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times t.ey are quile apparenly "made up." TARDY BETTER THAN NoNE But if the noté has not been sent, be sure that it goes even though beâ€" lated. A tardy note of thanks is a hundredfold better than no note at all. Before starting the letter, allow a few moments for thinking over the visit, recalling all the good times you enâ€" joyed together. Let the jetter exâ€" press something of this. Do not make profuse excuses, but let the little you do say be to the point. Too many excuses carry the idea, and it is usualâ€" zhtm that there was no real worthâ€" ile reason for the tardiness, that rocrastination alone was responsible. ither say so frankly and let it go m or give the oustanding reason. p.pnu&}un at one time or srother done vngracious thing of part and then the excuses or reasons for the tardiness. It is apt to be more difficult to make graceful excuses than to express one‘s thanks, parâ€" ticularly as the usual reason for the delay is nothing but a reluctance to write. The desire to keep this thought out of the letter cramps the ready flow of appreciation. A person naturâ€" ally objects to letting a hostess know that the hospitality so kindly extended and so heartily enjoyed was, after all, not sufficient to warrant the imâ€" mediate courtesy of a little bread and butter letter. Perish the thought! so excuses have to be made and someâ€" es to their hospitality especially deâ€" Hgntful. It is also for the same reaâ€" son that guests find the prompt writâ€" ing of the notes pleasantest. While everything is fresh in one‘s memory, notes are not actually hard to write, though they may seem to be, if a perâ€" son is not a ready writer. Once the writing materials are out and the note begun, it almost "writes itself." ‘ PELAYED NOTE DIFFICULT. *‘ It is the delayed notes that are the difficult ones. Then two things have to be expressed, first the "thank you" becausoe, during the vacation periods, scores of. persons have ;ec_oind deâ€" lightful hoapitality from their friends, which _ requires _ acknow‘ledgment. There is an exubsrance that is most keonly feit immediately after being entertained that creeps into notes sent promptly. It is partly for this reason that hostesses find immediate responsâ€" BY LYDiA LE BARON WALKER, Don‘t forget the "bread and butter" or the "thank you" letters that should be sent after being entertained. Just now thase are specially in prominence i+0ou mustn‘t m Of one who He slceps in pea And fills hi To steal a look, | Butâ€"let him si« Holiday Invitation ake a sound! > thoughts ike a sound! ‘"Twould spoil the dream s> thoughts are filled with tender joys. ice! Then Santa comesâ€"unseen, s little tockies up with toys. a had planned this little child, >emâ€"â€"and let his dreams run wild. The noisy party withdrew, and on the following night tramped two miles through the rain and sang a couple of carols at the address given, before they made the discovery that it was an asylum for the deaf! Flyâ€""Come on, boys, preâ€"war stuff for Christmas!" 3 "My friends," he remarked, "I‘m afraid you‘re fasting your talents on an unsympathetic audience. â€" They don‘t want you here, but if you would proceed to that address"â€"he threw down a cardâ€""toâ€"morrow night, my friends would be de.ighted to hear you. I can assure you they wouldn‘t mind paying handsome‘ly for the privilege!" {__This is an oldâ€"fashioned pudding like our grandmothers used to make. ‘Put into a mixing bow! two and a half cupfu‘s of sifted flour, one teaspoonâ€" \ful of salt and one cupful of finelyâ€" |\ chopped suet. _ Mix well and add |enough water to make a dough you "can roll out nicely to about a quarter of an inch thick. Spread with slices of lean salt pork, sprinkle over one ‘tablespoonful of sage, slice a good-‘ sized onion over the meat and add a little garlic if liked. Now roll up fairly tight and tie in a cloth; drop into a kettle of boiling water and boil three hours. ‘Serve hot as a meat dish. A party who were carolâ€"singing in England last Christmas Eve made the acquaintance of a benevolentâ€"looking o.d man, and would doubtless like to meet him again. They were making night hideous outside a house in the