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TEA POTS FUR ALL

Is there any woman alive. who does not find a peculiar feeling of so lsfoction in contemplating a silver teapot dominating her table? Her satisfaction-may I plead with youil-doesnot arise wholly from the fact that a sliver teapot is "the thing" or that it is employed by all "the bzst people." There is something ivondzrfully consoling 1n the whle gleam of the metal, in the polished surface in which the more imaginative among us can interpret airy fantasies and sea our dreams coming true.

Pretty as that may appear. how- ever. l; is still disputed whether the silver teapot makes the best tea. Most of us had imagined that it could not be otherwise, that it was more than mere appearance that justified the money spem on the aristocratic teapot of the drawingroom while the plain brown earthenware teapot of the kitchen could be had so cheaply. A little inquiry in“o the matter may, nevertheless, upset this cher- ished theory. Tea-tasters, I ieam employ earthenware teapots as be- ing the most reliable crlterlons of the tea that- islnfused within them.

Preferred By Tca-Tasiera

Tea-loaves from gatherings at ‘different hours of the day are in- fused in different teapots-l see these little earthenware teapots standing ready waiting in a long row, a cup beside each of them. At the 110m‘ appointed the ten is infused and along comes the tea- taster, sipping with great appre- ciation from c. a of them in turn. Always he employs earthenware teapots to help his work of dis- criminntlon. And one has read that the Duchess of York prefers an earthenware teapot to a silver one. Each woman of us has. no doubt, in the same way, her own individual preference. _

Among the less expensive tea- pots, I learn that the chrome- plated teapot with bakellte handle is the one preferred today. This teapot has but recently appeared lipOn the market, and one variety of it boasts a special Jubilee pat- tern. These models are very at- tractive in their gleaming silveri- ness-they might easily be mis- taken for their real blue-blooded sisters. Some of them are decorated with hammered metal. Others of- fer very charming engraved floral . designs. These chrome-plated tea- pots favour round shapes and also the Queen Anne style, ‘and they are replacing the less attractive aluminum to a great extent.

They are -not to be had, I may add. in the square shape which has had a certain vogue in earth- enware but which is regarded as a rather freakish upstart. The square teapot with its hunched-up little spout, its crabbed little handle. has one fault which it finds it difficult to live down: its handle suffers much too readily from becoming overheated.

The Pyrex teapot is certainly re- vealing; no doubt can be felt as to the particular degree of rich- ness in the brown Liquid which it contains. and, of course, it will not stain-stains are unknown in the Pyrex family. But a. certain timid- ity is still experienced in using a glass teapot which it will takc some time to overcome.

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lllistletoe a Parasite

The mlstetoe. traditional Christ- mas’ decoration much more in favor in earlier days. when the ardent swains were not so forward and the maidens were more reserved, is found most abun- dantiy in the tropics, although it is widely distributed throughout the world. The mistletoe is a parasite, living on the sap of the trees around which it entwines itself. On the Atlantic seabcard of the United Sfates the mistletoe is found as far North as the Jersey coast, but is lnors abundant farther South.

GOOD KING WENCESLAS

Good King Wenceslas, immortal- ized in the well-known carol, was really a Bohemian prince who died in A. D. 935- His name should properly be spelt "Wenceslaus." He was famous for his great kindness to the poor rd reedy. When, in September. A. D. 035, he was killed by his brother, Boleslay, the pcoole of the country were heart- broken. He is still r:~~ard*d as their patron sslnt-Tlt-Bits Magasine.

FOR. A ‘.I.')"‘.'¢‘1lL CWRISTMAS _GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE

(rrN PRAYING and praising, in giving: and receiving,

In eating and dr'nk'ng. in singln and m~k'n~ merry '

In parent" rfadness and in child- ren's mirth,

In dear memorrs of those who hav- deoziriod. '

In good rmradoship with who are here, _

In kind wis‘*os for those who are far away,

In patient waiting. sweet iantmmt. generous cheer.

G2‘ “l -= u! awry one, with the blessing of Jesus.’ -.

those

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Lavender-Coloured Teapots

The brown earthenware teapots are always with us-does any other teapot look so buvom, so cosy, and comfortable as they do? they have wedded themselves so insep- arably to the hob and the comfort of the cots,“ fireside, with its lambs on either side and its sing- lng kettle, But earthenware tea- pots are not always brown. l re- marked on a pile of charming lavender-coloured ones. exceeding- ly slim and upright in build; those have been manufactured with the needs of the cafe or restaurant well in view; they can be stacked in piles. fitting neatly and secure- ly one above and-her on the shelf. Enamel teapots can be had in all i manner of gay and flamboyant reds and yellows and greens, but, despla their» hilarity, they do not greatly atract one.

