Radio and television mirror (Nov 1939-Apr 1940)

How to Get the Most Out of Christmas dress and that new hat. Mothers never do; for mothers have learned, also intuitively, that the best way to have a happy Christmas is to see to it that others are happy. DUT the point of the matter is that ^ that particular Christmas has always, in our family circle, been looked back upon as the happiest Christmas any of us, now grown up children, remember. Mother, as long as she lived, spoke of it as "My happy day." When we children, all of whom now have families of our own, gather together for a family reunion, we always speak of this day as "Mother's Christmas" — the Christmas when she spent her fifty dollars on us. For Mother had learned what we all learn, sooner or later, that we get the most out of Christmas when we put the most into Christmas. I think that we all learned something that year which has made all Christmases since that one happier. And, curiously enough, my second ilustration for this thought came from a blue, homesick, lonely theatrical troop. The first story came out of the "panic" of 1892; the second one comes out of a Christmas which might have been a lonely and harassed one for the boys and girls who were the actors and chorus of one of Fred Stone's musical comedy companies. Fred was playing Kansas City on Christmas Day. The day before Christmas he said to me: "Bill, these (Continued from page 11) boys and girls are all far away from home this year. I want you to arrange a Christmas party for us between the Matinee and the evening performance and I'll pay the bill." So I arranged for a Christmas dinner between the matinee and the evening performance. There were eighty in the company. Most of them came with their make-ups on, for there wasn't time to change between shows. I had the room beautifully decorated with a Christmas tree, holly, mistletoe. Then I sent word to every person in the company that I would expect each of them to stop at the "Five and Ten" and get small presents for anyone they wished. We sat down to the dinner at six o'clock; ate turkey and dressing; and celery and plum pudding; made merry as we ate and then had a simple little program. Members of the company did stunts; we sang "Silent Night, Holy Night" and all the Christmas hymns. It was a bit incongruous to hear "Once Upon a Midnight Clear" pouring forth from chorus girls with their make-up still on. I remember seeing the tears running down over the cheeks of one girl who had on a white make-up; and I swear that she looked like a Madonna herself as she sang. Several of the girls in that company had babies of their own back in New York City and, before the evening was over, snowed me pictures of their babies. It was a strange evening. But what had looked as if it might be the loneliest and most miserable Christmas any of them could spend, turned out to be one of the happiest they had ever spent. After that chorus of boys and girls had sung the old Christmas hymns and carols I read the simple story of the first Christmas as it is found in the Book of Matthew. When I had finished there was a hush over that crowd and then Fred said: "What do you say we repeat the Lord's Prayer, Bill?" And we did. And I for one will testify that I never heard that Prayer said with more sincerity and with more reverence than it was that night in the Kansas City Athletic Club by Fred Stone's chorus. AND as the years have passed by I '* never meet any of the leads in that show, any of the chorus, or Fred himself, that they do not say to me: "That was the most beautiful Christmas I ever remember in all of my life." And years afterwards in New York City Fred and I got to talking about that particular Christmas and Fred said to me: "Bill, somehow that Christmas stands out above most of the Christmases I have ever spent and I wonder why? I have often wondered if it was not that we sang those old hymns and carols and you read that simple story of Christmas from The Book?" "No, Fred," I said, "you got the most out of that Christmas because you put a kind thought and your money into it. We get the most out of Christmas when we put the most into it." ftfintetfi JANUARY, 1940