[CHAPTER VIII]
GIFTS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM
It is wonderful what your head and hands can do when you begin to plan gifts for family and friends at Christmas, birthdays and the in-between times when "un-birthday presents"—as "Alice in Wonderland" called them—are so welcome. But I am sure you know the breathless feeling of having to make or buy a long list of Christmas presents with only two weeks or so in which to accomplish it. Why not keep a gift box or drawer, where you can pack away the pretty things you take such pleasure in making on dull days all the year round? There are ever so many things—games, toys, baskets and beadwork—which you will find in other chapters—that will help to fill this gift box, and I am going to tell you about some others.
There are several things to think of in planning a gift. It should be something that will be within your means, something that is worth giving, however small—not "trash"; but what is most important of all is that it shall really please the one who receives it. If it can be a lasting pleasure so much the better.
Suppose you try keeping a notebook; begin it now, and write down the little things that you hear the family wish for during the year—tiny things, maybe, but just what they want. For instance, Aunt Helen, who writes, never has enough pencils—her nieces and nephews know why. Father is unable to find an express tag when he wants one, because he has no case to hang close beside his desk. Joe says he wishes someone would make him a chamois cover for his new knife—it is getting scratched already; and mamma cannot find that recipe for potted pigeons that she cut from the paper Saturday evening. What a number of entries you will be able to make in your gift book! See how it reads:
Aunt Helen: One dozen pencils.
Father: Leather tag case and tags.
Mother: A blank book with her newspaper recipes pasted in.
Joe: A chamois knife case.
And this is just a beginning. When you visit your friends you will soon see or hear what little things will please them. Then you can begin collecting the materials for your gift box, and when a rainy day comes what pleasant hours you will spend.
Let us begin with the