By the way, 1 noticed a. new gadget, intimately connected with the teapot, which has but recently appeared on the market. It comes to us in a little box, accompanying the tea strainer. No longer need the flurrled, or even the unflumed hostess wonder what on earth to do with the strainer once it has served its purpose—no longer need it dribble over the immaculate ea

_tray or sully the spotless cloth. A tiny china bowl is willing to ac- commodate lt, fining it exactly, and wearing red or blue or green

or yellow to match the colour- scheme of the teacups. The dainty little round-shaped

china teapot is enjoying itself im- mensely today-never, surely, was its-popularity so great. 'I'his is largely due to the fact that it fits so amiably into all kinds of colour- schemes, appearins. dalntily flow- er-wreathed. with the early morn- ing set, or more reserved and lav- ishiy gllted, for more formal oc- casions. "

Eccentric teapots, boosting in- dividual charm, are always to be found. One of these takes the form of a black cat, complete with pink or blue ribbon round its neck, its coiled-up tail acting as the handle. One charming nursery teapot—for, of course, the nursery has its own china-is shaped like a toadstool, and comes with matching toad- stoois for the sugar and cream. An- other nursery toapot, shaped like a tent, is decorated with children at play or with some scene from the loved nursery rhymes, and makw “pouring out" a privilege more greatly coveted than ever.

Which Shall It Be?

As regards the aristocrats of the teapot world the silver-plated and solid silver models, the very cheap- est is the “hotel" pattern, very plain, very useful, very accommo- dating, possessing no annoying corners and complacentiy permit- ting pthers of its kind to be piled on top or it-a desirable trait, in- deed, in an everyday teapot.

Rather more costly are two very attractive shapes in plated silver- the plain Georgian and the James model; the Queen Anne fluting, I would have you know, is little countenanoed today. These, with the bakelite handlesownedrby all the better-class teapots, incline to the flat shape,- a.od are very at- tractive in all their" gleaming sil- verincss. - -

Much more aristocratic is the Georgian solid silver teapot, with accompanying sugar basin and also admired very greatly a square set, the spout of the teapot ap- pearing in one of the angles. the handle in another. The accom- panying sugar basin and cream pot were gilt-lined with an effect of cheerful opulence not a little pleasing.

The choice is wide-which shall it bell-Cynthia in the Weekly Scotsman.

.

SPARKS FROM THE YULE LOG

Christmas crackers were invent- ed 80 years ago. ' _

Mistletoe grows principally on apple trees. It is sometimes found on limes, poplars and willows.

Good King Wenceslaus, of Christmas carol fame, was a King of Bohemia. .

If Chrisimas is warm, the fol- lowing Easter will probably be co'd.

The turkey first became a Christmas dish in the reign of James I.

A COLORFUL SIT 0F BOWLS

No modern kitchen is complete with out a nest oi bow's in a color correspcndinw to the color scheme of the kitchen. I’ you know of a person without this delightful kitchen help. If might be a sugges-

’ tion for a Christmas or birthday

. MAKE CHILDREN HAPPY

citsen who makes a child happy Christmas time often learns that he vets a lot of happiness out of the transa-tion for hlmse".

NIIDS N0 CEREMONY

' A real man ls one who doesn't m~lre a ceremony out of his charity.

"The house shook." said Brown. des~-lb'nr an errthquake he had exn-rlmved abroad. "Cubs and sewers flew all over the 918M- ‘Whit:

"flvai. Flco‘ti" eirclsimed lanes. """~~t vonvrds m-s-T null-e forgot to no" m" wife's Christmas cor- ‘resymnrln-scn,"

Pn-"Vni of vwib-M-did ‘fa pver w a kid writs a letter to Santa Ciaus-rter Christmas?

"Yuletide maria"

Chrjstmasflelebrated’ for Two Weeks!

But That Is in Sweden-and Oh. "That Fun [he Chfldren Have and the Grownups, Too!

in Stoklaolm h hold tbo two weeks boon Cnt- ‘

. mu at tho oldest market plaooin tho city, called Grouhnarlfob

SRHZSCIYS country Yule market with peasant girls L. ....;;qr costs of lambskin. Tho bczrdzd boy in the bmkground is

dressed to play "Yule-i :mi.e"—’-.he Swedish Santa Claus.

(By Marika. Hcfstrom, Central Press CairadLan Correspondent)

STOCKHOLM, Sued-en, Dec. 2i- Na other country cclobraics Christ- mas for such a long time and with such great fe:tiviti*.s as Sweden. One of the brightnt. gayest customs is the “Yuletide mrrket" in Stock- hoim. It is held the two wesks be- fore Chrfstmas eve on the oldest market pace in the city, called Great-market. When Stockholm was built, about 900 A.D.. Great- markct was the largest open space

‘ in it. Today it is a tiny square too

small for automobile traffic.

