12 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
supposed to show the path to Her, should 
She come that night with Her Child. In 
Russia they not only light a candle in the 
window, but go to bed with all the doors 
unlocked so that if She does come She can 
get in. This custom, revived of late, has 
spread over the country. Set a candle in 
your window this Christmas. You never 
know who will come. 
And the outdoor Christmas tree of the 
country has also spread. Scarcely a city 
now but boasts its big tree 
ablaze with a thousand 
lights. Somehow it does 
not seem to be so genuine as 
in the country. The city 
child is more blase, more 
hardened to the unusual, and 
if the children are to be 
impressed, next year’s tree 
must be even more gorgeous 
than this year’s display. All 
the same, our cities will keep 
the open House of Christ¬ 
mas, just as it is kept open 
in the country towns. 
T HE House of Christmas 
is the house specially 
decorated for Christmas, 
whether in city or country. 
Peculiarly appropriate for 
the former is a looped gar¬ 
land of laurel on the window 
box, and in the center a holly 
wreath. Or the garland may 
be brought up to the middle 
of the window and a small 
wreath attached there. 
Window boxes may be filled 
with sprigs of cedar. The 
branches of the Christmas 
tree often have to be cut off at 
the bottom or top, and these 
may be stuck into the earth 
of the window boxes where 
they will keep green for weeks. Between 
the cedar twigs place branches of holly. 
If one has no window boxes, a small 
orange plant can be placed on the inside 
window sill, and the effect, both from with¬ 
out and within, will be gay and festive as 
the little oranges catch the light against the 
shining green of their leaves. 
T HERE is something very tawdry 
about tissue paper decorations. One 
feels and knows that they come from the’ 
5 and 10-cent store. Laurel is better and 
more characteristic of the season. If one 
can order it direct from the country the 
real Christmas spirit comes with it. Hun¬ 
dreds of old country women earn the pen¬ 
nies that carry them through a good part 
of the winter by collecting laurel and ever¬ 
green for the Christmas trade. They 
twine the sprigs into long ropes, and here 
and there fasten a pine cone from the 
woods. These Christmas trimmings are 
shipped direct to the purchaser. While 
the rheumaticky fingers may not have made 
as symmetrical a wreath as the florists 
offer, the cheer of Christmas is woven into 
the work. 
Let the children make their own decora¬ 
tions for their rooms. It may consume a 
terrible lot of wire and make a lot of dirt 
and cause a lot of pitchy fingers, but they 
will understand more deeply, when the 
work is done, what the House of Christmas 
should be. 
A DECORATION in keeping with a 
prim, exquisite drawing-room is to 
hang set, symmetrical wreaths from the 
side wall fixtures and at the windows. In 
the vase, on either end of the mantel, put 
an entrancing stiff little bouquet, with 
green leaves carefully laid one on to the 
other, and, in the center, a bunch of red, 
red berries. Make them little bouquets, 
such as Kate Greenaway fancied, such as 
bridesmaids carry at fashionable weddings. 
They give a deliciously 
quaint flavor to the decora¬ 
tions of the room. 
The mantel in the living- 
room can be banked with 
holly, and at either end a 
brilliant red candle. Bread 
pans, filled with moist sand, 
may be ranged along the 
back of the mantel shelf, 
and the holly stuck in them, 
forming a continuous bank. 
A little clipping will make 
the bank even. Spruce and 
cedar may be used in the 
same way. 
There are a hundred places 
in the house where bunches 
of greens and holly can be 
placed. The prettiest green 
to use in loose bundles is the 
long-leaf pine needles. A 
bunch of these with their 
large cones make an attract¬ 
ive over-mantel decoration. 
Be sure in placing these 
bunches of greens that the 
twigs are arranged symmet¬ 
rically and tied together se¬ 
curely. But do not make 
them so regular and even 
that they will appear mortu¬ 
ary—if red berries can look 
mortuary! 
The fireplace also lends it¬ 
self to decoration with laurel garlands. If 
it is in an inglenook, the garlands may be 
draped about the chimney breast. 
According to custom, Christmas greens 
should be taken down by Twelfth Night, 
but there is no reason why they should not 
be kept up until they show signs of wither¬ 
ing. Even in their withered days they bring 
cheer, for no fire crackles like a fire of 
Christmas greens and no fire is more happy 
in its ending than the warm ashes of the 
laurel and the glowing coals of the pine. 
The hearth is the shrine of the house, and in the House of Christmas 
the shrine has its decorations of box and pine, of laurel and holly. 
Thus even the cold things of brick and stone and iron celebrate the 
feast of good cheer 
THE GOING OF HIS FEET 
H IS feet went here and there 
About the common earth— 
He touched to grandeur all 
Men held of little worth: 
He did not search afar 
For what he had to say: 
His mind reached forth, and drew 
Its strength from Everyday; 
He saw a widow drop 
Her mite into the hoard— 
And to eternity 
That Treasure is up-stored; 
He loved the growing flowers, 
The small bright singing birds, 
The patient flocks of sheep, 
The many-pastured herds. 
The fields of rippling corn 
That shimmered in the sun, 
The soft blue smoke of eve 
That curled when day was done. 
The struggling nets, alive 
With fish drawn from the sea 
Supplied Him with the apt 
And final simile. . . . 
He saw a neighbor build 
A house that did not stand— 
And men may not forget 
The House Upon the Sand; 
He heard a Publican 
Who thought none other there- 
The souls of all mankind 
Are richer for that prayer. . . . 
Oh ! teach me, too, to go 
About the ways of earth 
And find the wealth of God 
In things of little worth! 
Harry Kemp. 
