A Dickens' Supper.
A happy selection of time for a Dickens party is the Christmas season, which is so peculiarly connected with so many of Dickens' writings.
Have the rooms brilliantly lighted, and the bright berries of the Christmas holly against a background of the "ivy green" which Dickens loved. The hostess might dress in a handsome costume of the time of Edith Dombey.
The guests can each represent some character of Dickens.
Betsy Trotwood, tall and rigid in stiff gown and tight cap.
Dora, young and blonde, with infantile manner.
Peggotty, buxom and tightly compressed into her gown.
Dick Swiveller and the marchioness.
Mrs. Tizziwig, "one vast substantial smile."
Madame Defarge, stolid and plying her ceaseless knitting.
Joey B., with his swagger, "Sly sir; devilish sly."
Mr. Micawber, bland and portly.
Little Nell and her grandfather, and so on with the characters which Dickens has made living creatures indeed. Gathered in the reception rooms the group will make a quaint, lovely picture to the entering guest. When all the guests have arrived cards are distributed, on each of which is a water colored sketch of some of Dickens' characters. An English walnut shell tied with pink ribbon and attached to the corner of the card holds a quotation from Dickens, and beneath this nut is the pertinent quotation, "The Dickens to crack." A prize can be awarded to the one answering most correctly from which books the different quotations were taken.
Some of the pathetic scenes from Dombey and Son can be read by some one whose musical voice and gentle face, as well as intelligent reading, make this part especially effective. The hostess can read an extract from verses headed "The Christmas Carol" in Pickwick Papers.
"My song I troll out, for Xmas stout
The hearty, the true and the bold;
A bumper I drain and with might and main
Give three cheers for this Christmas old!
We'll usher him in with a merry din,
That shall gladden his joyous heart,
And we'll keep him up while there's bite or sup,
And in fellowship good we'll part."
Pass around small glasses of egg-nog and have toasts of Christmas cheer.
For refreshments have delicious oyster and mushroom cream soup, cold wild duck, jelly and celery. A frozen salad after this; it is made of tomatoes (canned) cooked a little, strained, and when cold mixed with a thin mayonnaise, then frozen, making a delight for the palate. The ice is a lemon ice frozen in individual molds very hard and covered with a hot chocolate sauce, making a most delicious blending of hot and cold, sweet and sour. A tiny glass of cordial completes the repast.
For the prize for the quotations have a handsome copy of Christmas Stories tied with red ribbons and ornamented with a bunch of holly. For the booby prize have a bag of the buttons Peggotty burst from her gown when an exuberance of emotion filled her breast.