suburbs, when a window on the second floor opened, and the old man adâ€" dressed them. This same excellent suet crust also makes a nlce foundation for a fruit pudding. _ Spread it with jam or marmalade, roll up and boil in the same way. The most important of Christmas‘s namesakes is Natal, a province of South Africa. The Portuguese disâ€" covered it on Christmas Day, and named it Natal, since it was sighted on Christ‘s natal day. of years. Before its discovery in 1868 Herod the Great‘s nefarious scheme it was uninhabited, and even now the to discover the blrth}]").nce of the Mesâ€" wlation numbers only about three siah in order Eo ki him' illustrates PoP not only Herod‘s wicked life, but the hundred. %, | irreconcilable difference between the The other Christ.mas Island lies ’",spirit of the kingdoms of the world the Pacific Ocean, nearly on the Equaâ€" and the spirit of the Prince of Peace. tor. It was discovered in 1777, but Jesus came in humility to bring in a was only annexed by England in 1898 kingdom of love and hol'lness. Herod with a view to laying the Pacific cable. | “?ft flfl]r}!‘ls gr:-s tosgeg)nv:ufliym (:’f the s $ _‘ gift of life, but unsuceess . Jesus Its r‘iches le in guano and motherâ€"of. ;gad to die for men in ordet to slvel pe;’!l‘w most important of Christmas‘s them, but nlqthgg til his earthly work ® ET T was accomplished. g::;‘;fakef“li: Nf‘rf:l' D apmamains ’“‘:f! III. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGLI 9-12.‘ ces, not a great way from Java. It is the top of a huge submerged mounâ€" tain 15,000 feet in height, only 1,200 feet of which show above the sea. The island is valuable becauso of the deâ€" posits of phosphate of lime formed there by seaâ€"birds during thousands of years. Before its discovery in 1868 it was uninhabited, and even now the popw.ation numbers only about three hundrod. 1 At least three places owe their names to Christmas. Two of them nre is.ands. One is in the East Inâ€" sending belated notes of thanks, and hostesses usually can be relied upon to accept your tardy note in the spirit in which it is sent. While this is noâ€" thing to your eredit, it helps the situation for thoso who do send late notes. The prompt letter, however, is the felicitous one. e U Old English Pork Pudding. Named After Christmas. Ernover 4t Loo Hoaxed. 7// ue > The Magi are led to Bethlchem by a star. This symbolizes the heavenly guidance which at that time was being granted even to the heathen nations of the world. It is a mistake to think that the great heathen religions such as Buddhism and Brahmanisn contain no divine truth from God. There is always some ray of divine truth, though in human imaginations it beâ€" | ANALYSIS. I. tH® cominc or tug MAGI, 1â€"6, (II. tu® treacurry or HEROD, 7â€"8. |III. twr Aaporartion or tnz® MAGI, 9â€"12, I. tu® coming or tu® § AG1, 1â€"6. |,_The Jewish expectation of a comâ€" |ing Messiah was diffused throughout the Orient when Jesus came, and had captured the imagination of many Babylonian astrologers and seers. The narrative of the Magi coming at the birth of Christ and offering presents, rich and rare, symbolizes the earnest expectation of a divine Deliverer which was cherished by the whole religious spirit of the East. The same yivid expectation is to be discovered in the West at Rome, as we know from the famous Fourth Eclogue of the Roman poet, Virgil. II. tu® TreaAcHERY or HEROD, 7, 8. Christmas Lesson: The Prince of Peace, Matthew 2: 1â€"15. Golden Textâ€"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.â€"Luke 2: 11. id PB $y Hel gh%?%? Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour‘s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesomeâ€"then no planets strike, No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, So hallow‘d and so gracious is the time. $.S. LESSON So Hallow‘d and So Gracious Is the Time WHO can believe It‘s the"things you receive From the friends who remembereq you well, # That brirgs you the cheer, At this time of the year, In the place where real sentiments dwell? IT‘S cheerfully giving That adds to your living, And brings {forth, all over again, That thought, ne‘er to cease, A That real spiritâ€"Peace & On Earth and Good Will to Men APPY