Christmas Goodies at Our Home

I am not sure when my Mom would start her Christmas baking, but I do remember that once Christmas arrived; we had a great selection of goodies. The only things purchased at the store would be the hard Christmas Candies (which gave you sores in your mouth if you ate too many). My favorite goodie (cookie wise) that my mother made was coconut macaroons. They were not the soft type, as, I think, she put in extra eggs whites, which really harden up the coconut, and they looked like porcupine quills sticking out from the cookie. I loved them, and would always hover around the dish they were on. I cannot remember them being made, but we always had the dreaded (in my mind) Christmas cake, filled with all the fruit, raisins, etc. which I did not like – and of course to me it was a waste of space to even put them out to eat. Also, Mom made what we call today, refrigerator cookies. I am pretty sure she made these before we had a fridge, and would let them cool overnight (part of the recipe) by putting them in our cool storage place. This was in a space about 8 X 10 and around 15 feet deep under our ‘pump house’. The temperature in this storage area, even though well below freezing outside, would be more or less the equivalent to a fridge. (This is also where we would store our potatoes, turnips, cabbage, carrots, and canned products for winter use). Getting on with these cookies, the main ingredients were cocoa and peanuts, and you would roll them in loafs, wrap in wax paper, and store in fridge overnight. To bake, you would cut the roll into thin slices; put them on the cookie tray, in the oven – and boy were they good. I have always been partial to burnt cookies, and would always hope that mom would forget they were in the oven! Then came the shortbread – ahhhhhhhhhhhhh… eat your heart out all you vegans – real butter – melt in your mouth cookies. (I am sitting here with a smile on my face remembering). Another goodie that I was not very keen on was mincemeat tarts, but in our family, they were a must – and real whipped cream on top (after they had been reheated in the oven). I am sure we had other ‘special’ Christmas goodies, but the winner by a mile, was the home made fudge – wow!!! What can I say!!! Great - we would have two kinds (dark and light) and making it, sometimes was better than the finished product. Unless you have experienced cleaning out the mixing bowls and cooking pans after making fudge, you truly have not lived!

My Dad was so proud – and I so disappointed



Mine was smaller with no bag on back.

 I only remember two Christmas Gifts as a child. One was a bicycle, which was fantastic. It was an English style, which in the fifties meant it had hand activated brakes. All North American bikes had pedal brakes that worked when you pushed backwards on the pedals. I was the only one in our town to have an English style bicycle, and although it was only a three quarter size – it could really move. The only problem about getting a bike for Christmas in Northern Alberta is you had to wait until late spring to ride it. But, that did not stop me from spending most of Christmas day riding it in the snow. This was by far the best Christmas present I ever received as a child. The other gift that I remember very well was a Lionel electric train! (I think I was around 12 and we indeed had electricity now) I was so excited when I opened it. The box had a picture of a train, drawn in such a way as to show the great speed it was traveling, rushing through the countryside. When I put the track together it was a small circle (fit on the kitchen table) and had an engine, one car and a caboose, which together, took up a quarter of the track. Once I hooked the wires from the transformer onto the tracks and turned the switch – off it went, around and around and around in this little circle. Now, I could tell when I opened the gift how proud my Dad was that he had purchased it for me. I realized immediately that I was only going to enjoy watching this thing go around and around and around for a very short period of time. But I made sure, for the next few weeks, that I took the train out every day (when my Dad was around) and watched it go around and around and around. I wonder, if my Dad watching his gift just going around and around and around, was a little disappointed too.

Our Christmas Traditions

Every family has their own Christmas Traditions, and depending on how devout the family is, going to Church on Christmas Eve would be one of them. My family was Anglican, but as our town did not have an Anglican Priest, we went to the United Church, and I do remember attending a Christmas Eve service a couple of times. One in particular, made me so proud (I was around 8), because the Minister borrowed our phonograph and our record of the Messiah. Everyone sat and listened to ‘our’ music! Having Church as part of our tradition did not last for much of my youth, and Christmas Eve was a time to play some card games and to start working on a puzzle; we were not allowed to open any gifts, but there would be many different baked goods, including ‘fudge’ and my Mom’s famous (to me) Coconut Macaroons. Also, during this Christmas Eve day my Mother would have made Lemon Meringue pies (with a graham wafer crust) for the Christmas dinner dessert. On Christmas morning our stockings would have been left by Santa, and they would be filled with candies, perhaps a small toy and a Japanese orange (they were sooooooooo good – and were a once a year treat) and then of course a lump of coal! We would then have to get out of our PJs and get dressed, have breakfast together as a family (only time of the year that we did) THEN the dishes had to be washed, dried and put away. At the same time, in our small kitchen the turkey would be prepared for the oven. And only then – the presents, the excitement of finally finding out ‘if” we got what you were hoping for. Soon the floor would be covered in wrapping paper, and everyone would have their gifts beside them. Poor Dad, his pile always seems so small! Some years the gifts were great – but some were definitely disappointments. Some of our relatives lived on farms (and regardless of what day it was the livestock had to be fed and the cows milked in the evening) so guests would usually arrive fairly early in the day, and we would have the meal around 3 in the afternoon. Even if we had guests who were not farmers, anyone from any distance away had to allow for a possible winter storm that would slow down their travel. During the day and early evening, games would be played, puzzles worked on – similar as we do today, except the games would be darts, croquet, canasta, cribbage, snakes and ladders – no computer games or Christmas TV shows to watch... My Grandfather, Aunt and her son never came to our home for Christmas – perhaps my Grandfather did not want to travel the 12 miles – but I did celebrate at his home a few times. One year is vivid in my memory; I could not go to sleep no matter how hard I tried. I was about 4 or 5 and slept upstairs in the farm house, and remember my Aunt hollering up the stairway – “OK Santa is at the end of the drive-way right now, and if you are not asleep in one minute – he is going to leave”! Shocker – go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep! Santa being the great person he is, came back – because in the morning my stocking was filled to the brim including, of course, a lump of coal. Christmas at Grandpa’s had one extra bit of magic to it, and that happened on Christmas Eve. The tree, always spruce in the area that we lived, would be in the corner of the living room, decorated with tinsel, garland, etc. and with real candles! The candles were about the length of a birthday candle and sat on metal holders that were attached to the upper boughs of the tree. Everyone would gather around, and turning off all the lamps in the house, except for one to allow my Aunt to see as she would light all the candles on the tree. Then she would turn off her lamp and we would all stare at this wonderful tree with the candles flickering lights reflecting on all the decorations, and then we would sing a carol. Magic – yes. But think how dangerous this tradition was - I wonder how many people burned down their homes of Christmas Eve! But, the same as it happens today – suddenly it is gone for another year. What a long time to wait for another Japanese orange and my Mom’s famous (to me) coconut macaroons!