DO YOU ENJOY CHRISTMAS?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 13 (Supplement)

DO YOU ENJOY CHRISTMAS?

REAL GOOD-WILL AT CHRISTMAS. There are four sorts of people in the j world at Christmas—those who really | enjoy it. those who think they enjoy j it, those who really don’t enjoy it, and , those who think they don’t enjoy it, ! | savs an English paper. I Those who really enjoy it are jolly children who haven’t been used to j getting everything they want, unselfish people like mothers who never think M about themselves and enjoy things if ; | other folks are happy, ordinary people like you and me when an old friend j remembers us and sends us something j unexpected a»nd delightful. All the j sw'eet natural folks who are happy any- j way enjo> r Christmas. The people w'ho ; think they enjoy it are boisterous I cousins and uncles and aunts who like j practical jokes and noise and smack- j ing kisses under the mistletoe. They j sav “Let’s have a good round game of cards—the children love it.’’ and you, . if you're a child, are swept in to play j a game that bores you <if you under- ; stand it), while the uncles and aunts i and cousins watch the deal with eager , eyes and win all your beans or coun- j ters. Then they eat too much and j burn their fingers at snapdragon and think they enjoy it. all very much. j Those, who really don't enjoy it are | the sad people with memories of happy j Christmasses. They are the people one is sorriest for in the whole world at Christmas—the people one can sometimes make things better for by an unexpected gift or entertainment. Then there are you and me when, we get among the boisterous relations aforementioned and have to play games we hate (though that doesn’t hurt us really). And last there is anyone who ■ makes herself unhappy. That sounds j pretty feeble, but it’s easy enough to : do. I've never forgotten once when I j Avas small thinking on Christmas Eve, ' “ Aunt Edith will be sure to give me : something awfully nice. it ; might even be a doll’s pram!” When | the big parcel from Aunt Edith was opened next morning d’you know what ' my present was? A copy of Tenny i son’s Poems ! Later on I grew fond of it. but that Christmas morning I j ran aAvay and Avept behind the nursery j door. And bigger people than child j ren are often disappointed in their pi events In order to avoid it. it’s a . very safe rule never to think about j what you’re going to get—only about | what you have to give. The. people, who think they don’t i enjoy Christmas—when they could, if j they liked —are the ones without any j real troubles, the selfish ones who don’t j taste the joA' of giving, the superior j one? who say it’s a sentimental festival in which there’s nothing to enjoy, the ones AA'ho Avere better off once and say that if you can’t have lots of fat poultrA- and sauce and sausage-meat and ham and several vegetables all on your plate at once it’s not like Christmas at all. But they really don’t