Christmas

Our first Canadian Christmas was, ironically, a White Christmas only in the British sense. It turns out that there is an official definition of a White Christmas, and it varies between countries. So the few gentle flurries we enjoyed on Christmas Day in Toronto would have been enough to qualify for a White Christmas in the UK, but we needed at least 2cm on the ground before Canadians would approve. In any case, we had a wonderful day, with time for singing, eating, and Skyping with our families. Queen’s Speech Word Bingo is now an international competition! It ended with a delicious turkey dinner in the home of kind Canadian friends, topped off with carols around the piano.

The season started in mid-November, when decorations began to appear in shopping malls and condo lobbies, and Toronto hosted The Original Santa Claus Parade. Continuing an annual tradition that stretches back to 1905, floats, marching bands and gymnastics troupes paraded through the crowded streets of Toronto for nearly three hours, culminating in a visit from Santa himself. It was quite the spectacle, even if not all the characters were especially festive: the dancing sausages were … memorable.

The switching on of Christmas lights also attracted large crowds – for instance at the Eaton Centre, home to Canada’s largest Christmas tree (100 feet tall) – as did Christmas markets in Nathan Phillips Square and the Distillery District. The former offered an ice skating rink in front of City Hall; the latter a mouth-watering range of hot chocolates and delicious cider (or hot apple juice, for our UK readers). And the Christmas windows outside Hudson’s Bay looked very jolly!

Casa Loma, an Edwardian mansion to the north of downtown, was also decorated for the season. Built as a twentieth-century Camelot for the Toronto financier Sir Henry Pellatt – whose original vision included bowling alleys in the basement, a pipe organ in the Great Hall, and 59 telephones for connecting rooms – Casa Loma became a hotel after Sir Henry declared bankruptcy in 1924 and a tourist attraction not long after. For Christmas, each room was adorned with an extravagant tree, the garden with illuminated animals, and underground rooms became festive grottos. Even the stables were taken over by Santa’s reindeer.

It’s the little moments that made our first Canadian Christmas special: trudging through the snow with our Christmas tree (although natural trees are banned as a fire hazard in our building, so the tree was in a box from Canadian Tire); choosing a wreath at the St Lawrence Market; the delightful harp playing in the TSO’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; the Christmas pageant at Holy Trinity Church, with a real baby in the starring role. It’s tough being away from our families at Christmastime, but with so many fun things to do and such generous friends in Toronto, it really has been a merry Christmas.