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By N. BRUCE McLEOD Richmond Hill United Church According to the Christmas Council of Canada, a voluntary organization of manufacturers and distributors of the decorative trappings of Christmas, Canadians usually spend $100 million on wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tree decorations. ' V'l‘rhrat’s just a fraction of the $8.4 billion we spend these weeks on gifts, no; cognling liquor. ,,L__... Buyer. llvu yvu..-...O "1",, . It‘s hard to picture numbers like that; they make us numb. How big is a million? If you pile thousand ' dollar bills tightly together to the height of a single brick, that makes a million. And a billion? Just pile those bricks to the height of a 32-storey building. mc’iiiiaigine a building of million dollar bricks reaching 278 storeys into the sky, and that’s the Canadian Christmas gift busilless: More and more thoughtful people are beginning to pull out of Christmas. Not from gift-giving as such, but from the gigantic annual rip-off that, to keep our Gross National Product growing, hustles money out of our pockets for plastic gew-gaws and gimcracks and machineâ€"tied ribbon bows. The same magazine that ad- vertises “three wisemen in gleaming sterling for the Christ- mas tree that has everything”, describes over the page how 460 million people are chronically hungry, and most are under five years of age. For many the contrast is just too much to take. But won’t the children be disappointed? Some will, so carefully have we taught them, who arrived regarding each day as a gift, to look forward to Christmas as the biggest gift day of all. . But perhaps the‘children are telling us something in their common reluctance to write thank- you notes for what our economy programs them to need and requires them to have for it to carry on. Babies, until they are taught differently, get as much fun out of a tin pan and wooden spoon as out of any fancy educational toy. Nor does there seem to be the same need in us to make them say Thank-you. Maybe the real gift is not a card, but a visit or a phone call; not something gleaming, but something personal. PUBLISHER JOHN C. FERGUS The Liberal Is_puplished 6i -M;uospan aning & Publis The Woodbndge Vaughan News. Certavin-ly no silver humidor Editorial, Display Classified Circulation Toronto customers Subscuphon rates By mail $13.00 per year in Canada $26.00 per yea: outside 0' Canada. By came: $1.00 every 'ouv weeks Smgle copy sales 25 cents. No mail delivetv whete came! service exms Second 0355 Mail Registrahou Numbev 0190' Ron Wallace - Editm Fwd Summon - Sports Edilov Steve PeavIsteIn - News Edna The cements, both ednoflal and adveflising o! The Liberal. Richmond Hill are plotectad by copyright and any unauthuized use us mohib'ned. Libéral VOLUME 102. NUMBER 25 )ublished evecy Wednesday by Mellospan Community Newspapevs, a dlwsacm Inling 8 Publishing le., which also publishes The Banner m Aurora‘Newmavkel, Vauahan News. and The Bolton Emerprise. Lib'éral TELEPHONES 884»8‘| 77 884-1 105 884-0981 881 3373 Wednesday, December 19, 1979 could ever match the painted up juice can that holds pencils and pipes on my desk and that will always speak of the little girl who made it. And what could be more of a gift in our rushing lives than the gift of time? The electronic game that gives a razzing sound when a wrong choice is made and is produced by a company whose motto is “It’s not how you play the game, but whether you win or lose”, may be forgotten in February. p u, __ A- But not the offer of a father to spend one whole evening every month doing whatever one of his children would like to do with him. About ten years ago, a young American, Bob Kochtitzkey, decided that what his family needed, more than anything in the Christmas catalogue, was a world free of poverty, hunger, and war. He developed a way of saying to his Uncle Jim, “I’m putting my love for you this year not into a tie, but to work in the world for good, through this orvthat organization.” iii}; game rationale is behind the increasing practice of giving to the Heart Fund or the Cancer Society at the tinie of a funeral. Kochtitzkey has developed an Alternate Christmas Catalogue listing places which use money to warm the