Christmas dinners and depressions just don't seem to belong together. Yet, by some queer twist of fate, they've come hand-in-hand these last few years. Christmas dinners used to spell extravagance, elaborateness, and expense, but now they have struck the pace with all the rest of us. One can be just as merry this Christmas to the accompaniment of roast chicken, cranberry jelly and baked potatoes as she ever could to caviar, roast turkey and all the costly trimmings.

What do we want for our children? We might start with these four things: a purposeful life; ability to think, power to take responsibility, a capacity for joy and happiness and of giving happiness to others. We might add other powers, but let us stop and consider what it means to develop initiative and responsibility.

One of the most prominent foods in our holiday menu is certainly wild game. The wild duck, pheasant, quail, partridge and rabbits and squirrels are plentiful right here in our own state, while the wild turkey and venison are shipped in from our friends who travel for their hunting.

In merrie olde England, puddings and cakes, adorned with holly "to keep the witches away," lent a festive note to holiday tables, and even today no Christmas dinner is quite complete without a tasty cake or a steaming pudding.

Books, those ever-popular Christmas gifts, will doubtless be welcomed even more warmly than ever this year by those of your friends who like to read. They probably ave been borrowing books from the library instead of purchasing their own, and what book-lover doesn't know the thrill of possessing his very own copies of the newest works? There are so many exciting books for sale this year that, returning to the nefarious impulses of your childhood, you will, no doubt, be tempted to buy the books a month before Christmas, so that you may read them before sending them off!