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An Acadian Christmas in Earlier Times
by Rita Gallant
(reprinted from Voice for Island Seniors, with permission)
Christmas in an acadian home as I remember it as a child was
a very exciting time. People would visit more than they
would during the rest of the year as it seemed to be a
relaxed time - after all the preparations were finished.
To prepare decorations for our Christmas tree, we had to
start by planting our own popcorn. I remember my father
saying, "I have to save a row to plant the popcorn". In the
fall, we would dry it, take it off the husk and leave it dry
until time to pop it.
I recall that our popper was made of wire and we popped the
corn on our kitchen stove. Then we strung it with a needle
and thread into a long strand of beautiful popcorn. We also
had to have something red on our tree. For this,
cranberries had to be picked in the fall and saved fresh by
putting them in cold water in a dark basement. These would
also be strung into long strands. That took care of the
garlands for the tree, but to brighten it up we would make
stars out of the precious foil which we had saved up from
pound packages of tea.
On Christmas Eve the tree would be decorated. Mother would
hurry us off to bed early because we had to go to church on
Christmas morning. There was no midnight Mass then as there
was no electricity to light up the church.
Christmas morning was quite an exciting time. We got up to
a cold house and opened our gifts which were mostly candies,
oranges, apples, colouring books, crayons and a small toy
for the baby. After a good breakfast of meat pies, we would
go to church. My father would hitch the horse to the bunk
sleigh, in the bottom of which he had added straw and a
buffalo blanket as we had to travel about six miles to get
to the church. As my mother always had a baby to look
after, she had to stay home and cook dinner, which usually
consisted of a large chicken or a duck and for dessert -
cookies and apple pie.
One other thing I remember, which was a joy to me, was our
grandmother who lived with us. She always had some
Christmas stories of earlier days which she would repeat to
us every year.
Things changed a great deal for the Acadians as well as for
all others in rural PEI in 1950 when we got electricity.
What excitement this brought at Christmas: midnight Mass
even in the country, electric toys for the children and
lights for the trees. We Acadians gladly accepted this
modern convenience, but we still often dream of the old days -
the quiet evenings, the crackling of the wood burning in the
stove, the oil lamps and the story telling times. Those
were very precious memories to share with our grandchildren
and great grandchildren.
