Our Twelve Days Before Christmas

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Gentle. Kind. Comfortable. Canadian. It’s a wonderful world, this
southern Ontario enclave of peace, prosperity, and middle-class WASP
traditions. The activities involved in celebrating Christmas as a homey
ritual punctuating a comfortable life are reported by White, a
Protestant church minister.

With just a hint of gentle humour, the chapters tick through the key
Christmas components of bringing home, setting up, and trimming the
tree; shopping for and wrapping gifts; baking traditional cookies;
taking part in concerts; and organizing Sunday-school pageants. It’s
those pageants that are the centre of the tale. To the essential
elements of cute kiddies in bathrobe costumes or adorned with taped-on
angel wings, White’s church added the tradition of including some
livestock in the show. Put a few live sheep next to the manger, and the
play starts to draw attention. Add a goat or two, and a hometown hit is
in the making.

In this gentle world the snow is pristine, the gifts are perfect, the
cookies are the same as Mother used to make, and all is kind and snug.
No wars, crimes, disasters, or atrocities intrude. No bombs or missiles
disturb the Silent Night. From this sheltered base, White asks his
readers, “Can you still experience Christmas, or have you lost the
ability to truly see what is around you?”