world, and cards are sent to Uncle Jim’s all over the land saying “A Gift of Life has been given this Christmas in your name.” We don’t need a Catalogue. Every church has ways of chan- neling money to the hurting parts of the world. Foster Parents Plan of Canada, or Pueblito Canada, will get money to children. You can reach out to refugees and hungry people through the Red Cross as well as through a church. Lots of people are having a hard look this year at how much money runs out in cards, paper, ribbon, stickers, liquor, gifts, and food. Some are substituting some part of this incredible annual ex- penditure with home-made per- sonal gifts, gifts of time, gifts of life for a broken world. Does that take all the joy away? I believe it helps us uncover the joy that Christmas is all about, and that is not always apparent on the faces of tired shoppers. I believe it is one way of responding to some undiscouraged spirit that is intent on building this earth into a home. John C. FaQUS, Ditecmt ol Publishing Ray Padley Jr. Advertismg Director Nocrnan Slunden r Ploducfion Managec Denis O'Meala - C-vculalion Duectu Rose Reynolds 7 Accounts Metrospan Community Newspapes publishes The Ridunond HillIThotMill Liberal, The Banner. The Oakville Journal Recom. The Hanan Consuma, The Missisauga Tm, The Elobiooke WIGuardw, The Embicoke Consumm The Nonh Yak Minot. The North Yotk Cormm,TheSca'boroMirov,TheScarbomCovww, The Woodbridge E: Vaughan News, The Bolton Entwise. and The North Stat Consumev, ME TROSPAN METHOSPAN - NORTH DIVISION EDITOR RON WALLACE I ( Um, r u o \A u A9 A. ' - - \b' .‘rusrflfl Letter§ Santa Claus Rice I hope you don‘t mind me calling you dear, but I wanted to start this letter off right to encourage you to read it all. Dear Bob Rice: Your idea of giving away a really nice gift was a nice gesture. but it is for an adult. and I believe Christmas is for children. It is the time of year we celebrate Christ's birth and if you can remember the story you will see that the gifts were presented to Jesus and not his parents. Mary and Joseph. Iknow that children see Christmas as a time for Santa Claus and not Christ‘s birth, but then the wise men who gave Christ His gifts were something like Santa Clauses themselves, with their ways of travelling from afar and their wise old looks. This column started out to be about my recent trip to Ottawa and my visit to the House of Commons and emphasized the fact that my timing is always just a little bit off Only hours before my personal deadline the Government of Canada was defeated and an election had been called, making the column sound just a little bit outâ€"dated . . . bad timing I hope Ifin not Metro can be a dull and boring place at times. On a one-day visit to our nation’s capital, Ottawa, I saw more interesting sights and individuals than I have seen here in months. You either seek them out or literally trip over them in the street. Unfortunately my timing is not too good. I attended the House of Commons a couple of days after Trudeau made his resignation speech. I arrived there about ten minutes after our MP John Gamble left on a flight back here. That’s the second time in four months I missed him. Last July I interviewed him via telephone; he in his Thornhill office and I in his Ottawa office. The day l was in the House of Commons there was an NDP convention in Toronto and the only one there from the NDP was Stanley Knowles who looked quite dapper for his age. Another recognizable figure, to rule at least was Torofito’s former tiny Mayor David Crombie. At least he was still in town Only a handful of Liberals were there (maybe they were trying to come up with a new party leader) and I didn’t recognize anyone in particular but I did notice that one was ignoring the proceedings and had his head buried in a newspaper. Then he got up and left, leaving the newspaper behind. Another Liberal crossed the floor to the Conservatives, but I told you my timing was bad. He was only going to speak to someone across the hall from him. Is that By DOREEN LIVINGSTONE Liberal Correspondent LIBERAL SPRINKLINGS Freezing their feathers being impertinent by writing this letter and telling you what I tpink. J-.. r __, I know there are a lot of children. even in Rich- mond