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Children's Parties |
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children's frolics as to those of their elders. Many would think them more suited to those not yet arrived at the years of discretion.
When the little folk have arrived, it would be well to explain in very few words and as dramatically as possible the reason for the celebration—a rapid sketch of the star-guided journey of the Wise Men, the custom through the ages of observing twelve holidays succeeding Christmas, the fun culminating on the twelfth and last day in the effort to get all the pleasure possible before the merry season closed.
The special features of the day may be recounted— the cakes, "drawing for characters," the mimic court, the king and queen determined by the ring and coin, etc. The children will then be prepared for a more intelligent and interested participation in the sports. *At such an entertainment recalled by the writer, the children were ushered into a small room adjoining the drawing-room where they were assembled, which they found in almost total darkness, the only light coming from a tiny star twinkling in one corner of the ceiling where it joined the wall. During the few moments' reverent or curious gazing at the star, the hostess took occasion to make the explanation suggested above. When she reached the point in her narrative in which she told of medieval customs and their "merry disport," the electric lights were turned on, the star was made to disappear in the billows of white gauze that did duty for clouds surrounding it, and the room was found to be lavishly decorated with greenery and many Christmas trees, which had been procured at a trifling cost, it being after Christmas. In the centre of the room was a round table wreathed in garlands of green, upon which was a large cake, iced smoothly in white, to look like snow. |
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