But at Chriztmas ‘time reat- market becomes one: more the heart of Stockholm. crowded with hrighty lighted liitle stands with their home-made goozis-dccornted wooden toys carved by peasants during the dark winter evenings, copper pots and pans, home woven cloth and knitted mittens. and most important of all, tho Ginger- bread Stand, filled wifh big cookies made in the traditional shapes of goats, pigs, hearts, and little men and women.

As» chidren we never left the market without s. gingerbread man and a big paper covered candy with long fringes almost dragging on the ground.

Grownups Become Young Again

Even grownups forget their dig- nlt" and run from booth to booth calling and laughing io raoh other at the sight of a miniature spin- ning wioeel, or a sst of carved farm animals. Theproper way to end a vis’t to i‘-~ Y"‘o merket is b" going to the City Mssion. one of the finest old how". incl!"

\ The Yule bargaizlng in Great- market which has gone on each Christmas since the early twelfth century, is completely a city affair. But to see a country market the Stocizltolmite need not travel far, just up a iitt‘e,hil in Stockholm itself. to the~famous peasant mu- seum Skarzsen. (The name means battemsnt, for the hill is one of the oldest define-es of the city.» It _is rrally wrong to call this whole community cf peasant and Lapp home's a "museum," because life gces on thflre just as though Skan- sen we.c oze big country village.

A Culture That Has Died

Many of the cottages and gar- dens on the hill cannot be found

anywhere P ‘e in Sweden; they are part a cu‘ture that has changed died, but there are

othzrs t‘:"t are faithful copies of homes existing today in Daleoarlia, the last stronghold of peasant tra- dition in the north. On Skonsen live many natives of Daleoarlia, pioturesquelv drssse d in brizht pea/ant costumes. But even if they iivcd in an aoafment the costume might be worn daily.

It is a strange signt when one of Dalccariilvs di-"fliflfid members of parliament walks don/n the street, proudly but naturally (lress- ed in the outfit for his province, ion: dark coat, bright ye'low lambskin vest and red tassels at his knees!

The Skansen peasants live as they mi~ht at home, baking, weav- ing, sewing, embrciderinjz, and for the Christmas hdidszys creating

Dalecarlian gi r1 511...: with sir. w “all she hill mode for the Yule market.

A “Small Figure" in Sweden

The hilltop museum, 50 years old now, has cclsbrated this mar- ket for 30 years straight. This se:ms a small figure compared to the hundreds of years that the Greatmorket in the old city has gone on, but in fart Skansenh "country market" mav well be old- er, for the people of Daecariia are almost as old as Sweden itself, and ihtir winter-market. at home or on Skanson, is a tradition going back ion". bcfore "White Christ" came to the ltonh. It has its roots in the great Midwinte" sacrifice to the sun, or Yuletide of the Vikings.

Wlvdering through tho lane of bricht booths where hang the straw-goat images of the god Thor's own chargers, you feel that irrthis old, dork country the past never can die. The Yule markets in Sweden are an emblem of pride.

The Need of Santa. Claus

"If there were no God it would be necessary to invent him.” said a well known writer. There is no Santa. C‘aus in our grown-up world. but we have found we need- ed him as one of the most beloved chatactvrs in t‘"e world of child- hcod, which is peopled with legends of the child's own making. The enohontlng b:li"f in Santa and his relndtez‘. his paunch and his pack filed with toys will never hurt a chili "he cyricei grown-ups, who

Grratmnriret, fcr the traditional toys cf wfod and Si/‘flW-ZOBYS. For have too como'ste‘y lost their belief

coffee and cookles—li different even on Skansen there is a Yule in h‘m and his kind, need your

kindsi __ markft_."ch year. help. O-O4-OOO4 0-6 VOQ-O-Ob-O-OO-O-OQJ ‘i

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‘hlse There A SantamClaas”

(By Helen Wdilhfimfl) .NEA Service Writer

Every your it is a little harder for the world to believe in Santa Claus. Ev year the jingle of the “@3811 bells grows fainter. "

But a woman with blue, shining We: and brown hair-silver frost- cd BOW-hears them as she sits at her desk in an old brick school where Manhattan's ‘slums and busi- nesa district met. Many of the girls in her school don't catch their lill; to make the bells ring for them is her Christmas problem.

011cc upon a tme when the teacher was a _ little girl, eight 79935 01d. l wise editor told her that a benevolent saint with a bag of dreams walked the world at Chi-‘stmas time and all the time. She didn't understand then; she didn't even save the letter that he wrote in reply when she asked him if there was a Santa Claus. But the words were considered lovely enough for publication and the New York Sun printed the editor's answer.