today? H What makes you that way? The real Christmas spirit, no doubt That feeling inside Is made up of real pride And you find that it has to come out YÂ¥es, Here‘s Santa oAe xA thrill, ® sey The joxt_)}xf tidingsâ€"Peace, â€" goodâ€" "The happy Christmas comes once more, i The heavenly Guest is at the door, The blessed words the shepherds "Cause that‘s the only way I can preâ€" vent people giving me cigars for Christmas." Those Christmas Cigars. "Why do you always swear off smokâ€" ing before Christmas instead of New Year‘s ?" of Christ. Our Christmas lesson, therefore, calls to a quickened interâ€" est in international missions. So may God‘s kingdom come, and his will be done on earth even as in heaven! The gifts of the Maii symbolize the precious qualities which the nations of the world have to offer at the shrine comes confused and blended with darkness and ignorance. But the final iurpose of this divine light is to lead the souks of men to him in whom God‘s perfect glory and radiance are to be seen, namely, Jesus Christ. For there is no salvation like the Chrisâ€" tian salvation. And God, who has not left himself without witness in any nation, seeks through his guiding light to draw the souls of men ever onâ€" wards to Christ. \ will !" ONTARIO ARCHIVEsS TORONTO i . Why are holly and mistlctoe used {i as Christmas decorations? In olden times holly was regarded as a sacred plant. The red borries Â¥ were ascociated with drops of holy | blood, and the spimes on the leaves #fiith the thorns composing the Crown ~of Thorns. â€" The beasts of the fi@‘d The idea of bringing branches of trees ‘into houses for the Yuletide celebration was that the good spirits of the woods might be appeased by being kept warm. The Druids did it when celebrating their pagan rites, and so did the Romans, who used laure! as an emblem of peace, joy and Mistletoe dates back ‘to the time of the Druids, who used it at their Yuleâ€" tide feasts.> Their name for it was "Al‘heal," and they laid it on their altars after sacrificing a white bull. would not touch the tree, but treated it with the greatest respect. _ Singe and remove pin feathers. Scrub on the outside with warm soap suds. Rinse thoroughy throuih sevâ€" eral waters. Rinse the inside through many waters and put in a cold place until ready to rogst. CHESTNUT STUFFING. One and oneâ€"half cups mashed chestnuts, 18 whole cooked Italian The goose must be youngâ€"a "green" goose, to be at its best. Many pin feathers will proclaim its youth. _ The consomme would 71;7077\'7ery atâ€" tractive if colored with tomato juice to carry out the Christmas colors. Crisp crackers can be served with oyeter cocktails if you prefer. The jokes or gifts are tied to ribâ€" bons which run to each service plate. Tho ribbons can beâ€"drawn through the top of the chimney and fireplace, from the sides of the snowball and basket, while the tiny packages are piled in the sleigh and pulled out in turn. And now for the recipesâ€" The oyster cocktail is simpleâ€"each housekeeper usually having her favyâ€" orite brand of sauce. A few drops of lemon juice sometimes improve a sauce that is not quite piquant enough. The pie itself can be in the shape of a huge snowball, a brick paper fireâ€" place, a brick paper chimney top with a Santa Claus climbing over the top a Christmas sleigh drawn by celluâ€" loid reindeer, or a "dressy" basket much beruffled with crepe paper and beribboned with scarlet bows. |__ A clear soup, consommeâ€"or bouillon, : should follow the cocktail. Then comes | the "piece de resistance" with its | vegetables; then the salad, dessert and coffee. Yew has its place in our Christmas The pie can be bought and filed to order, or you can make it yourself and fill it with jokes picked up at a fiveâ€"andâ€"tenâ€"cent store. A Jack Horner pie is not a bit new, but it is always fun, and if the gifts are carefully chosen by a clever hosâ€" tess, it is sure to cause much hilarity. Christmas Cakes Coffee So much for the menu. After the table decorations are settled, we must get. _dowr}_u{ business with the recipes. The Christmas table demands as much thought and preparation as the meal itsolf. If an elaborate dinner is wanted the following menu can be