Hill. who will be very disappointed on Christmas morning. It is hard to explain to a small child that. yes. they have been good. but Santa passed them by and visited the neighbor‘s child who is the one who picks on or beats up the other children. I realize you know many people in Richmond Hill. and maybe next year you could get some together to donate small toys or some clothes so that you can play Santa to the children. You could ask the children to write to you. as Santa. telling you their sex. age. name. address and a bit about them- selves and their Christ- mas wishes. Then you could pick the unu. u... send a letter l I know the i still gets lots addressed to they are just tl after Christm: I know this what “crossing the floor" means? As we were about to leave Paul Hellyer arrived and surveyed the situation from his special balcony seat. It seemed suspicious to me that only a couple of days ago Trudeau had resigned. As you may remember he ran against Trudeau for the nomination the year our former Prime Minister was elected. Since Pierre and Joe were both absent that day and no one else arrived, it was time to make a quick exit, only to walk past columnist Charles Lynch of Southam News engaged in conversation near the Parliament Buildings, Anne Murray lives somewhere in Thornhill but have I ever driven up to her house and parked in front? No way. But I did park in front of Margaret Trudeau’s house in the subdivision of East Edinburgh near exclusive Rockcliffe Village. The house locked freshly painted in a charcoal grey with a coral trim and because her drapes were open I noticed a white telephone on a table placed near the window My timing was still bad because it was quite obvious Margaret wasn’t at home. It was a P.A. day in Ottawa and presumably she was out with her three sons. v t‘rvack record was still good. I missed seeing Pierre, Joe, Margaret and John Gamble all in one day. Oh well, all was not lost. I had some time left over and went browsing through a book store (relieved that there was not one souvenir of King Tut), had lunch at Le Baie (I think that’s how it was spelled); here we call it The Bay and looked around an ex- clusive antique store owned by the former Mayor of Ottawa. And guess what? He wasn’t around either! .la'ostscrifii â€" Here it is a few days before Christmas and right in the middle of Chanukah and have I wrigten one word g55§t1f£fie¥fiblidafl Would you call that bad timing? needier ones and make a small face light up wit_h joy. because nothing is more important than the smiles and joys of laughter from the small citizens of today and the adults of tomorrow. Ifeel that if we are good and kind to the children today. that maybe we will be able to look to a better future for our grand- children and great grandchildren. I know I'm asking a lot from just one person. but if someone starts. I know that others will follow and maybe this world will be a better place to live. The children will also like the idea that they can send a letter to Santa, I know the Post Office still gets lots of letters addressed to Santa and they are just throwu away after Christmas. is a great (Photo by Bruce Hogg) request. but please think of the children and when they are happy. I know the parents will have something to smile about also. ED. N6TE â€" The above letter was among the entries for Bob Rice's Christmas Card Contest. Bob replies: “I agree with Mrs. Walsh‘s views and I Would like to be able to undertake such a project. but l feel that the various service clubs and agencies in the area do admirable Work with the less fortunate and are more capable of running such a drive." Bob added that the contest was open to children as well as adults. and many entries were received from the younger set. Mrs. W. Walsh Richmond Hill By BOB RICE The winner is.. Well gang. . . here it is! (TAH-DAHHHHHH. . . drum roll) It‘s time to announce the name of the winner of my Christmas Present contest! (Bigger drum roll and blaring trumpets) The draw was held at The Liberal office and the winning card was drawn from all of the entries which had been placed in a slightly used wastebasket. . . (Add two tympani and a flugle horn) . . by our new receptionist. Nancy! (Cymbal crash and kazoo fanfare) DA WINNAH OF DA