CHAPTER XV
A HOME-MADE SANTA CLAUS
"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" calls out Santa Claus cheerily as the guests come trooping into the room.
Laughing and joking, his eyes twinkling with fun, Santa Claus names each person as he hands out the gifts from his fat Christmas bag and from the generous pile at his feet. All this merriment happens at Christmastide when you play the part of good "Kris Kringle" in your own home, in the schoolroom, the Sunday-school, or in any place where Christmas is celebrated and where children are gathered to enjoy the festivities.
Take a good long look at Santa Claus, as shown in the picture ([Fig. 218]); then turn your eyes to the illustration ([Fig. 219]). Can you believe it possible that the two photographs are of the same person in identically the same pose? Such is truly the case. The second gives the woman's back, while the first shows her face, arms, and hands transformed into those of the jolly saint.
You can see at a glance how very easy it will be for you to have a real, live, little Santa Claus for your Christmas.
Any one—grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, big sister or brother, or you yourself—can assume the character of this live little saint, can grow suddenly short of stature, jolly and fat, be arrayed in scarlet, ermine-trimmed, and crowned with a red-peaked hat, all in less time than it takes to tell it; and, stranger still, the transformation may be accomplished in a very comfortable way, without even the bother of changing the usual attire.
It is essential merely to paste on the face tufts of raw cotton for eyebrows, mustache and goatee, and to slip over each arm an extra sleeve. This accomplished, and the proper position taken behind the curtain, lo, "magic change"! There you are as fine a little Santa Claus as any one would care to see, and your best friend would not recognize you, so complete is the change. Disguise your voice and no one can find you out, not even your nearest relative.