NEWS FOR WOMEN Their First Christmas In A Foreign Country

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28160, 26 December 1956, Page 2

NEWS FOR WOMEN Their First Christmas In A Foreign Country

Christmas Day, a time of good cheer and family reunions, can be a sad day for those ’who are many thousands of miles away from home and the ones they love. For many new settlers and overseas visitors to Christchurch, Christmas Day, 1956, was a strange day, too. They observed new customs, and were reminded even by the weather that the}' were now in the southern hemisphere. “I think it was the warm wind that met me when I came out of church which made me feel so lonely,” said a Dutch girl. ‘‘lt seemed so unfriendly and so foreign.” Poignant childhood memories of running across the churchyard, crisp with snow in the moonlight, after midnight Mass, came back to this young woman as she walked home to the institution where she is now employed. “But the other girls were so kind I soon felt happy,” she said. She was emphatic in refusing to have her name published. Mrs Magdalen Nemeth, who arrived recently from Hungary with her husband, soeaks only a few words of English. She alone knew her innermost thoughts of Hungary yesterday. “Christmas Good” “Christmas good?” she was asked over the telephone. “Christmas good,” she replied and her voice was warm with enthusiasm. Then her husband came to the telephone.' “Thank you,” he said, adding with oride a newly-found phrase: “See you later.” Mrs Nemeth and her husband began the day by going to church, and after breakfast their hosts took them for a picnic to Wnikuku. There they sat down to a Christmas dinner of ham and salad and all the “trimmings.” “Thev appeared to be happy; we hope they were, and we know that they are deeply appreciative of what Christchurch people have done for them,” their hostess said. A married couple from Glasgow were not moved in the least by any feeling of being strangers in a strange land on their first Christmas Day away from Scotland. Mrs Maggie Watson said: “My man and T don’t mind where we are, so long as we are together. Besides. Christmas never has meant much to us even at home. It’s the New Year that stirs us, if anything does. We’re placid folk, but we’ll be wondering what our kin are doing at Hogmanay.” Chips And Chops For dinner yesterday these two impeturbable Scots had potato chips, chops, and fried eggs. It was too hot for a pudding. During last week, Mr Watson bought his wife a pair of slippers and a saucepan when he received his Christmas pay envelope. But these were not intended to be seasonal gifts. “I just happened to need them,” Mrs Watson said. Miss Peggy McCarthy, of Dublin, and Miss Emily King, of Leamington. England, had opposite reactions to their first Christmas Day away from home. They are on a working tour of Australia and New Zealand for a year, and spent the day with Miss King’s distant cousins in Christchurch. A picnic luncheon was taken to Waimairi Beach. In a sheltered spot, they sweltered in their swimsuits as they ate cold chicken, sandwiches, and mincemeat pies. “It was a Christmas I shall never

w/f/i Elizabeth Caramel Walnut Squares These Caramel Walnut Squares are just the sort of thing we are looking for in these busy and entertaining days—attractive looking and tasting afternoon tea bars which are pressed into the tin, whisked into the oven and come out finished and ready for the tea tray without more ado. It has all the earmarks of a family favourite this one, so make a note of the recipe for if you make it once, you will be making it often. Caramel Walnut Squares: | cup butter, g cup sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1£ cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder. ginch salt; topping 1 egg white, 1 cup rown sugar, 1 cup chopped walnuts. 4 teaspoon vanilla essence. Cream A cup of butter with £ cup of sugar. Beat in one egg yolk. Sift in 1£ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and I teaspoon salt. Work together to a paste and press cut into a tin about nine inches square. Whisk one egg white with a small pinch of salt until very stiff. Mix in one cup of brown sugar and one cup of finely chopped walnuts. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix well, then spread out over the shortcake base. Bake in a slow oven thirty to forty minutes. Stand a little, then cut Into squares whilst still warm.

