THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.

Talking of holidays recalls a fact of which we all do well to remind ourselvesat this season, and that is that the success or otherwise of a holiday depends as much as anything on our taking with us, as the most important item of our baggage, the holiday spirit. The children may take spades and pails, the pretty girls frocks galore, the parents well-filled purses, but if the holiday spirit is lacking the first scramble to catch a train, or the first shower of rain, may upset everything. The holiday spirit includes a solemn determination: first, to give the others a good time; second, to keep smiling, no matter what happens; third (a point quite often forgotten), to remember that the greatest enjoyment can often be expressed in silence. Some people seem to have an idea that the only way to appear happy is to make a noise. Such happiness is generally very little more than appearance ; often only skin deep. My idea of one of the best ways of spending a holiday is to see beautiful things, to come home with a lot of beautiful pictures of sunsets and sea, of fields and hedges hanging up in your memory. Nobody else can see them, it is true, but the pleasure that you get out of them whenever you retire to that gallery of holiday pictures which enable you. to radiate happiness to other people. The greatest, mistake on a holiday is to take anything seriously. A •whole afternoon's enjoyment has sometimes been spoiled when a mother became irritated because one of the children was not ready in time. On the other hand, it should be pointed out to the children that unDunctuality is a form of selfishness, and selfishness is a thing which should be locked up in the cellar and left at home. Selfishness never has really enjoyed a holiday, and never will, so it may as well be left at home! You might tell the children this—they will surely see the force of it..