Questions for Canadians: EK wants to know if Canada's Christmas customs are the same

[ereks mom]

:001_smile:...as U.S. Christmas customs. I told her that I would assume that some customs in the French-speaking areas, the Inuit areas, and also in Nova Scotia might be a bit different from ours here in the U.S. So...Canadians, could you help me out, please? What are some Canadian Christmas traditions (foods, decorations, activities, etc.) with which the average American might not be familiar? Who brings the presents--Santa, Père Noël, Father Christmas, or someone else? Many thanks from EK and me!

[Colleen in NS]

:001_smile:...as U.S. Christmas customs. I told her that I would assume that some customs in the French-speaking areas, the Inuit areas, and also in Nova Scotia might be a bit different from ours here in the U.S. So...Canadians, could you help me out, please? What are some Canadian Christmas traditions (foods, decorations, activities, etc.) with which the average American might not be familiar? Who brings the presents--Santa, Père Noël, Father Christmas, or someone else? Many thanks from EK and me!

 

I'm in Nova Scotia, and the only thing I can think of before I immigrated here is that I'd never heard of Christmas crackers before. Santa brings presents, but a friend of mine who grew up in Ontario referred to him as Pere Noel the other day. Nova Scotians, esp. Cape Bretoners, are also famous for their ceilidghs (sp?), which I imagine heat up even more around this time of year, but I've never been to one.

[Audrey]

I'm in a bilingual area (in the West, not in QC) and I'd never heard of tourtière before I moved here. That's a very popular xmas food. Colleen mentioned Christmas crackers. I'd only ever seen them in British movies before, but those are pretty standard.

 

Instead of cookie exchanges and lots of cookies, people here make dainties. I'd never heard of dainties before either, but they're amazing. No one makes the same dainties either. There are a million dainty varieties and recipes. My favourite is a thing called Hello Dolly bars, but Lemon-ade bars and Pineapple Slice tie for a very close second. For the francophones, Santa is Père Noël.

 

Other than that, things are pretty much the same as the Southern Christmases I had as a child.

 

ETA: I almost forgot!! Boxing Day is a big deal here. When I lived in the US, I'd barely heard of it as anything other than a store sales gimmick, but here it is a very big deal. In my province, it is an official holiday. I think that might actually be true federally, but I'm not sure.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Audrey

[Colleen in NS]

Boxing Day is a big deal here.

 

Here too. I think it's a federal holiday.

 

Butter tarts is another thing I'd never heard of until I moved here, too. I think they are basically little pie crusts filled with a cooked or baked butter and sugar mixture?

 

Oh, and many people put up Christmas trees and decorations in early to mid November.

[sarawatsonim]

I live in Ontario and haven't seen Christmas crackers like the above two posters for a long time, but I do know about dainties though and the massive amounts of cookies. Cooking, get togethers and Christmas parties usually require or involve a lot of alcohol.;) We call him Santa Claus here as well as in the other 3 provinces I lived except obviously if you are French or another culture. All the other traditions seems to be similar as the U.S. traditions are.

 

Boxing Day is not a holiday if you work retail in Ontario. I worked it for many years and it is an absolute nightmare. We would take turns throughout the day to sit in the back and cry if necessary.:crying: Boxing Day shoppers can be quite determined and forceful when they want to be.

Edited December 6, 2010 by sarawatsonim

[Tonia]

I'll just second what everyone else has said... tourtieres (just made the filling for mine yesterday, need to make the pies today), Christmas crackers, butter tarts and sugar pie, LOVE hello dollys and nanaimo bars. Oh, and we always have a fondue (sometimes 2). Not sure how that started or if it's a Canadian thing to do during the holidays - the in-laws always had a fondue during the holiday season and we've just continued the tradition.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Tonia

[ereks mom]

We found a recipe for the Hello Dolly bars a couple of people mentioned. We've made those before (or something very similar), but we called them Magic Cookie Bars (that's the name of the recipe, which I found in a magazine & on the package of chocolate chips years ago).

[ElizaG]

French-Canadians have many Christmas traditions besides tourtiere, such as reveillon (special dinner after midnight Mass) and buche de noel (Yule log). If you search, you'll find a lot of web sites describing these. For English-speaking Canadians, as others have said, Boxing Day and butter tarts would about cover it. I think mince pies are also more popular than in the US. We always had sausage rolls growing up, but that's mainly because we had close family ties to England. Other families would have had panettone, pfeffernusse, or perogies... yum.

 

Last year at the library discard shop (here in the US), I found a set of picture books about Christmas in different countries. They weren't very old -- from the 1990's or so -- but the one for Canada said that the entire country gets busy making their Christmas cakes and puddings on a particular Sunday in November, called "Stir-Up Sunday." Not sure where they got this idea from. Even with my anglophile upbringing, I've never even heard that term!

