daylight parties chocolate is most liked. "Costume mottoes" must not be forgotten. At a birthday party the cake with its coloured candles should hold the place of honour. Sometimes it is iced to represent the face of a clock, the hands pointing to the number on the dial that indicates the child's age. The candles are then omitted. A ring, coin and thimble are often baked within the cake. The child's Christian name and the year of his birth and the present date are often written in pink icing upon the surface of the white-pink candles, set in tiny roses, forming a wreath around its edge. Of course, the number of the candles must correspond to the child's age -one for each year since the lamp of life was lighted. These candles are blown out by the little guests, while each in turn makes a secret wish for the "birthday girl" or boy. The wax tapers used on Christmas trees are the most suitable, and the colours chosen to harmonise with the other decorations. The small tin holders with little sharp spikes underneath are the usual means of fastening them on the cake. They may be concealed by a wreath of the birthday flower. A Jack Horner pie covered with paper crust and frills conceals within it a tiny gift for every child present. It may also be adapted in shape for the occasionheart-shaped, star-shaped, etc., and a capital imitation of a plum-pudding, with a sprig of holly atop, is one of the new devices for holding gifts. The presents are wrapped in paper tied with ribbons, and ribbons hang from the outside, those for the boys and girls being of different shades. Each child holds a ribbon, while some one counts slowly, "One, two, three!" Whereupon all pull simul taneously, and each one finds a gift at the end of his ribbon. The caterers have many novelties every year-one of the latest is a pie surmounted by a doll dressed as "Bo Peep," surrounded by her flock of woolly lambs. A mound of paper roses may form the centrepiece on the table, and when passed around the roses are found to have gifts tied to them for the girls, and the leaves for the boys. A rose-ball is another pretty device to hold little presents, and is formed of a globe-shaped wire frame covered with pink paper roses. Pink ribbons for the girls and green for the boys, falling from the ball, indicate their gifts. After supper and the distribution of the presents, the good-byes are said. Grown folk sometimes admit that they have birthdays and celebrate them, particularly when under thirty. There are cakes to be had at the caterers, iced in wedge-shaped sections, like the divisions of a pie, alternately pink and white, to distinguish those for the ladies from those intended for the other sex. It is found, when about to cut it, that it is already divided, and each section of cake is held in a separate wedge-shaped box, the cover of which is the iced portion of the apparent cake. The sections contain a ring, signifying marriage for its recipient; a thimble or button, celibacy; coin, wealth; a silver horseshoe pin, good luck; a tiny spoon, an engagement. All the rest may contain some complimentary sentiment, as for instance: "Gay without folly, good without pretense, Blest with that rarest virtue-common sense." "Far richer gems than beauty you possess- "So hard to please that, youth's bright season past, Your fate will be the 'crooked stick' at last." "One there is who holds you dear, Whose heart is light when you are near." "The sweetest maiden of them all, You'll wed a fellow six feet tall." The couplets may be adapted to younger subjects, and for girls and boys of from fourteen to seventeen such a cake would probably contribute a pleasing feature for the supper-table. DECEMBER CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS PARTY For a Christmas party an "Ice Palace" or "The Home of Santa Claus" will please the children as the setting for a frolic. The walls of the room are covered with white cheesecloth, moistened with weak gum-arabic water and powdered with mica-dust. The draperies should not be arranged with uniformity, but drawn over furniture that is set against the wall, so as to suggest snow-drifts. Sheets cover the floor, and small Christmas trees of various sizes are disposed about the room, each with its load of snow (cotton covered with mica). Hidden lights, screened with papers, cast cold blue and green reflections, and jagged bits of combed-out cotton, frosted, hang like icicles from various points. Screens, covered with sheets to which sprays of evergreen are attached, help to break up the appearance of indoor uniformity of the room. Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, dressed in red |