Advent Theme

Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

When I was in school we always had a Christmas pageant. Each grade would present their rendition of something with a Christmas theme. Mums would spend the weeks up to the pageant making costumes for their children. It was held on a weekday evening in the gym and all the parents would be seated on the hard wooden chairs. Dads would be lined up along the back wall of the gym because they were delayed at work and late getting to the show.

I was in the choir so we opened and closed the pageant. One year my brother’s grade did the twelve days of Christmas and he was the partridge in the pear tree. There were the usual suspects of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer being reenacted on stage.

A teacher would sometimes have to step in as an under study because someone was crying in the dressing room and would not go on stage. There was also the child who was a natural on stage and did not want to leave it.

We had worked on the pageant for nearly a month before the performance. This was our big night to show our parents what we had been doing. There was only one performance. They were always fun and you could hear the parents laughing at the antics on stage. These days the antics on stage show up on America’s Funniest Videos.

This was originally published in December 2010

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

The most memorable Christmas for me is the year my niece was born. My sister in law went into hospital a few days before the holidays. She was near the end of her second trimester and having difficulty with her pregnancy. My nephew, who was two at the time, stayed with my parents.

We worked hard to make it a nice Christmas for him. On Christmas Eve my parents, brother, nephew and I slept under the same roof. We were up early and opened presents with my nephew. Thomas the tank engine was at his height so we had lots of trains rolling down the tracks in the middle of the livingroom.

My Aunt had invited us to her place in Toronto for dinner so we left around mid afternoon and traveled in convoy. We enjoyed the afternoon with my Grandmother and my Aunt. My nephew was getting tired so we headed home. My brother had driven on ahead to get my nephew into bed. When we arrived home he was walking out the door having heard from his wife. It seems my niece was not waiting until St. Patrick’s Day to be born.

She was born on Boxing Day. I remember my mother waking me up in the wee hours of the morning saying I had a niece and that all were doing well. She had to stay in hospital for a few months but she steadily gained weight and strength.

Today she is a strong and healthy girl who is a very talented figure skater.

This was originally published in December 2010

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

The taste and smell of fruitcake bring Christmas to mind and can conjure up memories of Christmas past. Fruitcake and plum pudding are synonymous in our family. It was not Christmas without fruitcake and plum pudding. It was a Christmas tradition to make them every year.

The pudding and cake were made in November. It was traditional for each of us to stir the pudding mixture and make a wish. Coins were put in the pudding and brought prosperity to those who found them. Then we had to remember to ‘feed’ the cakes and puddings in the weeks up to Christmas. Feeding meant pouring liquor over the top to help keep them moist.

The pudding was always brought into the dining room with pomp and circumstance. The lights were turned off, the pudding lit with flaming brandy or whiskey and decorated with holly from the garden. Mum would then lift it to the air and carry it into the room to claps and cheers.

Over the years I have experimented with making different kinds of plum puddings and fruitcakes. Even decorating the fruitcakes with marzipan, rolled fondant and sometimes with glacé fruit.

In December 2010 CBS Sunday Morning did a great piece on plum pudding.

I still enjoy a piece of fruitcake with a cup of tea during the holiday season.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved