The Beaver Shares Twenty Historic Yuletide Celebrations
Dear Folks at Home — I note that you are solicitous about my welfare at this festive season. Well, don’t worry, the omens aregood. We have at present time in the ice-house two sides of beef, two pigs,…
Preconceived ideas about chilly cheerless Christmases near the North Pole were all wrong. Mr. Finnie found a great deal of fun of an unusual sort when he spent a Christmas Day at Coppermine, Northwest Territories.
The Old Year has faded backstage. The spotlight falls on that young stripling, 1922, which like every other youngster is of most engaging interest…
The Calgary H.B.C. family extends to all comrades in the service a very hearty Xmas Greeting coupled with sincere wishes for a bright and prosperous New Year.
Christmas At Fort Edmonton — On Christmas Day the flag was hoisted, and all appeared in their best and gaudiest style to do hour to the holiday.
Ye Olde English Fare — The brave days of old were distinguished by a hearty and profuse hospitality.
Christmas was coming to old Fort Pitt on the North Saskatchewan, still in that year of 1884 an outpost of the white man’s civilization, and preparations were afoot to celebrate in becoming manner, according to custom, that time-honoured festival of peace on earth, good will toward men.
Our dog-team journey up James Bay just before Christmas was for business. Doug Sinclair and I were making Fur Country, a colour film on trapping for the National Film Board of Canada. We could not possibly put into the film those Christmas scenes of which we ourselves were a part — scenes of the winter holiday season in the North which few visitors witness.
Control Your Eyes
“Awful accident in the train today.” “What was it?”
“A woman had her eye on a seat and a man sat on it.”
Christmas Fare of Old England — At Christmas time, more than any other in the year, traditional English dishes come into their own…
A Lonely Christmas Day — During the winter of 1887, I had an invitation from the officer in charge to spend Christmas at that place…
On the day before Christmas and during the week, Indians with their families might be seen slowly wending their way to the Hudson’s Bay post…
At Pelly Bay, which is about 1400 miles due north of Fort William the Eskimos last winter build a huge K’aggek or community igloo in which to celebrate Christmas.
Christmastime down the years has been celebrated by the men of the Hudson’s Bay Company in many far, strange corners of the continent.
These pictures were taken at Fort Fitzgerald and Smith at Christmastime. Both these settlements can now look back on seventy-five years of continuous activity.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Barbara who lived in Ireland. When she was six years old, she wrote a letter to Santa Claus, addressing it to him care of the Hudson’s bay Company via Montreal.
Nostalgic memories of a child’s “world of wonders” in the old Winnipeg store of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The fortnight just before Christmas was a slack time in the business and many companies planned a lay-off then.
When the Governor General of Canada and the Lieutenant-Governors of the provinces hold receptions on New Year’s Day, they are not following a precedent set by the sovereign whom they represent. By choosing to hold their annual reception on that day in Canada they perpetuate an ancient custom of the country.
Down the centuries, Christmas has been celebrated in various ways at the lonely posts in the wilderness. From the earliest records of the Company in what is now Canada come accounts of how Hudson’s Bay men, in as fitting a manner as circumstances permitted, celebrated the birth of Jesus.
The Christmas Mail with apologies to Robert Browning
The Beaver December 1931
I sprang to the door, and George and he;
I shouted, Dave shouted, we shouted all three.
“The Mail!” cried the cook, as the freighters drew near; …
The greater event that came before Christmas was the arrival of the Box from the Hudson's Bay Company in Winnipeg.
When Christmas comes in the Eastern Arctic, Eskimo families from many scattered camps converge on a settlement for a few days of rejoicing and merry-making.