augmented to suit the requirements: You may serve the traditional plum pudding and an ice or only one or the other of the sweets. If you had turkey for Thanksgiving, why not serve goose for Christmas? After deciding your meat course, the menu for the entire dinner is worked out and planned around _ that. Thought and care must be taken not to repeat flavors in dishes so that the dinner as a whole is interesting and apgetizing. ysters are usually at their best at this time of the year, and there‘s no better way to start a dinner than with an oyster cocktail. This reâ€" quires no extra cookingâ€"an element worth considering. Creamed Caulifiqwer Christmas Salad Cheese Cups Plum Pudding Grape Juice Parfait Consomme Roast Goose Chestnut Stuffing Mashed Potatoes Olives Yuletide Decorations. Oyster Cocktail DINNER ON CHRISTMAS DAY ,'. "6_ Celery BY SISTER MARY ope like a frying pan? Because it has Greece at the boitom. decorations because it was supposed to be a symbol of immortality, the life of a yew trea extending to a thousand years or more, | Soak breadcrumbs in milk and let stand until cool. Add sugar and yolks of eggs well beaten. Chop suet very | fine and work until creamy. Combine ifruits and sprinkle liberally with flour. Stir until flour is absorbed. 'Add to l‘nt mixture. Add creamed | suet and blend thoroughly. Add spices, |grated rind and juice of orange and z'nuts. Mix well and add whites of \eggs beaten untilâ€"stiff and dry. Turn jinto a buttered mold and steam four ‘hours. Serve with hard sauce or lemon cream sauce. I Snails and Bugs for Hi Little Birdsâ€""Oh, & what Senta brought us!" Soften gelatin in 1â€"8 cup cold water.| Chri Combine fruit juices and bring to the, true boiling point. Add softened‘ gelatin| Chri and stir until dissolvéd. Let stand| I until cool and beginning to set. Whip hun« cream until stiff and add sugar nnd: Myr sa‘t. Fo!ld cream into gelatin lnd‘nam turn into a mold. Freeze in ice and and sat, using three parts of inegto done|to ¢ of salt. *A rhou All these recipes were made to serve a table of six persons. Three cups grape juice, % cup orange juice, % cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons granulated gelatin, 1% cups whipping cream, 4 ‘tablespoons powdered sugar, few grains salt. | The cheese cups are tiny cups of | white bread dipped in me‘lted butter | and toasted in a quick oven. The cups | are filled with grated cheese which ‘ melts while the bread is being toasted ‘a de‘licate brown. %4 cup shredded eltron, %4 cup suet, 2 tablespoons orange juice, grated rind 4 orange, !4 cup chopped nut meats, 4 grated nutmeg, 4 teaspoon each cinnamon, cloves and allspice, % teaâ€" spoon sait. PLUM PUDDING, One and oneâ€"hailf cups stale breadâ€" crumbs, % cup sca‘ded milk, % cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 4 cup raisins seeded and chopped, % cup currants, Scald cranborries and extract juice. Add sugar and bring to the‘ boiling point. . Soften gelatin in 1â€"8, cup cold water and stir intq boiling syrup. Remove at once from the fire} and let stand: until cool. | When beâ€"| ginning to set turn into a mold and add fruit and nuts. Chil and serve| on a bed of lettuce garnished with "cups" of head lettuce filled with fruit salad dressing. | One quart cranberries, 2 tablespoons granulated gelatin, 14 cup sugar, 1 cup diced banana, 1 cup diced canned peaches, 1 cup seeded white grapes, 1 cup nut meats. * Stuff and truss goose, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put on rack in roaster. Roast 45 minutes and pour off fat. Dredge with flour and cover bottom of pan with boiling water. Roast two hours, basting every 15 minutes if a selfâ€"basting roamster is not used. Remove trassing string and put on a hot platter. Garnish with a string of cranberries around the goose‘s neck. ‘ Melt butter and combine ingredâ€" ients with boiling water to make slightly moist. Stuff goose with mixâ€" ture. * chestnuts, !4 cup stale breadcrumbs from soft part of loaf, 12 finely chopâ€"‘ ped canned mushrooms, 4 tablespoons | butter, 1 tablespoon minced parsley,| % teaspooh onion juice, few gufim‘ nutmeg, 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind, salt and pepper. is the mep of Turkey in Burâ€" GRAPE