Quote on Christmas Entertaining

Christmas is proverbially the season of good cheer, and every hospitable housewife makes a point of gathering her friends and "folks-in-law" about her table at some time during the holiday weeks.  Often these little reunions are of a delightfully informal character, enjoyable while in progress and providing a goodly store of pleasant memories for each of the guests to carry away.

No form of entertainment affords more gratification to hostess and guests than a small luncheon.  It is less difficult to prepare and more easily served than a dinner, and for these reasons will commend itself to the woman who desires to entertain her friends on a simple scale, at moderate expense.  Moreover, it affords an opportunity for her native ingenuity to manifest itself in the matter of artistic decorations for the table and dainty dishes for the menu. 

-- from McCall's Magazine for December 1911

(I found this gem of a magazine when we were in the mountains for Thanksgiving.  One morning my mother-in-law, E. and I went to an Amish variety store that we love to search through when we're in the area.  We call it a variety store because it's filled with a huge hodge-podge of things - from new hardware items to used furniture to groceries and sundries to vintage kitchenware and cookbooks.  My favorite spot in the place is a dark corner that looks as if it hasn't been touched in 50 years.  There are two or three bookshelves of new Christian fiction, but what I love pawing through are the two shelves of ancient, but inexpensive, books.  Over the years I've unearthed yummy old entertaining books, beautiful children's books that they don't print anymore, and all kinds of bibliophile finds.  My score this last time was a December 1911 Christmas copy of McCall's Magazine for $1.  Being over a 100 years old, the back cover is a little tattered but, as a whole, is in great shape.  I have adored pouring over its articles and wonderful advertisements and plan to share more quotes in the future.)