• Home
  • Stories
    • News >
      • 2022 Local Government Elections
    • Learning & Literacy
    • Food, Farming & Fishing >
      • Recipe Collection
    • Culture & Heritage
    • Wellness
    • Environment
    • Opinions, letters and reflections
  • About Us
    • Donate
  • Jobs
    • Job Posting Submission Form
    • Job Postings
  • E-magazine
  • Calendar
  • Albert County
    • Community Directory
    • Churches
    • Living in Albert County
    • Our Villages
    • Attractions
  • Ads
  • Trails
Connecting Albert County

opinions, Letters, ​​and
​reflections
​

Memories of Christmas

4/12/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
 By Idella Steeves-Lazar 
Christmas was magical for me in our farm family of three girls and one younger boy in Elgin. There wasn't much money for treats and presents that weren’t necessary back then in the 40s. My parents had experienced the Great Depression. I remember the outhouse and having no running water or bathroom. I remember the excitement of getting a bathtub...who would be the first to have a bath? We girls really appreciated what we received! We knew that things did not come easy and that our parents sacrificed for us.

Our Christmas dinners were shared with our mother's two siblings, taking turns hosting the dinner. It was truly about family! One particular year, we had to postpone our Christmas Day plans for a day due to a bad blizzard. Oh, the waiting and whining and looking out the window hoping that the snow would stop!
Grocery shopping for Christmas was a very special time with an air of excitement and anticipation. The village store was crowded with our neighbours buying special treats and splurging on items we usually couldn't afford. The owner of the store we went to, Mr. Geldart, even advertised with a hand-made flyer. Back then we had a choice of which store to support. Unfortunately, today there is no choice: we have to drive to Moncton or Sussex.
Living on a farm with a woodlot enabled our father to cut our Christmas tree in our own forest. It was exciting to watch him coming through the pasture with it in tow. It wasn't well-shaped like the ones we buy nowadays but it reached up to our 10-foot living room ceiling. It smelled so grand and had lots of branches to decorate! It was always decorated on Christmas Eve by our mother and us three girls. 
We decorated the house with curled paper streamers and strings of Christmas cards from friends and relatives. Mom sent many cards, always a letter inside. Decorations on the tree were ornaments which were mostly breakable, electric lights shaped like candles that bubbled when they got hot (fascinating for us!). We hated it when an ornament fell and broke! Some ornaments were old and handed down from Dad's family. My favourite were shiny metallic birds with tail ‘feathers’ made of shiny ‘threads.’ Who else remembers those? There were strands of silver and colored tinsel, and the finishing touch was icicles! Our mother didn't have much patience with those so that job fell to me. I still use them on my tree because I love how they shimmer. A star was on the top of the tree. 
When we finished the tree and hung our stockings (Dad's hand-knitted wool socks) on the back of the living room chairs with string, the living room door was closed. We put out our letters to Santa with home-made cookies and milk and went to bed. Later our parents put the gifts under the tree. For a few years, our mother would hide our so-called "main present." It was fun looking for it. Of course, the "lunch" was gone in the morning and sometimes replaced with a thank-you note! 
There was no peeking into that room in the morning until our father came up from the barn after doing the chores and we then had our usual breakfast of oatmeal. It was hard to wait but, afterwards, the lights, presents, decorations and stockings were such a special sight. The stockings always had an orange (a treat in those days) in the toe, along with nuts and candy. Wool fibres from the stocking were stuck to the hard candy and ribbon candy. Lifesavers in little fold-out boxes were also common.
For our Christmas meal, we always had turkey, lots of home-grown vegetables, preserves of pickles and beets, pies, sweet breads and other desserts. Our mother always made fudge, which some said was the best in Elgin! My favourite pie was homemade mincemeat. It was kept in a roast pan out in the cold verandah because we didn't have a refrigerator. For Christmas, we three girls each made a special treat; mine was a cherry nut loaf.
Another special event was the school Christmas concert, when each of us girls would get a new dress. We spent many hours looking in the Eaton’s catalogue for that dress. One year, the parcel was late and my mother had to make special arrangements with the postmaster on the day of the concert to get my sister dressed and over to the church in time. Good thing it wasn't backordered and that it fit!
At the Baptist Church where our family attended, Mrs. Collier's class performed a pantomime to the strains of Silent Night, Holy Night. We were dressed as angels in long white gowns decorated with tinsel and a halo. Another class sang the words and we acted out the words. They used a spotlight and we felt very special!
Our tree stayed up until the middle of January. We could not use anything from under that tree until that day! How frustrating since we wanted to show off our special gifts like everyone else at school. By mid-January, a lot of the Christmas excitement had worn off! 
My mother, sisters and I visited our neighbours a few days after Christmas. The lady of the house would pull everything out from under the tree and say, "This came from so and so, and this is for so and so." Naturally, we would get a treat of candy or cookies at each home. 
Our mother was a very busy person especially at Christmas time and I have so many memories of family times. Today it seems there is too much emphasis on "getting" and not enough on sharing. What are your memories?
If you would like to contact Idella, you can reach her by email at ilazar@sympatico.ca.
Photo by Kat Hallett.



​
1 Comment
Barb Ayer
20/12/2019 10:09:05 pm

Idella that was very well written and brought back many memories of Christmas at our home. Hope you and your family have a Blessed Christmas.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Views from Albert County


    ​Connecting Albert County would like to thank the following supporters & advertisers:

    Platinum supporters
    - Bennett and Albert County Health Care (BACH) Foundation  
    ​- Albert County Pharmacy
    - CR Yardworks & Equipment
    ​​- Hon. Rob Moore, MP for Fundy Royal


    Gold supporters
    - CBDC Westmorland Albert 
    - ​Albert County Funeral Home​​
    - 
    Grass Roots Community Economic Development Cooperative

    Silver supporters
    - 
    Albert County Chamber of Commerce 
    - Crooked Creek Convenience 
    - East Coast Kids Child Care & Learning Centre
    ​ 
    - 
    Fireside Home Heating
    ​ 
    - 
    Foods of the Fundy Valley​
    - The Garden Guy (Micheal McBurnie) 
    - 
    Hon. Mike Holland, Minister, MLA-Albert 
    ​
    - 
    The Old Church Farmers' Market​
    - Village of Hillsborough
    - Village of Riverside-Albert

    Bronze supporters

    - Broadleaf Ranch ​
    - 
    ​Chipoudy Communities Revitalization Committee (CCRC)
    ​
    - 
    Cape Enrage Fundy Log Cabin
    - Falcon Ridge Inn B&B
    - Friends of Fundy  
    - Fundy Highlands Motel and Chalets
    - 
    Fundy Mud Pottery 

    - Jeff MacDougall, SouthEastern Mutual Insurance 
    -​ Village of Alma


    If you would like to support Connecting Albert County, visit our Advertising page or Donation page. With your support, we can continue to share the news of rural Albert County.

    Comments
    We welcome comments to our blog postings. Please provide your email address and name with your comment, and respect our content guidelines.

    Archives

    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    ACOA
    Albert County
    Albert County Chamber Of Commerce
    Albert County NB
    Alma
    Alma Celebration Days
    Bay Of Fundy
    Buy Local
    CCRC
    Chamber Of Commerce
    Childcare
    Childhood
    Children
    Chipoudy Communities Revitalization Committee
    Christmas
    Christmas Shopping
    Collage
    Community
    Community Collaboration
    Community Events
    Community Involvement
    Congratulations
    Construction
    Contribute
    Couchsurfing
    Crooked Creek
    Daycare
    Day Care
    Drivers
    East Coast Kids
    Economy
    Ecosystem
    Education
    Educators
    Elections NB
    Electoral Reform
    Environment
    Espresso Yourself Coffee Break
    Farmers Market
    Frontline Workers
    Fundy
    Fundy Park
    Fundy Shoreline
    Government
    Harvest
    Hillsborough
    History
    Home-made Candles
    Home-made Gifts
    Honourable Mike Holland
    Hopewell Rocks
    Hospitality
    Ideas
    Introduction
    Learning
    Local Service Districts
    Logging
    LSDs
    Marshes
    Memoir
    Moranda Van Geest
    Mystery
    NB
    New Brunswick
    New Coordinator
    Newsletter
    Nominations
    Nuts
    Open Letter
    Opinion
    Poetry
    Protected Area
    Public Library
    Rediscover Main Streets
    Response
    Riverside-Albert
    Riverview Lions Club
    Road
    Road Construction
    Rural Rides
    Salt Marsh
    Save Our Seed
    Seed Campaign
    Share
    Shepody
    Shepody Food Bank
    Shepody Mountain
    Single Member-Proportional Vote
    Southeast Regional Service Commission
    Spring
    Stories
    Submissions
    Summer Students
    Thank You
    The Old Church Farmers Market
    The Order Of New Brunswick
    Tourism
    Update
    Urban Drivers
    Vendors
    Volunteer
    Volunteers
    Warm Showers
    Waterside
    Welcome Committee
    Woodlots

    RSS Feed

CONTACT
ADVERTISING
CALENDAR
PUBLICATION

SiteLock
Copyright © Connecting Albert County, 2021 | Albert County, New Brunswick, Canada
  • Home
  • Stories
    • News >
      • 2022 Local Government Elections
    • Learning & Literacy
    • Food, Farming & Fishing >
      • Recipe Collection
    • Culture & Heritage
    • Wellness
    • Environment
    • Opinions, letters and reflections
  • About Us
    • Donate
  • Jobs
    • Job Posting Submission Form
    • Job Postings
  • E-magazine
  • Calendar
  • Albert County
    • Community Directory
    • Churches
    • Living in Albert County
    • Our Villages
    • Attractions
  • Ads
  • Trails