GIFT-GIVING AT CHRISTMAS-TIDE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, 24 December 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

GIFT-GIVING AT CHRISTMAS-TIDE.

We car. all do more than we have none. And be not a whit the worse; Ir never was loving that emptied tht» heart. Nor giving that emptied the purse. To put thought into Christmas giving is not the tisiml custom, I know. Too vlten thv Irira-sed mother decides at the latest possible moment that she "must get something lor Maria,’ and foithwith buys, say, a nurse, when poor "Maria" needs pennies. T know a dear, hard-working woman who told me one year, with a. suspicion rf a quaver in her sweet voice ana the trace of tears about her eyes, that she had received enough calendars “tn paper a room.'’ She was grateful for the thought that prompted the remembrance, but she did not know what to do with the piles anil pili's of l>caufiful. expensive, even artistic calendarsthat iiad come to her as Christum*gifts. Not one of the many, in sending the select'd gift. had stopped to think tbatp imir of gloves or stockings would have been far more useful. DISCRETION AND TACT IN GIFTGI YING.

There is a groat deal in those two; discretion implies the thoughtfulnessthat does not send a dainty bit of brie-a-I;rac to the friend or relatives whosesimple rooms may not be in keeping with its delicate fragility. A tactful woman deci not send to elderly friends something that is only comfortable, hilt tries the plan of making a gift of beauty to gladden theng“d heart and make bright, the dim eyes. The kind thought that prompt* the sending to the man of the family* a favourite volume, knowing how cheerfully he has done without. _in order to attain absolute necessities. The loving care that- prompts the framed engraving of some fine picturethat von know has been looked atlongingly so many times. HOME-MADE GIFTS. Where you, dear women, have timeend know how there is nothing yon cangive quit" so much appreciated as your own liandiivcrk, lie it a jar of “homemade pickles,” a hemstitched set of collar and cuffs, a tiny bit of fluffy prettiness in the shape of a lawn apron, even a fine cake, all these are a part, of yourself, as it were: they mean that ail the while you were thinking of tile eno to whom that gift was to go. When you -ire making your own fruit ci. ke. make one for your busy womanfriend. who. perhaps, having no hnnuabut the bed-room in her boardinghouse, cannot hope for a bit of such a, good thing. Send a bunch of flower* to yo'ir invalid, friend. She will road sweet messages in their beauty and ii a grant-".

With each and every thing you give, dear woman, give love, heaped up, good measure and running over, because that is t-he tiling of which we can neither have nor give too much. I eve is exhnustless, the larger the ex ycndiiurc th-' more you have left; themore given from your store the groatei the supply. S mietimes it is only a word, or, perhaps,

THE sn.ENT PRESSURE OF THIS HAND,

flint makes the most precious ■of aIT gifts, even at Christmas time. To thewo.nry, fainting .soul, brave outwardly, peihaps, but inwardly facing the feat of— many things, love conies with a power that no visible gift could offer, so do not stint in its bestowal, even ifi more substantial remembrances cannot go with it.

J<orc cannot be measured, neither should the money value of tlie gift at the holy season be reckoned : if you can only afford the simple, give it—with your lore.