Islanders share their unique holiday traditions
Skating, carolling, egg rolls, music and one very special gift box
Christmas is a nostalgic time of year — some will dust off the family recipe for fruitcake, or dig out a favourite movie to watch together.
When I was little, one tradition in our family was to gather around the television and watch Queen Elizabeth's Christmas Day message. All activity had to cease while the Queen spoke to us!
CBC asked Islanders to share their favourite Christmas traditions — here's a sampling.
1. Rent a rink
Linda Lowther, a tourism operator in Cavendish and vice-chair of the Resort Municipality, has a "cool" tradition — their family rents an hour of ice time at Cody Banks arena in Sherwood every Christmas eve.
"We split the ice into about 25 per cent for the little ones learning to skate or the mature adults just wanting to skate while the other 75 per cent is used for a hockey game," Lowther explains.
You have to have a piece of mum's meat pie in order to make the Christmas complete!— Lt.-Gov. Antoinette Perry
"The players are usually somewhere between six and 70. Friends also usually show up too. After the game we exchange treats. I bring home made bourbon caramels and grape jelly from my own grapes. Others bring pepper jelly, fudge, cookies and so on," she said.
2. Acadian meat pie
P.E.I.'s new Lt.-Gov. Antoinette Perry makes traditional Acadian meat pies every year using her mother's recipe.
Perry had always made the pies with her mother who in 1993 became ill, so Perry enlisted the help of her sister Nola and they've been carrying on the tradition ever since.
The women spend an entire weekend stewing chicken and pork shoulder with seasoning, cutting up the meat and rolling dough, all the while listening to P.E.I. Acadian chanteuse Angèle Arsenault on CD. One of their secrets: they skim the rendered chicken and pork fat and use it in the pie crust.
"I usually make a batch early, maybe a dozen because I give them as Christmas gifts — to my siblings and my special friends and to my doctor and dentist," Perry said. Then she and her sister bake up about three dozen for their families.
"You have to have a piece of mum's meat pie in order to make the Christmas complete!" Perry explains.
3. Egg rolls
When LPGA golfer Lorie Kane comes home to P.E.I. for the holidays, she spends Christmas eve visiting with her mentor and high school basketball coach David MacNeil and his wife Maureen, where they have a large gathering and indulge in takeout.
"It's my job to pick up the Chinese food! Yes, huge responsibility," Kane laughs, recalling that one year she forgot the plum sauce.
"You can imagine 45 egg rolls without that — not so good," she said. After that, Kane said she spends a few days with her parents.
4. Seafood pie
Premier Wade MacLauchlan enjoys cooking with fresh Island ingredients, and in med-December every year he makes many seafood pies.
"Each year I make about 20 pies (for gifts) filled with mussels, lobster, bar clams, scallops and some fin fish such as salmon, trout, or haddock. Of course as many ingredients as possible are Island-produced, including the grated potatoes cooked in seafood stock to make the thickener for the filling!" MacLauchlan said.
The premier and his partner spend Christmas Day with immediate family and on Boxing Day they host their extended family for a potluck brunch, he said.
For MacLauchlan's complete recipe for seafood pie, click here.
5. 40 years of carolling and potluck
Glenda Landry Campbell of Charlottetown Festival fame has been carolling with her neighbours for 40 years!
Five families decided to go carolling around the neighbourhood, she explains, starting with a pot luck supper.
"This is year 41 and the same five families are still carolling and bring the same dish to the pot luck supper. Not kidding," she said.
"Our grandchildren are in the 20-passenger van now and some of us stay behind to do the dishes so there is room for the new generation to enjoy an evening of singing for others," she said, noting the group has grown to 32 people.
"We wear fancy hats and sweaters, laugh a lot, push friends in snow banks, throw snowballs and eat chocolate along the way."
6. A very special gift box
"One of our holiday family traditions started back in 1989 when my brother Chris received a computer game for the holidays," recalls Charlottetown entrepreneur Len Currie. (It was Indiana Jones for Commodore 64).
"Our Mom, Glenda, would try to recycle Christmas boxes/bows/bags every year," Currie said. "It was noticed in the mid-90s that the game box that Chris received was being used and rewrapped year after year for gifts for myself, Chris, or my other brother Jason. It was also noted that this box was also standing the test of time incredibly well!
"Each Christmas morning we tried to figure out the question of 'who was getting the gift in the Indy box'," he recalls.
The box has travelled across North America multiple times, with stops in California and Pennsylvania. The family also began writing in the box who received it each year to share the story with new family members.
"Sure, watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with some spiced rum and egg nogs also fall under the category of a 'Currie Christmas Tradition,' but our Christmas box tradition at least doesn't leave us with a hangover," quips Currie.
7. Holiday poutine, and more mostly-food traditions
Jeff Jardine's tradition is only a few years old but the pharmacist claims "it is epic" — he's talking about his "holiday poutine" which uses leftover turkey, stuffing, gravy, cheese and French fries.
"Nothing says Christmas or gets me in the spirit than eating and now making meat pies," wrote Denise Robinson on Facebook.
"Tourtiere, Quebecois-style," responded Charlene Belsher. "We also have a recording that must be the first Christmas music played each year. Gord's parents had the album Christmas Pop Melodies which we copied to cassette, then to CD. Would you believe that I found a LP of it at a yard sale a few years ago?"
Potato latkes for Hanukkah is Rachel Hershfield's annual tradition — and yes, she grates all the potato by hand!
Susan Snow writes, "Eggs Benedict Christmas morning. Our family always looks forward to this traditional indulgence."
"We eat lobster rolls on Christmas Eve!" comments Tammy Pineau. "We always open one present and guaranteed that it will be new pj's for the evening and Christmas Day."
CBC journalist Laura Chapin's tradition begets its own annual nostalgia — "My family buy decorations and exchange them when I get home. I look at my tree and think of all of the wonderful Christmastimes we have shared."
Web journalist Kevin Yarr makes his family's Christmas tradition last all December: throughout the month, he reads aloud a little bit of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to his family, winding up on Christmas Eve. God bless us, every one!
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