When I was young my parents held a Christmas party at the end of November. It was for all the family – aunts, uncles, cousins. It was lots of fun to see everybody. There were enough of us that we didn’t get together en masse very often. I particularly remember the year it was held the same day as the Grey Cup. I was about 11 and spent much of the party updating those upstairs about the game playing downstairs. I also remember that the right team won (Toronto!)
Christmas Eve was usually spent with my father’s side of the family and Christmas Day with my mother’s. Once we moved ‘out west’ away from our families, Christmas was a much quieter affair. We would sometimes get together with a couple of other families on Christmas Eve but the actual day was usually just us four. Things are getting a little more raucous now with three under-fours running around.
Excerpt from Where the Saints Have Trod, Judith St. John, 1974 (Oxford University Press). The book is based on the author’s childhood memories (ca 1914-1924). She was my great-aunt.:
 “On Christmas Sunday, my mother and father located the six loneliest parishioners and asked them to come for dinner on Christmas Day. “That will give us the round dozen,†my mother said.â€
