'Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
C. «• 
1441 
Inexpensive Gifts for Christmas 
To make Christmas presents with plenty 
of money is easy. To make them without 
money calls for industry and ingenuity, 
but such gifts often give genuine pleasure, 
because they are so eloquent of the per¬ 
sonality of the giver. The making of 
Christmas gifts should be a pleasure in¬ 
stead of a burden ; therefore, one should 
abide by the following rules: 
Begin early—say about the week of the 
New Year following Christmas. You will 
not do it. of course, but if you begin to 
think about it then you will come around 
to have an earlier start than if you put 
it off until the following holidays become 
imminent. Do not feel obligated to present 
to well-to-do friends gifts commensurate 
to their wealth, even if they have, as you 
think, "laid you under obligations.” They 
give what comes easiest to them—money. 
You give what you can best bestow—a 
little time and a kindly thought. 
There are three k.nds of gifts that re¬ 
quire but little money. The first is the 
simple, useful kind. There are many little 
things with which the average house¬ 
keeper is apt to neglect providing herself, 
and often they are most welcome, and 
serve to remind one of an absent friend 
many times a day. 
The second is the amusing gift. If a 
child’s toy has character, it often makes 
much fun when given to an adult. The 
foreigners get mxich innocent fun out of 
this kind of giving. The third kind con¬ 
sists of articles made by the donor. 
UsEFXTL Gifts. —Some hints are here 
offered as to the things which may be 
given under this head. A complete list 
would be almost endless. It must be re¬ 
membered that the manner, as well as the 
matter, should be considered in the making 
of gifts. Often a very simple present 
gives much pleasure when accompanied 
by a verse of poetry, or even doggerel. 
The wrapping of gifts is also a very essen¬ 
tial point. 
A tack hammer has a hole bored in the 
handle, with a string inserted, by which 
to hang it up, and a hook tied on, which 
is to be screwed into the wall. Tied also 
to the hammer, which is fancifully 
wrapped in tissue or crepe paper and tied 
with ribbon or tinsel cord, is a card, the 
four corners punctured by four tacks. On 
the card is written : “Do not Remove me 
ri'om my place without the consent of my 
owner. After using me, do not fail to 
return me promptly to my place.” Accom¬ 
panying is a box of tacks, or tacks and 
nails mixed. One of my most highly 
prilled gifts is a hammer, which no one 
but myself has the right to use, and which 
is therefore always to be found. 
Tags, of a rather small size, say l%x 
3^/4. and provided with strings, are nearly 
always a welcome gift. At the time this 
was written the price was 85 cents per 
thousand. Fifty are put in a package 
and the strings braided together. Red 
crepe paper is then wrapped about the 
tags, notching the paper to represent a 
tulip or poppy. The calyx is represented 
by a wrapping of green paper at the base 
of the red. The strings are then tightly 
wrapped with strips of green paper to 
simulate a stem. Attached to this is a 
card, on which may be written : 
‘‘Sometimes you are wanting to send 
things away— 
Sometimes you put truck in a bag; 
In each of these cases you’ll have better 
luck. 
If you always make use of a tag.” 
This gift seldom fails to elicit real grati¬ 
tude. 
Another almost as desirable is a box of 
gummed labels. One can accompany this 
with the lines: 
“To know the contents of bottle or box 
At a glance, you will always be able 
If, when you put them away in their place 
You always make use of a label.” 
May housekeepers push about heavy 
furniture, on which are no casters or 
glides. A few sets of these glides may be 
stuck on a cardboard, on which is printed 
this bit of nonsense verse: 
“Your tables and chairs about your room 
Will smoothly and easily glide 
If, ere you try to push them around. 
You furnish each leg with a slide.” 
The wire racks which hold pot covers 
are convenient for holding open a cook 
book when one wishes to consult a certain 
recipe while cooking. They are also fine 
as receptacles for paper bags, or pieces of 
wrapping paper. 
To the Cooh 
“Please hang me safe upon a hook, 
(The hook upon the wall) 
I then will hold your open book. 
And it’s not soiled at all. 
“Then when with cooking you are done. 
And things are put away. 
Put paper bags in me, one by one. 
And then they’ll be out of the way.” 
^ Holders are always useful and welcome 
gifts. They should be made large enough 
to handle baking pans, and should be fur¬ 
nished with strong, generous loops, made, 
preferably, from strips of the cloth. 
doubled several times and stitched, form¬ 
ing a narrow tape, about a quarter of an 
inch wide. The ends of these should be 
stitched in at the corners, the ends being 
separated enough so that it is always easy 
to hang it up. It is a nuisance to have 
to stop to separate the loops of a holder. 