forget,” said Miss McCarthy. “I like new experiences, and we couldn’t have done anything further removed from the usual Christmas in Dublin." As she munched a lettuce leaf, lightly sprinkled with sand, a/id a heat-curled piece of brown bread. Miss McCarthy thought of what she would say about a summer-time Christmas when she gives a talk to her youth group at home next December. Homesick Miss King, however, longed for home fires, the crackle of nuts roasting in the hearth and, above all, the cheery voices of younger brothers and sisters as they unwrapped their parcels from the Christmas tree. “I pretended to be sunbathing, but when I put my face in Peggy’s beach towel, I don’t mind admitting I had a good cry,” she said last evening. “I felt better when I sat up for a cup of tea and a piece of Christmas cake. I told the others I had a little grit in my eyes. I know they didn’t believe me.” It was a happy day for Mrs Ingabord Kirk, formerly of Lubeck, Germany, and now of Christchurch. On Christmas Eve, she followed a German tradition by serving supper and distributing gifts from a Christmas tree to gu®sts—her husband’s relatives. Yesterday, with her husband and their two small daughters, she celebrated her first New Zealand Christmas with branches of her new family. Though she has lived in England for several years, Mrs Kirk had not tasted plum pudding previously. “It was such fun feeling for threepences and things with each mouthful,” she said. In Germany, traditional sweets are iced gingerbread men, jellies, and -fruit pies. Because it was a warm day, Mrs Kirk’s five-year-old daughter could wear her best party frock. This and the gifts from an aunt’s Christmas tree were the highlights for her. Enough of Lamb American guests at one of the main Christchurch hotels had their own Christmas party in the morning, and exchanged gifts before going to church. In the afternoon they all visited other American friends at Cashmere. Mrs Hughston Mcßain, of Chicago, described it as a fascinating day. For Christmas dinner she ordered, from a baffling menu, fresh asparagus, then roast duck, fresh raspberries and cream. “I chose all the seasonal things we would not have at home for Christmas dinner, where the customary meal consists of turkey, green beans, salads and ice cream,” she said. The traditional New Zealand dinner of roast lamb, green peas, and new potatoes did not appeal—she had already had enough of that fare in the short time she had been in the Dominion.

DUNEDIN GIRL TO PLAY PORTIA “A THEATRICAL FIND” Miss Sydney Falconer, a 17-year-old Dunedin girl, has been selected to play Portia in the New Zealand Players’ next production, “The Merchant of Venice.” “Sydney’s audition was quite outstanding,” said the producer of the company, Mr Richard Campion, in Dunedin recently. “She has an amazing depth of feeling far beyond her years, and is definitely a theatrical find. I am confident she will go far.” Miss Falconer has studied speech and drama since her childhood. In recent years, she has won an impressive number of scholarships, cups, and trophies for Shakespeare and character work. In the last 12 months, she has been studying drama, taking lessons in speech, pianoforte, singing, ballet, fencing, French and German. At the University of Otago she has been studying English, and found time to work for both the A.T.C.L. and L.T.C.L. examinations, which she passed. Miss Falconer has made several appearances with the Dunedin Shakespeare Club and the Dunedin Repertory Society. When “The Merchant of Venice” tour finishes, she will leave for London to continue her drama studies. Another Dunedin girl. Miss Bridget Armstrong, has been chosen to play Jessica in “The Merchant of Venice.” GIFT OF JAPANESE DOLL When the New Zealand Minister to Japan (Mr J. S. Reid) and Mrs Reid recently visited Naira, the ancient capital of Japan, they were presented with gifts by citizens in gratitude for help given to them through CORSO in New Zealand. Mr Reid received a lacquered album and Mrs Reid a Japanese doll.

The doll was made by an invalid. Miss Hideko Togawa, who made a doll presented to Mrs S. G. Holland earlier this year. Mrs Reid’s doll represented the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. It was the first doll of this type to be made in Japan. Mrs Reid visited Miss Togawa to thank her for the gift.