With Christmas Day just a day away, small children everywhere are excitedly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus.
To get us all into the seasonal spirit, we decided it was a good time to check in with some local movers and shakers (and our own newsroom staff) to find out what folks do on Christmas Eve.
Here are their stories:
STEPHEN D’SOUZA, executive director, Burnaby Community Services
On Christmas Eve my wife, daughter, the family dog and I gather with our extended family for dinner. We usually enjoy a roast with gravy, bowls and bowls of vegetables, salads, sweet potatoes and pilaf. Dessert of homemade cookies from the grandparents is followed by cards and board games.
At the end of the night, we walk the dogs and explore the Christmas light displays around the neighbourhood. When we return, I try to convince everyone to join me for some Christmas carols, but my inability to stay on rhythm or hold a tune usually limits us to two songs. We then pull out the hide-a-bed, inflate air mattresses and get ready for a hurried night’s sleep. Just before we lay down our heads for dreams of reindeers on the roof, we hang up our stockings around the fireplace and open one small present each to help build the excitement for the morning.
After saying goodnight to children, pets, brothers, sisters and parents, my wife and I usually lay on an over-filled air mattress whispering about the crazy year gone by and how thankful we are to once again be with our loving family.
BETH DAVIES, chief librarian, Burnaby Public Library
Christmas Eve for me and my partner and kids always involves a long walk outside, usually exploring our neighbourhood. We’ll check the NORAD radar to see if Santa has made it to various friends and family around the world, eat something unhealthy (often fondue), and then light a fire. Even though my boys are now 13 and 11, we leave a glass of something for Santa and a carrot or parsnip for the reindeer and promise the kids that we’ll put out the fire before we go to bed so that Santa can get safely down the chimney.
RON BURTON, Burnaby school board chair
E. coli and blood poisoning have thrown a wrinkle in the holiday plans of Burnaby school board chair Ron Burton, who found himself in hospital shortly before Christmas this year and unable to take a planned getaway to Mexico.
Burton said he didn’t really have any Christmas traditions growing up. After getting married to his wife Maurya, he’d go to her family’s house on Christmas Eve and then to the home of a Danish couple who were like parents to him growing up.
“It ended up at around midnight with all the kids dancing around the Christmas tree, singing,” he said. “It was a wonderful time.”
He and his wife would then go home, have a glass of wine together and open a present before going to bed. With their own kids, they spent Christmas Eve at Whistler. This Christmas – their second with full custody of their 18-month-old grandson Harley – they plan to keep the night low key. “This Christmas, we are going to take him for a walk to see neighbourhood Christmas lights, talk to him about Christmas, read him The Night Before Christmas, put him to bed,” Burton said. “Maurya will have a glass of wine, enjoy some quiet time, maybe a hot tub, and an early night.”
PAUL HOLDEN, president and CEO, Burnaby Board of Trade
Christmas Eve is when I attempt to make Beef Wellington for a quiet family dinner. We have 16 or so people for Christmas lunch, so we all spend time getting the table set for the big day. We spend the rest of the evening watching movies, withLove ActuallyandElf being regular favourites.
DEREK CORRIGAN, Mayor of Burnaby
I have two children who are born on Christmas Eve – Darcy and Kelsey. Their births were always a significant event in our family because my wife was going in to the hospital on Christmas Eve to have babies and was going to be away from the family on Christmas Day, so it was always a big deal.
Every year, Christmas Eve has been really special to us because we have the birthday party for both, and they get to choose what we’re going to have for dinner; sometimes we’re having tacos for dinner. They get to choose what we’re going to do on Christmas Eve, whether we’re going to do something special. The one thing that has to happen is they have to get a gift that’s in birthday paper, not Christmas paper because the worst thing you could do is give them one of their Christmas presents as a birthday present.
GINA NICCOLI-MOEN, superintendent, Burnaby school district
Christmas is all about tradition in my family – visits with Santa, holiday baking, Christmas train in Stanley Park, Festival of Lights, gatherings with family and friends, midnight mass and turkey dinners (to name a few). The holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a few school concerts (there is always something magical about children singing) and my all-time holiday favourite, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. As children, my sisters and I always had a photo taken with Santa (I seem to recall matching outfits) and we each got to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Today, Christmas morning is spent at my parents’ home with our own children. And Santa still fills my stocking (even at my age!). The magic of the holiday season keeps precious memories in our hearts. For her first Christmas, my daughter received a beautiful fabric advent calendar – it comes out every year, counting down the days to Christmas. Her special tree is adorned with white lights and a collection of ornaments. My favourite one was made for her by a little boy in her kindergarten class many years ago. There is always a special gift under the tree for charities near and dear to us – B.C. Children’s Hospital and the North Shore Disability Resource Centre.
