FROM A SUBURBAN BALCONY

Evening Star, Issue 20056, 22 December 1928, Page 2

FROM A SUBURBAN BALCONY

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA Onb of tho things that impresses u visitor to America is tho number of anniversaries and the zest with which they aro celebrated. I don’t suppose there is a man or woman in America who does not belong to some club or sonic organisation of one kind or another. Tho groat majority are members of goodness knows how many. They have almost exhausted tho list of possible names. I read in tho paper to-day, for instance, that President Coolidgo got an invitation, engraved on a plate of Colorado gold, to attend tho fifth “ annual sowbelly dinner” (whatever that may moan) of tho “ Colorado Mining Association.” It was my fortune—good or bad—to hit four of the great annual festivals— Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Hallowe’en, and Christmas. Sprinkled back and forth amongst these were a number of lesser ones—so many, indeed, that a stranger wonders if an American family ever has a night at home. I propose to indicate how Christmas is kept in America—at least in tho Southern States, for it was in one of theso (Texas) that I participated in the celebration.

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With us in New Zealand Christmas falls in midsummer, and the old customs associated with it—roast turkey or goose and the hot plum uadding with its blue blazes—seem woefully inapt. In America the season is, of course, just the opposite. In tho Northern States winter at its worst—or best—takes charge. There are snow and ice, whipped by blizzards ad libitum. A Scotsmand and a Yankee were discussing the relative cold of their countries. The Scotsman told how bad it was in tho North of Scotland where he belonged. “Ah!” replied the Yankee; “ that’s nothin’. Why, in tho part of the country whore I live some sheep were onco jumping from one hillock to another, and they were frozen in midair.” Tho Scotsman, with his characteristic love of facts, suggested that would be contrary to the law of gravity. “ Oh I I know that,” said the Yankee; “but then, you see, tho law of gravity was frozen, too.” Allowing for some exaggeration, it still remains true that the cold in the Northern States is a terror. In Chicago about a score were frozen to death at Christmas time last year; and in New York, the coldest place I have ever struck, a similar number perished likewise. But in the Southern States winter keeps a sunny face, and it is not the sunshine that, like the Canadian, has light without heat. It is warm and balmy. It resembles more our Now Zealand summer weather, is about as hot, and without the winds that are so frequent accompaniments of that season with us. That, at least, was my experience in Houston, tho most progressive city in Texas, where I spent last Christmas. It is warm enough to spend the day outside, and cool enough in the evening to permit of hot dinners and of dances through tho night. » * * *

All the month of December plans are going forward to keep the feast becomingly, The shops are crowded, especially the ten cents and fifteen cents stores, where an amazing collection of all possible articles that can be purchased at these prices is displayed. These five, ten, fifteen cent stores are one of the institutions of America. They are found in all the towns and cities. I wonder why some enterprising New Zealander does not introduce them to our cities. There is a fortune in it for the man who dares the experiment. They are the most democratic institutions in America, and a boon and a blessing to the common people. The arrival of Santa a few days before Christmas is one of the events of the season. His advent is heralded in the newspapers. Ho appears in state on a gaily-decorated carriage, scattering his announcements over the heads of the immense crowds that gather to watch his procession, impressiveness is given to his march through the streets by a line of mounted policemen, who keep an open passage way, and by several gaily-clad bands, whose performances increase the crowds and draw them along, as the Piper of Hamlin drew his rats.

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The decorations of tho city and of the houses are on a vast scale, and often original and unique. Of tho latter is the placing of vari-coloured lights in trees, shrubberies, and vines of the homes. Some of the streets and avenues are thus transformed at night into the seeming abodes of fairyland. There are crosses and stars, sparkling towers, radiant porchways, whole buildings outlined in all the colours of the rainbow. And the lights are kept burning from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Night. Thousands of motorists drive slowly along, admiring the decorations and forming a continuous lino of light, back and forth along tho boulevards ana avenues; while over all tho city the scores of skyscrapers, with their endless devices of coloured lights, calmly survey from their immense heights the moving panorama below. I was told that Christmas carols wore regaining their popularity, and a come-back df the ancient custom of serenading was gaining ground in many places. Fifes and banjos, ’cellos and clarinets were to bo heard beneath the windows, and a quartet of a more serious nature were lifting their voices in praise to Him whose birth gave a new moaning to tho ancient festival.