PANASONIC BOR- TABLE TV -RADIO. . . FROM 226 RUGGLES AVENOO IN RICHMUND DILL IS THE . . . TOM STEWART FAMILYlll‘. (Applause. . London Philharmonic 0r- chestra playing selected tunes from the Fats Domino Songbook) Congratulations to Tom and his family and I should tell you that when I phoned him with the good news he was still in bed sleeping! I understand, however, that he was wide awake for the rest of the day. i Want to thank eileryone who entered our contest and the nicest way I can think of doing it is to acknowledge you in priiit. ‘ Thank you and Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season to: Mrs. Irene Worrell of Bayview Ave. Thelma and Alan Humphries on Yonge St. Helen Shaw of Lake Wilcox Bud Botham of Dunlop Street Laurie Anne Bishop on Arnold Crescent Janis James on Westwood Lane in Thornhill Mrs. Angela Nielsen on May Ave. Doug and Loretta Thompson of Elmwood Avenue Mrs. E. Shubert on Royal Orchard in Thornhill The Lusk Family in Oak Ridges Mrs. Leonora Paxton in Oak Ridges! Mrs. Barbara Gillibrand on Elmwood Ave. Linda Sugars on North Taylor Mills Susan and Rena Crabb of Rockport Cres. Irene Reeves on North Taylor Mills Mrs. Kay Wood of Oak Ridges Lyman Welch on Woodward Ave. in Thornhill Margaret and Jim Williamson of R.R.1, King City Terry, Joan, Libbi and Alan Hood on Gentry Cres. . June Clarke of Rosemar Gardens Ron Schaufele on Baif Blvd. Irene, Kenneth, Anne, Christina, Henry and Eric 0550 on Anzac Irene Boyle on Yonge Street Nan Hunt in Willowdale Christina Lown of Maple Linda and Dino Salvatori on Oxford St. The de Paulsen family on Rothsay Road in Thornhill Mrs. J .D. Nelson of Thornhill Ms. M. Maddox on Braeburn Drive Mr. and Mrs. N. Bowen of Church Street, North Mrs. Margaret Blow of Thornhill The Infanti Family on Bayview Avenue Mr. and Mrs. John Richardson on Elmwood Mrs. Jeanne Aubry on Garden Ave. in Thornhill Irene Van-Kats of Thorny Brae Drive Dane and June Pendrith‘ on Crestwood Rd. The McLennans of Osiris Drive Anne and Rick Gerber on Leisure Lane Doug White on Markham Road Margaret Hines on Centre Street, East Hazel Jones on Albright Ave. in Toronto George and Anne McLachlan of Delta, British Columbia Mrs. F. Hishon on Alper Street Sandra and Mini Ground of Harding Blvd. Mrs. Joy August on Ruggles Avenue Chris Jackson on Proctor Ave. in Thornhill Shirley Tarling of Concord Dorothy Turner on Lynett Cres. Mr. and Mrs. John Brookes on May Ave. The Finlays of Innis Crescent Nancy and Paul Keighley of Thornhill Dawn Waterhouse on Mill Street Blanche Fagan of Trayborn Drive Ron Wallace of no fixed address gov“ - v 9“... Bob and Mariâ€"watson on Harrygan Crescent W.K. Ellislof Bridgeford Street Maureen and Frank Krause on North Taylor Mills - Allan and Sharon Blow on Garden Ave. in Thomhill The O’Tolles of Stornoway Cres. in Thomhill Chris Bergauer of Unionville ,,L I am sorry all of you couldn’t be winners and I truly hope you will try again when I come up with another fantastic, wonderful, exhilarating, fun G rated kind of. contest. A L-,_ ALA and. . but certainly not least. Penelope Arrilda Harriet Parmenter (those of us who know her call her Penny) of Richmond Street. The BiPDVIIi-lâ€"lnondilanilosopher has taken the week off and has a special story for everyone in next week’s Christmas edition of The Liberal. THE GLAD CHRISTMAS MESSAGE! A white-robed angel, flying high, Paused to gaze down from the dark blue sky Upon the s_r_na_llfitown of Bgthlehem ",4 4.-.... n:£‘ A. WM. L..- -..._-- .-, W . Which cradled God's precious gift to men! Flying lower he could clearly behold The sleeping Jesus, wrapped safe from cold. In the hayâ€"filled manger at the Inn~ The Christ Child, sent to save men from sin! He called to the angels soaring near. “Let’s visit the shepherds watching here; Tell them the Messiah has come to earth In the gift from God of Jesus’ birth!" The shepherds. amazed at the heavenly light, Were filled with joy on that holy night; They hastened to Bethlehem'to find their Lord; Wondered and worshipped and truly adored! Today, we‘re amazed at God’s great love Which gave us His own Son from above; So we thank and praise Him every day- Tell the glad news to all on our way! Christmas 1979 Mary Honey 3 Mary Honey Brown A senior citizen living on Dunlop St.