From the Improvement Era, December 1932 –

Silver Lining: More Love and Less Money

By Claire W. Noall

The gleam of firelight mingled its cheery warmth with the shadows of the room. The windows were revealed in clear white outline against the blackness of the night by the falling snow that was piling up in little drifts upon their lower edges. The bright hangings at the casements caught the red glow of the fire in their own gay colors. The reading lamp on the old fashioned table was like a great inverted buttercup in the subdued light of the sitting rooms. The atmosphere was cozy and inviting.

Eline and Carol were alone. Tom, their oldest brother, was on a mission in Norway, and Signe, their elder sister, was at glee club rehearsal. Mother was helping some Relief society sisters, and Dad was poring over some knotty problems in the office. The six-year-old twins, Dick and Dorothy, had been tucked into their beds and were sound asleep.

Carol lay stretched at full length on the hearth-rug, her cheek cupped in one hand. With the other she gently stroked Sooty, her black Persian cat, who snuggled in a warm ball against her side. It was nice to be ten, she thought; one was granted some respect at that august age, and one’s bed-time was delayed a little. Eline, a Junior in Mutual, was curled up in a big arm chair beside the table absorbed in reading an old letter she had found in her grandfather’s journal, wherein she was seeking material for her “My Story” book.

“Grandma must have written this to Grandpa when he was on one of his missions. Listen, Carol. It’s a story about Dad when he was a little boy. I guess Grandma overheard the children talking and she has told the story to grandpa in this letter. I’ll read you what she says:

“What are you goin’ to get for Christmas?” asked John. (“He was Dad’s friend,” explained Eline.)

“We’re not going to get anything. Father’s on a mission, and we’re not having presents. But we’ve got mapril sugar and diamonds in the gran’ry. Yum yum! And we’ll have them for Christmas dinner,” drawled Tommy.

“Mapril sugar and diamonds, meaning these almonds you had sent up from Dixie, Father dear,” continues Grandma, “are quite sufficient for a glorified Christmas for our small ones this year. There is a beautiful spirit of contentment in our home, and we are glad to have you laboring in behalf of the gospel.”

Eline looked up from the worn and faded letter.

“You know, Carol, I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas this year and wondering how in the world we can bring a festive spirit into our home without all this dribbling of money here and there,” and she patterned the shape of a Christmas tree with her toe on the rug.

“Why, what’s the matter? Aren’t we rich?” asked Carol.

“Of course – we’re rich in some ways – home and health – good food –”

“Oh – but I mean money-rich,” Carol interrupted. “What’s the matter with everybody?”

“Nobody’s money-rich any more, if that’s what you mean,” mocked Eline. “All the money’s playing hide and seek, and it’s nowhere to be found. But we can find joy – and we can have fun, too,” and she broke into a little laugh.

“Let’s have a pioneer Christmas. We can get along without buying presents the same as they did,” exclaimed Carol eagerly. “We have Tom on a mission, and we have to give up for him.”

All through the autumn they had thought of the Pioneers as they watched load after load of logs being hauled out of the tawny canyons. Never since the early days had the wooded slopes of the mountains been cleared of their timber as they had this year. But there was this difference: these logs were not brought down to build homes for the sturdy Pioneers, but to keep warm some of the needy people of our own day who could not buy coal.

“Carol, you’re a little brick. We can have a merry Christmas without money. We’ll celebrate according to the Norwegian tradition. Do you remember what Dad has told us about the Christmas spirit of long ago in Norway? His father used to say that ’twas taught him in his father’s and mother’s house that ‘at Yuletide none should ask another for aught but each should strive to do the most. He was most blest that most could serve the others throughout the holy days.’” (“Kristin Lavransdatter, Mistress of Husaby,” p. 33.)

“That’s beautiful – but how can we serve?” asked Carol. “What shall we do?”

“We’ll get the whole family to make Christmas a happy one by each presenting the loveliest gift of all to the other, consideration, by way of a thoughtful deed.”

“How, Eline? I don’t understand.”

“Of course not. But listen, Hon, and you will. Is there anything nicer than to give someone joy by doing the thing that you know he would like to have you do? A thoughtful deed! There’s a gift for you!”

“That’s a great idea. But what can I do?”

“This, for instance: you know how amazed, but how unutterably happy Signe would be if you would promise her that you wouldn’t touch a single thing on her dressing table for a whole year. And think of Mom! If you’d eat a big dish of mush every morning and get up to weight again, she’d be relieved of a big worry.”

“Oh, Elise!” gasped Carol. “You sure are asking for a big Christmas gift,” and she sat straight up.

“Well, you heard Dick with your own ears this morning when he accused you of serving yourself the lastest so you could take the leastest. Come on, Carol, you can do that for Mom and Signe.”