LARA GRAHAM, publisher, Burnaby NOW
We watch classic Christmas movies with the kids, like Elf,our favourite, Christmas Vacationwith Chevy Chase, then, if the weather cooperates, we enjoy the lights in our neighbourhood with hot chocolate.
CAYLEY DOBIE, reporter
Before my fiancé came along (about four years ago), my parents and sister and I would have a casual dinner with my grandma before popping some popcorn and watching a holiday movie – the most popular choice was (and still is) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase. Today, Christmas Eve is spent attending Christmas Eve mass with my fiancé’s family. After that it’s dinner with his mom, brother and sister-in-law (and this year, a niece). At midnight, we exchange gifts and toast the holiday.
TEREZA VERENCA, reporter
Since I’m from Kamloops, my fiancé and I alternate Christmas between the Interior and the Lower Mainland (it’s my family’s turn this year). On Christmas Eve, we indulge in my mom’s Romanian cooking, which includes her famous cabbage rolls. We converse over many rum and eggnogs and eventually settle in to watchIt’s a Wonderful Life (gifts don’t get opened till the next morning). It’s been a tradition since our first Christmas in Canada – nearly 30 years ago!
Pat Tracy, editor
I was raised without any Christmas traditions, so it’s been challenging to create any later in life. I did attempt to start a Festivus Pole and airing of grievances tradition, however, I was overruled. Something about “not in the spirit of the season.” In any case, our Christmas Eve tradition is usually to ponder what mistakes we made while cooking the turkey last year and how we can avoid repeating those mistakes on Christmas Day. And, of course, the search for some cooking implement that we only use once a year and somehow believe is essential to the whole exercise. Since we overcooked the family turkey last year, I’m guessing that the traditional “cooking the turkey dinner debate” will continue this year.
JULIE MACLELLAN, assistant editor
Since my family and my husband’s are based in Ontario, we have an every-other-year plan: one year we fly back to Ontario for the extended clan gathering; the next we spend here at home.
When it’s an extended clan gathering, Christmas Eve is spent with my husband’s side marking the night with a full Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner, including its traditional 12 dishes (confession: I skip the pickled herring course). We also include a family trip to Christmas Eve mass and, after the kids have gone to bed, late-night merrymaking by the adults in preparation for Santa’s arrival. Required components of the evening include viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life, the completion of a (usually fiendishly difficult) jigsaw puzzle, and partaking of our brother-in-law’s excellent wine cellar.
This year is an at-home year, which means spending it somewhat more quietly. There will, however, be Christmas movie viewing (likely A Muppet Christmas Carol this year, since the five-year-old isn’t into Jimmy Stewart yet), a jigsaw puzzle and probably Christmas Eve mass as well. Most importantly, there will be time together with our five-year-old daughter – for whom Christmas Eve must also include, of course, putting out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.
CORNELIA NAYLOR, reporter
Growing up with German parents, the holiday season has always culminated on Christmas Eve for me, not Christmas morning. With my own family, I’ve let many of the traditions I grew up with go, like the advent wreath my mother made every year out of fresh fir boughs in early December (and which was always strategically hung so as to release a stream of dry needles onto your scalp when you bumped into it with your head) and Saint Nicholas Day on Dec. 6, when children put their shoes outside of their rooms and Santa fills them with treats. But we still have our big celebration on Christmas Eve, and we all still have to sing Christmas carols together before opening presents. This year, like most over the last two decades, we’ll be with my sisters’ families, celebrating with them and my now-grown kids’ cousins, all of whom have learned at least one fun German Christmas song well enough to fake their way through it: Nikolaus komm in unser Haus, pack die große Tasche aus. Lustig, lustig, trallerallala! Heut ist Weihnacht-Abend da, heut ist Weihnacht-Abend da.
DAN OLSON, sports editor
We pile into the family van and do a tour of some of the local Christmas lights around the neighbourhood. A few places you’ll get crowds and you can walk up, offer a donation if they are taking them, and share some hot chocolate.