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Christmas is the great home festival, and it is so observed in these Southern States. They are, on the whole, as yet a church-going and home-loving people, though the motor car and other amusements are making havoc of these ancient institutions. I was in scores of churches all over America, and they were all full, some of them crowded. On Christmas morning people go to church as a rule, and after that the day is given up to feasting and funmaking and the distribution of Santa’s beneficence. This last, in all homos that can afford it, is on the most generous scale. Where families are related they forgather in someone’s house, bringing Christmas gifts to hang on the Christmas tree in the corner of the room. The number of the gifts as well 'as their value in the home where I spent my Christmas was astonishing. To the youngsters of the households they were overwhelming. I could not help feeling the business was overdone. The children got so many presents

that their value was diminished. Moreover, ono could not help thinking of tho hundreds of children to whom Santa Claus would bo iio more than a name—and a disappointment. Yot the efforts made to reach these were on tho same resourceful scale. Many ■charitable organisations were at work for weeks beforehand fossicking out the .needy. The loading newspaper of the city invited children to tell Santa Claus, through the editor, what they would like him to bring them The response was wonderful. Their letters filled several columns of the Saturday issue of tho paper. Some of. them were pathetic, as, e.g., when Santa was reminded that he did not visit them last year. Some were amusing, like tho one addressed to “ Santa of Saint Peter, Gatekeeper, Heaven,” But all were revelations of the innocence, selfishness, self-denial, blessed simplicity, and trustfulness of childhood. To help to meet the wants of the needy among tho poor this same newspaper had a society of “ Good fellows.” Tho “Good fellows” started its work two or three weeks before Christmas. Membership in tho society was from a dollar upwards. It announced that investigations showed it required about 2,000 dollars to meet the claims on its books. It got them and more. For the people of these Southern States are generous and ready to furnish help when they are sure it is needed. The “Good fellows” was only one of many organisations working to give a happy Christmas to their poorer neighbours.

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From a dietetic point of view tho Christmas dinner is a fearful and wonderful business. It is this not merely because of the length' of the bill of fare, but because of its curious combinations. It begins with a cocktail of fruit of some sort, or maybe an oyster. Then nuts, usually pecans, the finest' sort of nut, and raisins. Then soup, then turkey with vegetables of every kind, including boiled rice, sweet potatoes, and syrup. The turkey is accompanied with so many sauces of one sort and another that its original flavour is liable to be lost. Aftei you have tried to do justice to all these condiments there follow, of course, the plum pudding and various other sorts of puddings, fruits, ice cream, coffee, and cigars. But long before this last item is reached, even if you are on the best of terms with your “ Little Mary,” you feel somewhat in the condition of the simple fanner from the backwoods who wandered into an aristocratic restaurant. He started with the first item on the bill of fare. He proceeded on down item after item till he got about halfway, when ho began to feel there was no room for any more. Ho called the waiter and paid, pointing to the bill of fare: “ Mister, I’ve ate from thai to thar, and, if it’s all the same to you, I would like to skip from thar to thar,” pointing to the lower half of the menu card. One feels something like that almost before ho has reached the inevitable, turkey. This last seems the great standby of the American feasts. Every one of them usually has a turkey. I have had to face this turkey ordeal so often that I don’t think I shall want any more turkey for tho term of my natural life. Turkeyraising has become one of the jnost profitable industries in some oft these Southern farms. They are sent to. the north—the turkeys—by tens of thousands when anniversary “eats” are on. I saw it stated that a car load of 30,000 had been despatched from somewhere one day for a northern city, and this was only one of many similar. But there is a dark side to this picture of prosperity.' It was not* comfortable to read in the newspapers the day after Christmas of the scores who perish of hunger and the score more who were frozen to death. But that it another story, as Kipling says. Eon,