SHARING STORIES FROM THE SEASON OF GIVING

Throwback Thursday | Emma Puddicombe

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As the semester comes to a close and the holiday season begins, I thought I would look back on this time of year and learn more about the different traditions the students in our program do with their families. Read ahead for some Museum Studies style holiday traditions and to get into the spirit of the holiday season!

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“My grandma handmade this advent calendar for my family. For as long as I can remember, my brother, sister and I have always loved putting a nativity character up. When Christmas Day came around, it would turn into the hunger games between the three of us as to who got to put baby Jesus up. We still do this tradition to this day, and despite us all being in our 20s, it is still a major competition to see who gets to put baby Jesus up on Christmas morning.”

- Natalie Heaton, 2nd year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Natalie Heaton)

“For Christmas, my dog, Robbie, “buys” my sister and I socks! When he was a puppy he liked to steal socks so it seemed fitting.”

- Emily Finbow, 1st Year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Emily Finbow)

“For as long as I can remember, my best friend and I's families get together on Christmas Eve every year and we eat Tourtière and lobster fritters! The tradition is even sweeter now because my friend goes to Dalhousie and Christmas is her big break for the year when she comes home.”

- Sabryna Ekstein, 2nd year MMSt (Photo courtesy of Sabryna Ekstein)

“In true German tradition, Christmas Eve is the big day for my family. We have a light dinner, including my Dad's favourite German food tradition from his childhood, pickled herring (he's definitely the only one that eats it). Then we head off to church for a Christmas Eve service and carols. On our way home, my Dad makes a point to delay our arrival by driving through our surrounding neighborhoods to see the Christmas lights. As kids, this was exasperating because we were waiting to go home and open presents, but now it has become a more relaxing and welcomed excursion. The drive would always be long enough to ensure Santa had time to deliver our presents, and, lo and behold, every time we arrive home, to this day, Santa has been there.”

- Jordan Vetter, 1st year MMSt

“Every year my family wears matching outfits and we go to the distillery district together.”

- Savannah Sewell, 2nd year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Savannah Sewell)

“For a long time, my family followed a Dutch tradition. Everyone in the family gets a big chocolate letter of their first initial. They’re huge, so it was always a race to see who could eat theirs the fastest without feeling sick!”

- Martin Bierens, 1st year MMSt (Photo courtesy of Martin Bierens)

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“For the past 3-4 years, my family has been going axe throwing during our holiday break. We have so much time off (especially me and my sister, because we're both in university) that by the time the winter break ends, we're bored out of our minds. One year, we decided to go axe throwing, just for something to do. It turns out that my sister is actually really good, and my whole family really enjoys it! We're not the sportiest family, but we're all pretty good at axe throwing.”

- Emma Myers, 2nd year MMSt

“Every year my step-mom knits my cat, Biggie, a new outfit, and hat.”

- Lindsay Chisholm, 1st year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Lindsay Chisholm)

“As a tradition, my family and I always drive out to Alliston, Ontario to the Drysdale tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. We also always watch It's a Wonderful Life after Christmas Eve mass.”

- Matt Dominico, 2nd year MMSt (Photos Source)

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"The morning is spent opening presents under the tree (stocking stuffers are opened first of course) and then we eat brunch and take our dogs out for a family walk around our town’s golf course. We also go visit my uncle who lives in a long-term care home and bring him hot chocolate. Later when we sit down for dinner we open Christmas crackers and read the joke/trivia and play with the toy that comes inside and wear the paper crowns while we eat. To end the night we usually drink tea and eat sweets while playing board games or card games.” 

- Vicky Jamieson, 1st year MMSt 

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“The only tradition my family seems to have is our "strike" against turkey. Basically, we got so tired of turkey after Thanksgiving we decided to ban it at Christmas and instead eat lamb or ham. It's just the 3 of us so it's an easy consensus.” 

- Elizabeth Cytko, 3rd year CDP

“My family isn’t super festive, but the holidays are the only time we're all in one room. In addition to leaving snacks for Santa, my family would also put out a bowl of baby carrots for the reindeer. One year they forgot to bring it back in and I cried because I was worried the reindeer would go hungry.” 

- Georgia McKee, 1st year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Georgia Mckee)

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“Every Christmas morning, while my mom would make breakfast, my dad would blast his Kenny G Christmas CD to wake me and my brothers up!” 