O O U Virgnia O’H"nlion. the little girl whose questirn ‘inspired the famous editorial of Francis P.

Church that has been reprinted annually since ‘is publication 35 years ago. is Mrs. Edward M. Douglas now. She is assistant pfncipal of a juxror high school, 1is‘od as Public School No. 159.

I wonder how I ever grew to be

‘eight years old. still believing Santa Claus was real," Mrs. Doug- las smiles "I must have been rather slow. My daughter wonders, too- she learned long before she was eight.

But. regardless of all this. Mrs. Douglas still sees truth and beauty in the reply that Eidtcvr Church Rave to the question that she asked in her childish innocence.

I O l

"Yes. Virginia, there fs a Santa Claus." Church wrote. “He exists ls certainly as love and generosity lmd devotion exist, and you know tho‘ they abound and give to your

PAG_E saver:

life its hltlwst beauty and joy. Alas-how dreary the world would be if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary u if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry,

no romance to make to'e:able this .

existence. The eternal light will‘: which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

"Not bellevi! in Santa Claus! You might as well not beleive in fairlesi . . . N:b0dy sees Santa Claus but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most roll things in the world are those that neither children nor men can

see. . .

"Ybu may tear apart the baby's ratt'e and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil coverng the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, ro- mance, can push amide that curtain and view the picture, of supernal ,beauty and glory beyond."

t O I

Nobody saw the round-eyed ~hlld digesting the fruits of this edit- orial. In ‘act. she did not know then what ’t all meant. But today that editorial influencrs hundreds of gir‘: as Mrs. Douglas guides them wI‘h their prolfcms.

"One has to be cwefu‘ in deni- ‘rig with adokscsnt girls," the teacher says. "We mus‘ show them how to find the best things in ilfe."

To prove to the girls with whom she works that “faith, fancy, poetry. love and romance" can push aside the monotony of New York's dusky, dusty and nosy city streets-——in a region whore the slums begin-As the task she has set herself. And in this task the spirit of Francis Church's editorial is still at work.

The girls. Italians for the most part, know nothing of the litt'e Vir- ginia's letter, but the: know their teacher has learned someth ng, caught some vision. that helps her give a sympathetic understanding to their Joys and sorrows.

Mistletoe 1n Ayrshire Most of the mistletoe that arrives in this county in time for Christ- mas has been grown in Brittany, for‘ this parasitlcal plant dcrs not flourish in our northern latitudes. thou h I remember having seen it gro g on an apple tree as far north as Fortress in the Black Isle. That was long ago. The other day, when visiting the gardens of Fullerton, the nurseryman asked if I had even seen the mistletoe bough which had been grafted on to the oldest apple tree in the orchard. Although I had always purchased holly from Fullerton, the idea of Ayrshire mistletoe was strangely remote from my mind.

"I don't think it would grow, to strat wi'," said the nursery-man, who showed me the mistletoe with a sense of pride. "There was a Christ- mas party, ten or twelve years. pest, the young fowks were givin’ me a hand to take down the holly an‘ the mistletoe in the hall. One of the young ladies took a wee sprig o’ mistletoe, an’ jol"‘u'-l&, says she tae me, ‘Put it away in a corner, an’ see if it brings ye luck.’

“Wool. I dinna’ l'ke to destroy the bit o‘ green, an’ the white berries were as bonnie an’ fresh as they'd been the nicht o‘ the party. I had been‘ readln’ aboot graftin’ the mi letoe. an‘ the idea came to me lik a flash that I wld try an‘ grow it on an apple tree that wls faur owre auld tae grow apples. I jlst made a kin’ o’ plaister o’ the c‘ay, put it on the auld tree wi' a bit 0' clcot aroon’ it, an’ forgot u‘ about it. It tak‘ fowre years tae grow, but I weel remember the first time I sees the white berries."

I handled the mistletoe branch ,

‘with care. It was not more than a. foot long. with three forking branches each of them five or six inches in length, and covered with pear‘_v white berries. I have never seen beu-ies that looked more like peoris; the whiteness was without a blemish, and I realized for the fir": time in mv life how beautiful a and‘: of mstletoe neaily was. “You won't out 't." I asked the man. "Nc-‘er a fear," he answered. "It's k‘n' o‘ luckv. I think, tae ha'e it abmt the place, an’ than. W! a c,....,,...ty_..

That is how most of us re""l the n- -"e*o~ n‘~nt. vh- bring it ‘nto "ur hovses for luck. always taking 6M6 to bang it up. for ever since the days that Bidder the leeautlfnl was- killed h.’ hrs blind brother with an armw of rnistl-“oe, the gods fle- cneed that ~"e'- his rnsilffioflnn 'he mumeem mould only bring. had luck if i“ touched the earth- Marlon f-"“""'='l‘l-