Mills! No one has a good thing to say about her.

HUGH: Then send her the card, just for fun!

DIANA: Send her a card for fun? Should Christmas cards be sent just for fun? (Happens to glance at that moment out of the window and gasps.) Hugh! There is Loretta Mills herself, coming straight for the post office! I'm going to give her this card! (Hastily scribbles address and signature on card.) Here! (Gives Hugh the card.) Stamp it and let her have it when she comes in! (Hugh stamps card and then stands there waiting for Loretta to come in.)

DIANA (speaking rapidly): I'm going to hide over here and see for myself just how Loretta will take this! (Runs over to left into the vacant place and
crouches down at the end where she cannot be seen. A little later, Loretta enters and walks dejectedly up to the post office window.)

LORETTA (in a tired voice): I don't suppose there's anything for me, is there?

HUGH: Yes, there is. A card for you. (Gives Loretta the card.)

LORETTA (taking the card): For me? (Takes the card and examines it.) A Christmas card. From from Diana Snow! (Stares at the card in stunned silence.)

HUGH: You seem surprised.

LORETTA: Surprised? Why, I never was so surprised in all my life! Nor so pleased! I had no idea Diana Snow liked me! I had no idea! I always thought she didn't like me! Most people don't. (A long pause follows during which time Loretta continues to gaze in rapt attention at the card.)

HUGH: It's a pretty card.

LORETTA (still staring at the card): Yes, it's a lovely card. I never saw a lovelier one with all these angels and their trumpets! But it's not so much that it's a pretty card. It's because a girl like Diana Snow thought of me at Christmas time! Of all people! (Looking at Hugh.) Do you know, Diana Snow always seemed an ideal girl to me! I've always sort of admired her, but er I'm afraid of her. She's beyond me, I guess. Lots of times in school when she thought I wasn't noticing, I'd look at her out of the corner of my eye and wish I could be like her. She's so popular and nice! And so pretty! (Draws a deep sigh.) What a wonderful thing that she sent me me a Christmas card! Now I am going to get a Christmas card right now and send it to Diana Snow! Right now! (Hurries out. Diana emerges rather sheepishly from her hiding place.)

DIANA: Hugh, I'm ashamed of myself!

HUGH: Well, you never know what's going on in other people's minds, do you?

DIANA: No, you don't. I had no idea Loretta Mills was like that! Afraid of. me! I'm going to tell the others! And from now on, every year, Loretta Mills gets a Christmas card from me!

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