December 1: Looking Way Back

     All too often in these materialistic days, the commercial and social aspects of the Christmas season have tended to overwhelm the spiritual to the point where a sense of the significance of this greatest holiday of the Christian year is lost in a welter of shopping and parties. The bad effects of this attitude are felt both at home and at school. No wonder the Puritans, in order to restore to t his sacred holiday its solemn dignity, forbade indulgence in all the forms of gaiety traditional to the observance of Christmas in their time.
     Those words are from the foreword of a book I've had in my collection a few years now. I'm pretty sure I bought it at the Friends of the Library sale years ago. It's copyright dates are 1940 and 1950. Funny how folks 75 years ago were bemoaning the same things I'm complaining about today.
     This book, Let's Celebrate Christmas, by Horace J. Gardner, offers ideas, instructions, games, poems and carols to, well, celebrate what is the biggest holiday of the year.
     Everything about the book is quaint and antiquated. Some of the instructions reference items that I'm not sure even exist anymore. But, there's something, I don't know, warmly nostalgic, about stuff like this. I can see June Cleaver or Margaret Anderson celebrating Christmas like this.
     So, on this first day of December, here is a selection for your enjoyment. But, first, here's a quick lesson on Christmas Seals, since the activity won't make any sense if you don't know what they are: Christmas Seals started in 1907 as a fundraiser to help patients with tuberculosis. In my growing up years, the seals, sheets of self-adhesive stamps with a Christmas design printed on them, were mailed to your house with an envelope for you to send a donation to the Lung Association. I don't remember my parents ever sending a donation, but I do remember using the seals to seal the envelopes of any Christmas cards we sent.  They must have been successful. The seals are still available as a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. Here's the game:
     Concealed Christmas Seals
     Purchase two packages of assorted Christmas Seals. Save one package for your prize. Take one package and remove the seals, then place them around the recreation rooms in inconspicuous places--in designs of rugs, on pictures, on curtains under sides of tables an chairs, etc. Tell your guests that the room is full of concealed Christmas Greetings, and the one who finds the greatest number of them is to receive a prize worthy of his efforts. Remember to paste the seals lightly at one tip only, so that they can be easily removed.
     So, there you have it, a game to play at your Christmas party. And, just case you are planning a Christmas party and don't know the nuances of proper hosting, Mr. Gardner offers this advice about your party:
     Holiday gatherings that are remembered pleasantly are usually the result of careful planning. Whether you are playing host to eight or to eighty people, the same care must be exercised. It is better to have too many games on hand than not enough. For this reason, select a few extra numbers to take care of any miscalculation you might make in time. ... Another thing, change the game while it is at the height of its popularity. Don't wait until interest sags, and if you can, end the party on a high pitch before the group is tired and anxious to leave, you will be a popular and successful hostess.
     Merry Christmas.