 

It also said that Canada is a deeply, devoutly religious nation. :001_huh::001_huh::001_huh: Well, maybe compared to Sweden. (Even then, I'm not sure.)

 

It was a good reminder not to trust everything you read in children's books about other cultures. I'll bet people from other countries would be falling over laughing at some of the stuff in the rest of the series.

[Catwoman]

Ok, I'm reading about all of the wonderful dainties, yet I see no recipes... :glare:

 

Not that I'm hinting or anything! ;):D

 

Cat

[sarawatsonim]

Ok, I'm reading about all of the wonderful dainties, yet I see no recipes... :glare:

 

Not that I'm hinting or anything! ;):D

 

Cat

 

This one is almost identical to the one my mil uses and these things are addictive. It's a sneak out of bed at 3 am to eat another one addictive.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

French-Canadians have many Christmas traditions besides tourtiere, such as reveillon (special dinner after midnight Mass) and buche de noel (Yule log).

 

I wasn't aware that the Réveillon was strictly French Canadian... Midnight Mass is a big thing, even for atheists :confused:. People go for one thing, the "Minuit Chrétien" sung by a nice tenor. The St Joseph Oratory sells tickets to its midnight mass!

 

The Réveillon is a big meal, a huge meal. That's where the turkey is eaten, and it comes with tourtière, and the buche de Noel. However, it's dying in recent years (maybe it's only within my circle though) because it makes no sense to eat so much at 1AM... But in times long gone, people would not sleep at all during that special night. They would go from one house to another, and expect tons of food at each house, dancing with a fiddler, and lots of singing. But that's no longer done.

[MelanieM]

I grew up in Newfoundland, and we had a holiday tradition called mummering. Basically, people dress up in old clothes (shirts, pants, hats, scarves...) covering/hiding as much of the body as possible, often pulling nylons, a face mask or a pillow case over the face as an extra disguise. Then they go knocking on doors where they're invited in for a little dance and the hosts try to guess who is behind the disguise. Sweet treats are given out to children, and alcoholic beverages to adults. This isn't done as much in bigger centers these days, but I think it's still a living tradition in some smaller towns. Here's a song about

which will give you a good idea of how it's all done!

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

is la Guignolée French Canadian too? I have no clue what the name of it is, in English... (I just checked my parish's website and they simply call it a food drive)

 

It used to be that members from a Catholic church would go door to door at the beginning of December (this time of year) asking for non perishable food for the Christmas baskets. While the Catholic church still does it, other groups have started doing it. One big one is "Guignolée des média" where tv personalities (or radio, or newspapers) stand at various important street corners and stop cars to ask for donations. Since it's covered by all the various media, it's pretty big.

Edited December 7, 2010 by CleoQc

[Audrey]

This one is almost identical to the one my mil uses and these things are addictive. It's a sneak out of bed at 3 am to eat another one addictive.

 

 

That's the recipe for Lemon-ade bars, except I don't use as much flour (my recipe card says 3/4 c. flour -- everything else was the same). If you like lemony desserts, then these are quite addictive.

[ElizaG]

Here's a song about

which will give you a good idea of how it's all done!

:lol::lol::lol:

 

I'd heard about it, but had never seen it until now. God bless all Newfoundlanders! There's no one else quite like them.

[Catwoman]

This one is almost identical to the one my mil uses and these things are addictive. It's a sneak out of bed at 3 am to eat another one addictive.

 

Thanks! I think we'd all love them, so I'm going to make some! :)

 

Cat

[Punks in Ontario]

We may have Boxing Day sales, but I don't think they hold a candle to your Black Friday sales. Friends of mine went this year, and got a real education on aggressive shopping. LOL.

[ElizaG]

Forgot to mention that we also have our very own Christmas carol, The Huron Carol, originally known as Jesous Ahatonhia. It was written in the 17th century by the Jesuit missionary, Father Jean de Brebeuf. Here's

, in Wendat (Huron language), French, and English. And here are the most commonly used English lyrics.

 

Speaking of Canadian music, Christmas wouldn't be the same in this expatriate household without Rita MacNeil's recordings. She's a folk-country type singer from the Maritimes, and she performs many traditional carols as well as her own songs. She often goes on tour at Christmas, and has specials on TV. The hipster crowd tends to make fun of her because of her size, and her lack of irony, but I think she's wonderful. :) Here are some iTunes samples from her "Joyful Sounds" compilation.

[ereks mom]

Forgot to mention that we also have our very own Christmas carol, The Huron Carol, originally known as Jesous Ahatonhia. It was written in the 17th century by the Jesuit missionary, Father Jean de Brebeuf. Here's

, in Wendat (Huron language), French, and English. And here are the most commonly used English lyrics.

 

It's really very pretty. I love the tune.