Girls, when you have
finished all your shopping for Christmas and have all the dainty,
tissue-covered boxes tied snugly, and lovingly labeled and packed securely,
though you may consider everything done very properly and conscientiously. What else? You say. Well – let us go over the matter
together.
Don’t you, for
instance, know anyone who is alone, away from home and all the things that make
home so much more than ever a wonderful place at this season? Send to this lonesome one, then, some
tiny remembrance – even if it is just a Christmas card. Is there someone near you who is ill,
or old, or unhappy? Why not send
to such a one a lovely green wreath, or even a fresh spray of holly berries and
mistletoe, gaily adorned with scarlet ribbon, and bearing your Christmas
greetings? . . .
Pass along your
Christmas cheer. You will find
that you won’t have to go very far away from your own circle to find a heart
that you may lighten, a sigh that you may turn to a smile. Tie a bit of your heart’s sunshine away
in the package that goes to your “lonesome one,” and just see what a wealth of
good wishes and sweet thoughts come back to you for it.
Friendliness is
something that never goes amiss, and the more of it you give away, the more you
have. Christmas is the especial
feast of friendliness and good cheer and love. Do your part toward making everyone around you feel that it
is truly that. Don’t be
discouraged if you cannot give as much as you feel you should give. Let whatever you do give be in the
spirit of good will and not of commercialism. Give because of giving, not because you are afraid you may not give a fair exchange for
something that may come to you.
This spirit of exchange is about as far from the real heart of Yuletide
as our twentieth century is from the Star of Bethlehem. Let your gifts carry love and
cheerfulness and the spirit of that first Christmas carol when the stars sang
in the midnight heavens, ”Peace on earth, good will to men.”
-- Valerie Willing Curtis, Our Girls Own Column, article from McCall’s Magazine for December 1911
2 comments:
Last night I went to an outreach that my daughter organized for homeless families living in a motel or the woods. I brought along a live poinsettia and a basket of silk Christmas flowers. I came home without either one. I had met two ladies who had no holiday cheer for their rooms, and it was my joy to pass them along. They were so touched. Here are more ideas: http://watchtheshepherd.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-you-can-do-to-make-holiday-season.html
Thank you so much for sharing this, Virginia -
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