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Show Woman's World Home Reflects Holiday Spirit In Cleanliness, Decorations THE holiday spirit is in the air, but the big days have not yet arrived. Before the house smells rich and sweet from the holiday dinner, and the tree fills the house with its fresh, sweet outdoors odor and presents start peeping from all sorts of mysterious places, it's time to think of getting everything ready. House cleaning may seem a bore most of the time, but not before Christmas because this is a very special cleaning. It means a bit of shifting around of the furniture so that the tree will show off to proper advantage; it means clearing a place for colorful presents and gay cards. It also means something very special in decorations to keep the family in a holiday mood. You'll want the home in immaculate immac-ulate condition because extra room Is needed and so many new things will be coming in to fill space. If everything is spic and span before this starts, daily picking up and cleaning can easily be fitted into the average schedule. Start Cleaning B: Making Space Before you actually get down to cleaning windows and using the vacuum cleaner, spend a day clearing clear-ing house. Get rid of all but current magazines and papers. You may even need to clear some wall space if you're planning to have a Christ- Make the home neat ... mas card bulletin board. All this should be done before cleaning. If you are rather crowded for space, it may be a wise idea to clear floor space by relegating odd tables and chairs to the storage area in basement or attic. After all, you'll have to make space for the tree and the display of presents if your home is rather crowded. When you're expecting - crowd in fo. the holidays, it's best to make as much room as possible, and then Then decorate festively. to depend upon folding chairs for sitting space. Put up an extra towel rack or two in the bathroom if you're expecting ex-pecting guests. You may also need an extra clothes hamper because laundry will be heavy. Clear some space in the kitchen, td . before starting the actual cleaning. Shelf space is essential for the cookie jar and extra canned and packaged goods which you'll need when it comes to entertaining a crowd. Flolidays Demand Thorough Clean-Up A really clean house is much easier to keep spic and span with daily lick-and-promise work. Now is the time to plan spending a day or two, depending upon the size of the home, in a ceiling to floor cleaning. clean-ing. Start with the walls, using an electric cleaning attachment or wall brush to get rid of dust and dirt. Then go over all the windows and woodwork with plenty of soap and water. Polish everything with soft cloths to a shining brightness. Dark furniture is best cleaned with various polishes while light woods may be cleaned with soap and water, followed by a polish to preserve finish. Set aside a day for doing the washable slip covers and drapes or curtains. This will allow sufficient time for both laundering and ironing. iron-ing. If you use dry cleaning, you'll need a half day's time, probably for removing the covers and then replacing them. Clean and polish the floors; save the dusting for the ' last. Set the room to rights and you'll be ready, for decorating the house in the true Christmas spirit. Make Most of lTouse By Practical Decorating Christmas cards will start arriving arriv-ing before presents. Instead of having hav-ing them in unattractive piles, make a bulletin board in the front hall so they may be displayed properly. Wall board or a large piece of cardboard in red or blue will serve the purpose well. Hang this from the wall. Frame it with some holly or pine branches or even some red and white candy-striped candy-striped paper. Place the cards on the board with colored thumb tacks as they arrive. If you want to keep presents off the floor, you may want to cover a coffee table or cabinet with bright red or green felt. Pile the presents on top of this neatly. If you like, attach colored ribbons to the presents pres-ents and gather the ribbons up in a large rosette fastened to the ceiling. ceil-ing. It's nice to have a bowl or basket bas-ket of red and white candy canes tied with bows so that you have them to give youngsters who come to call. Besides that, they're a decorative asset in an otherwise simple home. Cookies cut out in the shape of stars, trees. Santa Claus or reindeer, then decorated with colored sugar or silver dec-orettes dec-orettes are nice to hang on the tree. Try Your Hand at Making Wreaths and Candles If you want to make a festive wreath for the door or the window? it's easy enough to do at home. Use a sturdy wire frame as the foundation. foun-dation. Cover this with tape, then wire pine cones and berries on separately. sep-arately. Use only the soft pliable ends of evergreen tips so the wreath will not be bulky. After the cones are on, place the berries right around the cones where they will show best. You may place a spray of holly at the top of the wreath to balance it and cover the wire used to hang the wreath. Candles may be simply decorated with large bows of ribbon, or bows plus evergreen tips, tiny cones and berries 1 Another idea for candles uses ribbon and a cluster of tiny glitter bulbs. Or nestle the candles on evergreens with larger bulbs and cones for table decorations. |