Brass rings (which are sizeable) are 
sometimes used, but are open to the objec¬ 
tion of getting hot. It is a good plan to 
insert a square of asbestos. Accompany 
them with: 
“When in the course of human events 
The things on your stove get hot; • 
If you^ use these holders to take them off 
You’ll swear on your life they are not.” 
These little rhymes add much to the 
fun. When convenient, it is nice to type¬ 
write them nicely and paste them on the 
outside of the package. Enough of them 
have been given to show the spirit ■ in 
which they are written. One with a tal¬ 
ent for rhyming can make really clever 
little verses. 
A string-ball _ holder, of iron, to hang 
under a shelf in a convenient place, is 
almost a necessity after one has become 
used to it. They can also be had to set 
upon the shelf, instead of hanging up. 
Many a household is chronically without 
paste. A jelly glass can be filled with 
flour paste, which will keep if a few drops 
of carbolic acid or oil of cloves be added. 
A little brush should accompany the 
paste. , 
Where there is a large family and the 
mother sexvs, there are many little things 
w’hich would be appreciated; basting 
thread, a little arrangement for holding 
spools and thimbles, especially self-thread¬ 
ing needles (this is a gift always tremen- 
dou.sly appreciated by those who find it 
difficult to thread a needle), box of darn¬ 
ing cotton of assorted colors, boxes of 
different sizes of buttons, of different 
widths of tape, of snaps, black and white, 
of different sizes, you may be sure that 
some of these will fill a place often vacant 
before. The mother, too, is often out of 
pins and safety pins. Also black and 
white pins and extra large ones, and the 
pin balls, with pins ( f different colors are 
a delight to children. There is no end 
to the collections of different little gifts 
that may be made— hut —and this is a big 
but, they will seem commonplace unless 
the packages are done up in the Christmas 
spirit. TTse plenty of tissue paper and 
gold and silver tinsel cord and narrow, 
bright Christmas ribbon. Holly berries 
and little tiny Christmas bells, if you can 
get them, add much to the attractiveness 
of the package. Boxes which have come 
into the house from time to time can be 
neatly covered with bright paper and 
have a picture pasted on top. In these 
boxes the presents can be laid. See that 
the box when opened presents an attrac¬ 
tive interior. Sending ever so ordinary 
things in such bright packages gives an 
air of Christmas festivity to the occasion. 
A little taste, the Christmas spirit and a 
real desire to be helpful can create in the 
humblest home at Christmas a happiness 
which millionaires might envy. i 
ririroROUs Gifts. — The appropriate¬ 
ness of these depends upon the character 
and circumstances of the recipient, and 
should be chosen with tact, for nothing 
hurts worse than an ill-placed joke. It 
is easy to cross the line that divides inno¬ 
cent fun from satire. One grandmother 
was delighted with a baby’s rattle, made 
in the form of a little girl, with two flaxen 
braids, feet toeing in, and a foolish and 
self-conscious smirk upon the face. It 
was really a work of art. Another, also 
artistic, was a jumping jack, made of a 
pa.steboard boy, whose face was contorted 
as if bawling. He wore a red dress, green 
tie and pantalettes. The contrast between 
the jerking legs, with the pantalettes, and 
that bawling face was irresistable. It 
was cherished for many years as a kind 
of household mascot. 
One man, who had been ill, received some 
grave advice in regard to physical exer¬ 
cise and was informed that he would do 
well to follow the system illustrated 
within—whereupon he unearthed a clown, 
which turned endless somersaults on a 
wire. This furnished amusement for a 
Christmas party for days. 
TioMEMADE (jiFTS. — This requires i 
article all by itself, but it is well to be 
in mind that in the past millions of fooli 
fancy things have been made, with an i 
finite outlay of time and monev, whi 
only served to clutter up the house ai 
make more work, without being of ai 
earthly use. It is better to err in the o 
posite direction and make only plain, ug 
ful gifts, than to burden our friends wi 
things which become a nuisance and whi( 
they dare not burn for fear you will fii 
It out. It is with the hope that some 
the above hints may prove suggestive 
interesting idei 
that they are with some hesitancy he 
offered. Only as the foolish habit . 
American Christmas giving is checked I 
those possessing moral courage, and is r 
p aced by the giving of simple, inexpensii 
articles, which will show that the giv« 
has remembered, will Christmas come ini 
Its own and become what it should be— 
season of carefree happiness. 
ELLEM DE GRAFF. 
KBURNSa 
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333 West Thirtieth Street, New York 
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PRINCIPAL OFFICES 