FRUIT PARFAIT CHRISTMAS SALAD gs for Hungry Birds! â€""Oh, goody! Look wC MCIAGTIG WTO PC and steam f0U7 | the custom of pi Long, long agoâ€"nearly seventeen hundred years, in factâ€"there lived in Myra, a province of Lycia, a bishop named Nicholas, who was famed near and far for his kindness, particularly to chi‘dren. One night he heard about a poor nobleman, who was so destitute that he could not find any money for his daughter‘s dowry, and hastening to the nobleman‘s house ‘after dark, and looking in the window, he saw the poor old man asleep by the fireside. Nicholas then climbed to the roof, dropped a gold pisce down the chimney, thinking it would fall upon the hearth. But it fell instead, in one of the old man‘s stockings, which his daughter had hung up to dry beside the fire. And so was started the cusâ€" tom of hanging stockings over the fireâ€" place, and the legend of Santa Claus coming down the chimney to fill them. The secret of making confectioner‘s sugar icing taste like a cooked icing is to alwoys add something hot to the sugar, as hot butter, hot cream, milk or water. | In connection with "waits," which came from the Angloâ€"Saxons, at one time these were nothing to do with ;tho Christmas celebrations. _ Waits were formerly minstrels, who waited ; on the Court and nobility, and sounded ‘the night watch. The few who wore | left of these oldâ€"time musicians wore accustomed to play at Christmas Eve to herald the festive period, and thus There is a quaint old legend tellin@ about Santa Claus and the custom of hanging stockings by the chimney on Christmas Eve which, if not en‘ire‘; true, is beautiful, and i}lustrates the Christmas spirit as we know it. remained. | _ The word "caro?" means "sing joyâ€" ifully," for it comes from "cantare"â€" ‘to sing, and "rola" an interpretation | of joy. But in this connection Christâ€" ‘ mas in England has not always heen a joyful one, for in 1525, for instance, we read that there was a musicless Yule, on account of the iliness of King | Henry VIII. Christmas (‘hil&’ speâ€" cial feature of the festive on, it is interesting to note, were invented in 400 A.D. by Bishop Paulinus of \Campagna, Carol singing, which many children take up for the purpose of begging, became very popu‘ar indeed in the time of the Stuarts, because no doubt at that period most people could read a musical score. Try a new way this year, but make it a funâ€"making way and Christmas will long be romembered.â€"E. M. P. Perhaps, if there are a lot of chilâ€" dren, the beloved grabâ€"bag idea may be a help, but of course here again the packages must be addressed and the grabber must pass any package not his own back into the bag. A game can be made of it, the child getting his own gifts in the fewest number of grabs, winning a prize. Even the grownâ€"ups would like this idea since none of us ever loses our joy at "feelâ€" ing in the treasure chest," wonderâ€" ing if the big package wou‘d be better than the little one or vice versa. Hidden gifts always make a jolly time, especially when one finds a package with another‘s name upon it and must hide it again. Or if the outside package has one name on it and the inside another there is exâ€" citement indeed for whoever is unâ€" wrapping, the lucky one being he who last takes off a paper to find a box beneath with his own name. Sometimes it is not convenient to follow the old family custom of giving out gifts at Christmas and the family are in a quandary to know just how to do it and still make it Christmasy, In some localities everyone, old and young, either hangs up the stocking and finds the gifts in it or uses the tree on which to hang the bundles. But in other districts no one ever hangs a gift on the tree and fow grownâ€"ups ever hang up a stocking. Insterd, the gifts are just given out after breakfast, the tree being used only as a decoration. But they have what they call "plates" for every member of the family, and on this, together with candy, nuts and fruit, there is usually hidden one of the choice small gifts so that when the name is found on the plate there is a gay time guessing what the gift could How Santa Claus Got His Distributing the Gifts. Song of Joy. laying the "waits" has