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PAGE THIRTEEN
Thursday, December 14, 1939.
‘Merry Christmas,
Mary Christmas,’
Says Santa Clans
What's in a name? Plenty, if it
happens to be Mary Christmas, or
Santa Claus, and that’s actually hap-
pened.
Both Evansville, Ind., and Racine,
Wis., have their Mary Christmas,
and at Marshall,’
Mo., there's a
jolly fellow whose
last name is
Claus, and whose
parents chris-
tened him Santa.
Evansville’s
Mary Christmas
comes from an
old family which
has had a Mary
in each genera-
tion. Racine’s
Mary Christmas
Mary Christmas got that way by
marrying a fellow named Samuel
Christmas, and she's now a tele-
phone operator. Which explains
that strangely personal and timely
message long distance operators
hear out of Racine around Christ-
mas time: ‘This is long distance,
operator—Mary Christmas!”
Racine’s Mary Christmas, who is
short, chubby and looks just like the
artist’s conception of Mrs. Santa
Claus, gets hundreds of fan mail let-
ters every year. Three years ago
she appeared on
a Yuletide radio
program and has
been so deluged
with fan mail ev-
er since that she’s
founded a ‘‘shut-
in” club which
has members in
40 states, Cana-
da, Hawaii, In-
dia, China and
New Zealand. *
Marshall's San-
ta Claus is similarly Christmas-
minded. Each Yuletide he tries to
answer the fan letters which come
from all corners of the globe, many
in such strange foreign languages
that he can’t reply. He’s much in
demand *for church parties and oth-
er Christmas affairs. Santa is a
plumber on weekdays, a vegetable
gardener on the side and a preacher
in the Church of God at B#ue Lick,
Mo. every Sunday. Two years ago,
when plumbing business was bad,
he was grateful for a $250 check
sent him by Mae West, the actress.
In Roslindale, near Boston, lives
an Ambrose Claus who with his wife
last year celebrated his golden wed-
ding anniversary. Like all other folks
named Claus, they seem to have a
lion’s share of Christmas spirit.
DON'TS ——
Safety Is Watchword
For a Merry Christmas
Mary Christmas
Here are a few “don'ts” for
Christmas, recommended by safety
authorities:
1. Don’t give small children toys
involving alcohol, kerosene or gaso-
line engines. They may tip over and
set the house on fire.
2. Don’t permit small children to
run electrical toys without the su-
pervision of an adult.
3. Don’t permit small children to
use toy movie projectors without us-
ing safety film which burns slowly.
Ordinary film burns explosively and
gives off smoke and fumes which
may cause death if inhaled.
4. Don’t use candles or light ex-
tra fires without being extremely
careful, especially in regard to can-
dles on trees.
5. Don’t wear inflammable cos-
tumes, especially Santa Claus
beards, without fireproofing them.
6. Don’t use inflammable orna-
ments and evergreen decorations.
Superstitious Villagers
Fear Year of Bad Luck
If Candles Die on Tree
LONDON.—Early Christmas tra-
ditions still endure among English
Yule celebrants.
No Christmas tree is considered
complete in rural areas unless it is
bedecked with little candles of dif-
ferent colors. Many people count it
an ill sign if once lit the candles
go out or are snuffed out before
they have burned to their ends. In
old days the candle was made such
a size that it would burn from the
time it was lit until midnight. If
it went out before that, evil was
portended to the family for the com-
ing year.
The Yule log, which many hold
should be lit by a brandy preserved
from the previous year’s stock,
should be blown into a blaze by the
maids, but these must have clean
faces and hands or the log will not
light easily. In the north of Eng-
land it was once customary to let
the servants have free drink so long
as the log burned.
Ex-Detroit Paper Boys
Aid 65,000 at Christmas
DETROIT. — Twenty-five years
ago the late James Brady conceived
the idea of raising funds to insure
needy children a merry Christmas
by organizing a group of men who
as boys had sold newspapers in the
city. The idea was for them to re-
turn to their old corners at a stated
period and sell papers to all who
passed. Last year this organiza-
tion of oldtimers raised about
£150. 000
How Other
Lands Mark
| Christmas
A melting pot of the world, America |
has created its Christmas traditions from
countless customs brought across the seas
from foreign lands. In these fur-away
places the Yuletide symbols of bygone |
ages still endure. Here are a few of them: |
ENGLAND:
Christmas to rural Englishmen
means not only the observance of
Christ's birth, but also a parting of
the ways between the old year and
the new. Preparations are started
for the next year’s farm work, which
begins right after Christmas.
Throughout the island such trap-
pings as the holly and mistletoe re-
main undying traditions, nor is any
Christmas complete without the
Yule log burning. On clear frosty
nights the carol singers raise their
voices over the countryside. To
many Englishmen’s despair, such
American customs as the turkey din-
ner are gaining a foothold.
GERMANY :
Two years ago storm troopers in |
Berlin lit bonfires in the public
squares as a revival of the pagan
custom of celebrating the winter
solstice. But this distraction will
not stop the Christmas-loving Ger-
mans from decorating their trees in
every town and village, and joining
in the famed Christmas hymn,
‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.”
