Christmas in Atlantic Canada: Heartwarming Legends, Tales, and Traditions

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Each volume in this set of Amazing Stories is a collection of Christmas
stories compiled by a different writer. The stories (and brief
anecdotes), which have been gleaned from biographies, local histories,
newspapers, magazines, and personal communications, are organized into
thematic chapters.

The stories span time and all segments of Canadian society. Many are
recollections that recall memories of the miracles and the sadnesses of
Christmas in the lives of hardship lived by earlier generations. For
example, the story “Ontario’s First Christmas Carol,” which dates
to 1668, tells of a young Huron girl who sang “Jesous Ahatonhia”
before she died on Christmas Day. The more recent “An Interview with
Santa,” from Christmas in the Prairies, relates newspaper reporter
Myrna Morris’s 1982 experience conducting an interview with Saint
Nick.

Many of the stories are similar in nature, involving magical encounters
with Santa Claus, making heroic efforts to be home for the holidays,
creating Christmas cheer out of next to nothing, or remembering
traditions such as the lighting of the Yule log. But some interesting
variances across the country emerge, particularly in the descriptions of
traditions. In Christmas in Quebec, the reader is treated to a detailed
description of attending midnight Mass, the reveillon or wake-up meal,
and the colourful rituals of the guignoleux who came to collect
charitable donations. In Christmas in Atlantic Canada, we learn about
the tradition of “besnickling,” a Nova Scotia version of Christmas
mumming.

Because there are different writers for each book, the style varies
somewhat, but overall the text is accessible to the average reader. A
few black-and-white photographs, often of Christmas decorations,
illustrate the volumes.

The stories are indeed heartwarming, as the subtitle states, and any
are brief enough to be read at bedtime. These volumes will be well
circulated in public libraries across Canada and will also find their
place in the Christmas gift market.