SASKATOON – Whether it’s having an eggnog, driving around to look at lights or opening presents on Christmas morning, every family has holiday traditions that are tried and true. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some long-established festive customs here in Saskatchewan that haven’t evolved over the years.
At the Western Development Museum (WDM) curatorial centre, we’re showing one tradition that’s over a century old. What they are isn’t obvious at first glance but they helped to make the season a little brighter for pioneers.
“Instead of having lights you would have had candles on your tree,” said Corinne Daelick, WDM’s director of education.
Clip these to a real Christmas tree and light the candle placed at the base of the holder and you’re looking at the first set of Christmas lights known to people on the Prairies.
READ MORE: Charitable donations on the rise in Saskatchewan
Today, you can shop ’til you drop with the click of a mouse, a trend made easy by technology and one far removed from those living in the 1910 era.
“They might have made their own gift by using things around the house, the other thing they would have done is, say, use the Eaton’s catalogue and do it by mail order because you didn’t necessarily have everything near by, communities were further apart,” said Daelick.
“Christmas catalogues” wouldn’t be introduced until the mid to late 1930s; prior to that model trains and Chatty Cathy Dolls were featured in the fall and winter edition of the Eaton’s catalogue.
“The stocking very often was were you’d find your big gift for Christmas,” added Daelick.
“The stocking though in say in pioneer time in Saskatchewan would have been pretty sparse, you wouldn’t have a special fur trimmed stocking to hang by your mantle like people some people do today, it was literally your sock even often unless you were lucky,” she said.
If you were a good boy or girl, you got one of these.
“Maybe a few nuts and there maybe a small toy and it may be a candy cane but usually not much.”
Was this on your Christmas wish list?
READ MORE: Australian ‘Santas’ hang ten for surfing record
These board games would have been all the rage at some point as was a friendly hello in the form of a Christmas card.
“A Christmas card was a great way to connect, a lot of them looked like postcards so you could just send off something decorative and of course like today, the fancier the card, the better you looked,” said Daelick.
No matter the toy or the tradition, what will never change about Christmas is the lifelong memories you build with family and friends near and far.
Comments