
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 23, 1994                   TAG: 9412230107
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

KEEP THE SPIRIT ALIVE

There seems to be a proliferation of books on the market full of helpful hints on how to live our day-to-day lives. Now, a new book aims to help us learn how to reap the rewards of this particular time of year - and we don't mean the store-bought kind.

``Santa's Little Instruction Book'' by Scott Matthews and Barbara Alpert offers 365 heartfelt suggestions to keep the Christmas spirit alive all year long. Perhaps it can help some of us get a head start on being nicer, rather than naughtier, in time for next Christmas.

Here are some of the authors' suggestions and a few of ours thrown in for merry measure:

Don't be a Scrooge.

Lick the cleanest icicle you can find.

Shovel the snow from your neighbor's walk and driveway before he or she wakes up.

Laugh till you shake like a bowlful of jelly, or until your sides hurt (whichever comes first).

Send a Christmas card to a teacher who changed your life.

Don't leave the last quarter inch of soda in the bottle.

Let peace begin with you.

For just one half hour, don't channel surf (gentlemen, pay attention).

Hug your child when he or she least expects it (not recommended in public view if child is a teen-ager).

Be nice to chubby men in red suits and beards.

Give a gift of remembrance of those who have passed on during the year.

Jingle some bells.

Don't forget that Christmas is a birthday party, after all.

by CNB