ITALY : |
Most Italian families celebrate |
Christmas eve and spend the follow- |
ing day quietly in their homes. Here
it is a feast more for grown-ups |
than for children,
whose merry- |
making day comes 12 days later, on |
January 6. On Christmas eve fami- |
lies gather around the
Christmas log blazes.
STE
‘““ceppo’’ or
At nine p. m.
iw ER
IN ITALY —Children of the Ital-
ian Alps at Christmas Time, pray-
ing before a wayside shrine.
begins the ‘‘cenone,” or big supper, |
at which no meat may be served.
Gifts for children, which come on
Epiphany, are brought not by Santa
Claus but by an ugly witch whose
name is ‘‘Befana.”
FRANCE:
Exchange of gifts comes not on
Christmas but mostly on New Year's
day, which in France is the big
family day for reunions of cousins,
aunts and uncles. Santa Claus is
‘Pere Noel,” who leaves his gifts
in wooden shoes. Christmas eve is
not spent at home but in revelry
and feasting.
BELGIUM:
Neither Santa Claus nor Pere Noel
visit children here—but St. Nicholas
makes the rounds, surprisingly, on
December 6! A quaint Belgian cus-
tom is the putting up the chimney
of a few carrots for the little donkey
on which St. Nicholas makes his
visits.
RUSSIA :
This anti-Christian nation forbids
celebration of the Yuletide but no
longer compels foreign residents to
import their own Christmas trees.
Making an about-face, the Soviet
government uses this emblem of
childhood for its New Year's cele-
brations when Dadja Moroz, or Un-
cle Frost, appears with gifts for
good children.
POLAND:
This Christmas celebration lasts
until February 2 and is preceded
by fasting which is not broken until
the first star apears on Christmas
eve. In all homes the tablecloth is
placed over a layer of fragrant hay
in commemoration of the manger.
HUNGARY :
St. Nicholas leaves boxes of candy
for children early in December, aft-
er which the youngsters must be on
their good behavior. They write let-
ters to the angels, who, they be-
lieve, bring the presents. If they
find bits of tinsel on the floor, they
claim this is angel's hair and proof
that the angels are everywhere, ob-
serving which boys and girls are
good.
HOLY LAND:
Where it all began nearly 20 cen-
turies ago, worshipers reverently
hail each Christmas at the church
of Nativity which is built over
Christ’s traditional birthplace. It has
remained unchanged more than
1,500 years. There pilgrims gather
from all over the world to intone
“Glory to the New-Born King.”
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MERCHANTS IN STATE
FACE BEST YULETIDE
TRADE IN TEN YEARS
Pennsylvania's retail merchants
this year will have their busiest
Yuletide season since 1929, with the
Christmas sales mounting to an es-
timated $181,587,000, the National
Consumers Tax Commission predicts.
Not since the booming 1920's have
the prospects of a free spending hol-
iday splurge been so optimistic, Mrs.
Melville Mucklestone, leade rof the
commission's drive against “consum-
er-penalizing taxes” stated in the
business survey report.
the heaviest holiday trade in ten
years,” Mrs. Mucklestone added. “The
buying spree following the trend of
recent months, probably will carry
the retail sales total to $37,916,000,000
for the nation, an increase of more
than seven per cent over last year.”
The increased Pennsylvania trade,
the NCTC report said, will mean ad-
ded seasonal employment, heavier
employe bonus checks and improved
dividends. However, less cheering is
the fact that an estimated $27,782,811
of sales in the state will go to pay
| taxes which producer, manufacturer,
shipper and distributor, of necessity,
passon indirectly to Christmas shop-
Throughout the country reports
from business—from large industries
pers in the price of their purchases.
The NCTC’s crusade against hid-
ERNENERN ESSENSE NRE
to the small storekeeper—point to den taxes is headed in this state by | found on walls of the
Mrs. James B. Scott, national com-|
mittee member, and Mrs. Herman H. |
Mattman, state director, co-leaders of
Pennsylvania's 316 loval tax study
groups. Both women live in Phila-
delphia.
“XAMAS” ORIGIN.
There has been comment on the
abbreviated form for Christmas that
is commonly used. Many think it in-
appropriate and undignified to use
the shortened form, Xmas. The ex-|
planation of its origin is that the ini-!
tial letter of the Greek name for
Christ is X and the coincidence of]
its cruciform shape led to an early
adoption of thi sletter as the figure
and symbol of Christ. X is frequently
catacombs,
When the early Christians ished to
make a representation of the Trinity,
they would place either a cross or
an X beside the names of the Father,
and the Holy Ghost, from this came
the shortened form ,Xmas, instead of
Christmas.
CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINING.
Turkey and cranberries, plum pud-
ding, fruit cakes an dmince pie are
as much a part of our Christmas fes-
tivities as holly, mistletoe, Santa Claus
and gifts. There are many supersti~
tions concerning the food eaten on
that day; apples eaten at midnight
brough good health; there must be 2
plum pudding otherwise you would
lose a frend during the year.