- Denise Tenio, 1st year MMSt

“On Christmas Eve, my family has a réveillon, or a Christmas Eve party (Derives ‘réveil’, meaning "waking", because everyone who is invited stays until midnight or later). We make traditional French-Canadian dishes, and all our neighbours, family and friends are invited. My dad even sets up a chocolate fountain! Every year our invitations feature a different Christmas movie character and people guess who it is. It’s my favourite part of the holiday!" 

- Emma Puddicombe, 2nd year MMSt (Photos courtesy of Emma Puddicombe)

Happy Holidays to all of you! 

WASSAILING WE GO: CAROLLING FASHION FROM AGES LONG PAST

Sew What | Rachel Dice

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So what’s your holiday style: trendy, traditional, or drunken viking?

Victorian winter wear for women and children, circa 1850. Source. 

If you’re planning on being ultra-traditional and going out carolling this holiday season, the most important thing to think about is your aesthetic. The popular thing these days is to wear a horrible Christmas sweater—some of which light up or play music. Or maybe, you might want to stick with good old red and green, which isn’t as old as you’d think. Our red and green Christmas colours

This plush blue velvet coat with white fur collar and cuffs
from the Aurora Museum & Archives looks more like 
what Santa would have originally worn. Photo courtesy
of Rachel Dice.

come from depictions of Santa Claus working amongst his merrily-clad elves, but originally, Santa would have worn white and blue during the holiday season. A 1920s era blue velvet coat with its white fur collar and cuffs in the textile collection at the Aurora Museum & Archives is more in line with what he would have worn back in his early days. So how did Santa’s outfits become such a big part of the holidays? And what about carolling?

Well, it’s a pretty well-known fact that the Santa we know and love today got his outfit from Coca-Cola ads introduced during the 1920s. Due to the popularity of the drink, it’s understandable that his cool red outfit would become a popular Christmas icon, leading festive revellers to don a red and white hat in honour of the festive figure. The classic look became part of an old holiday tradition—carolling.

In our modern day and age, carolling has pretty much become something confined to a stage at a

Michael Goodchild in his performing blacks at
the Exultante Winter Concert, the modern
carolling event. Photo courtesy of Annelise
Danielle. 

Christmas market or at special winter concerts. Depending on the venue and the choir, the styles we see either lean towards performing blacks or holiday gear. If you’re lucky, you might even see some Victorian-inspired carollers in top-hats, bonnets, and hoop skirts. Despite our modern influences in colour choices—most Victorian-inspired carollers perform decked out in red and green—actual Victorian carollers would have just worn their winter clothing accessorized with some holly or other seasonal flowers to mark the festive occasion.

If the Victorian era isn’t quite your style, then perhaps the real roots of carolling are for you. Carolling is an extremely old tradition that actually pre-dates Christmas itself. Originally called wassailing, this pagan Yuletide tradition was much more than just singing songs. Wassailers would perform ritual chants, sing, act out small skits, and make a merry havoc in winter months. These activities were usually accompanied by a traditional drink—called wassail. This drink would have been somewhere between a mead, beer, and apple cider. Wassailing would usually happen in an apple orchard on the twelfth night of Yule to awaken the trees, chase away demons, and convince the trees to thrive over the next year. After finishing up in the orchard, wassailers generally pointed themselves in the direction of the nearest village and continued on their drunken way.

Traditional clothing for wassailers was the ever-present tunic worn by most medieval men, or a bliaut and kirtle worn by women. Since it was also winter, wassailers wrapped furs around their leggings and arms to keep themselves warm, and also added in a mid-length cloak that usually went to their

Typical medieval garb for men, rich and poor. Wassailers
would have the addition of furs and capes to keep themselves
warm as they launched into the night to wreak festive havoc.
Source.

elbows. The type of fur was important as well. Most wassailers were peasants, which means that they used weasel or mink fur instead of the softer furs favoured by the rich. If a fur-clad wassailer made their way over to you demanding figgy pudding or the like (since that song didn’t exist yet), then you had better give it to them! People who refused to comply to a wassailer’s requests were pulled into rowdy or racy skits and chants while other wassailers caused havoc around them. Now THAT sounds like a holiday tradition that we all need.

So how about we forget about the traditional and tame group carolling, and go all out this holiday season? A bowl of cider, some furry leggings, and a bit of mischief are all you need to get into the wassailing mood.

The modern version of "traditional" carollers. Source.

Whatever your style, enjoy the holidays and have an excellent new year!