“Well, if you think you’re so smart – how’s this for an idea! You and Signe can each make a kitchen apron for the other, and we’ll give Mother something pretty to wear; I know, a lovely scarf.”

“That’s a come-back for you. You’re not so slow, after all, little one! But I’ll agree. We’ll shower Dad and Mother with good deeds, and Mother shall have the scarf, and she shall go a-steppin’ now and then while Signe and I hold forth in the kitchen, for a change.”

“A change is right. Everything will be different this year. But let’s decorate the house and make some nummy things to eat,” and Carol looked a bit wistful.

“Oh, of course, we’ll do that, too. Don’t think we aren’t going to have a jolly time; this will be a snorky Christmas. I can just hear the crackle of the Yule-log as the flames go leaping up the chimney,” and Eline’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

As Christmas drew near, the twins and Carol were bubbling over with mirth and excitement. They had been schooling themselves to better actions to be able to present a promise of good deeds as their Christmas gifts. The twins had cut out some large gold and silver stars from gilt paper which they had pasted on cardboard, afterwards stringing them, so that they could hang them on the Christmas tree. Carol had mended the crack in Dorothy’s doll with Gesso, and had touched it up with fresh paint. She had crocheted a tiny sweater, cap, and muff for her “Patsyette.” From some Japanese crepe which cost only fifteen cents a yard she made her mother a breakfast set. The napkins had fringed edges, which she made by raveling the threads and then oversewing the edges with thread of the same color. She used crepe of different colors, and in one corner of each napkin she drew a tiny fruit design, which she embroidered in French knots. From some pongee silk which she found in her mother’s work box she made her daddy some handkerchiefs by drawing colored threads through the silk for a border and making a quarter inch hem.

Signe and Eline, planning a surprise for the younger children, made a dazzling little snow palace. They wanted above all things to have the house gladsome and decorative, for happiness and joy as well as thoughtful unselfishness was their creed. They made the palace of a piece of heavy cardboard, 20 by 78 inches in measurement. Folding it into six sections, they cut an arched doorway in each section, set it upright, glued the ends together and placed a hexagonal roof into position. Painting the cardboard white, they spattered the wet paint with artificial snow to make it glisten. The arches were outlined with tinsel and the roof was covered with soft white cotton which was sprinkled with the snow. Over the inside of the windows they pasted cellophane paper. On Christmas Eve they placed the snow palace under the boughs of the Christmas tree, and illumined it with a small red electric light. The tree was not decorated with ornaments after the usual fashion, but with white cotton, ribbon tinsel and the stars the twins had made. On the heavier branches the girls hung orange baskets of glazed fruit wrapped in colored cellophane paper. These they had made with Carol’s help. Cutting the oranges in half, they scooped out the pulp, scalloped the edges, and candied them whole, after which they fitted candied orange peel handles on the baskets and filled them with candied peel and slices of candied apple. Some of the apples were flavored with mint and were colored green, and some of them were colored red. After the basket was all finished it was wrapped in the cellophane, and it made a pretty gift.

This is the recipe for the candied fruit: the same recipe does for all kinds of fruit.

Boil the peeling until tender, scrape off all the white part, and cook in a syrup of one part water to two parts sugar. Fill the syrup fairly well with the fruit or peeling, stir all the time it is cooking, and when the syrup is all taken up separate the fruit or peeling and dry on waxed paper. For the apples, which need no boiling before being cooked in the syrup, add any desired color or flavor to the syrup. After they are cooked they should be allowed to dry for two or three days and then they should be rolled in powdered sugar or tiny candies.

Knowing how much most small boys enjoy a good noise, the girls planned a typical Christmas for Dick. They made him a set of toy drums from an oatmeal carton and a five pound marshmallow can. Removing the bottom from each of them, they stretched and tied into place oiled paper over the two ends of the carton and oiled chamois skin over the ends of the can. The sticks were pieces of wood which they had smoothed and polished with sandpaper. They completed their musical suggestions with a homemade xylophone. For the frame they salved some wood from some old furniture and painted it green. In each of the two horizontal crosspieces they carved a row of semicircular notches, into which they fitted bottles. These, being filled with various amounts of water, made a complete scale of two octaves.

Not the lest of their Christmas preparations was a box of toys, clothing and good tings to eat which they arranged for a family less fortunate than their own.

As they put the finishing touches to their own decorations, Signe exclaimed with a little gasp of delight, “Well, our handsome hero, St. Nick, ought to be pleased with this effect! It’s the loveliest ever–”

“Oh, let’s call Mom and Dad,” said Eline. “I’m so glad they let us fix things up all by ourselves!”

As their parents entered the room with happy looks of astonishment, the glad cadence of the Christmas carolers was heard just outside the window as they sang “Holy Night.”