'Tis the Season

This is the latest question in the Recession Special swap I am participating in.

‘Tis the season! Since the winter holidays are fast upon us, tell us your favorite winter holiday tradition, as well as a new one that you started!

Well, my winter holiday is Christmas. Most of our traditions have gone by the wayside these days, but I do have some happy memories of past Christmases.

I am a child of immigrants -- in fact I'm an immigrant myself, having been born in England -- and we never did have much family on this side of the Atlantic. But my mother's sister came to Canada shortly after my parents did, so my early memories of Christmas are of getting together with cousins, sleeping on mattresses in the attic of an old house, kids lined up at both the head and foot of the mattress, with giggling and "feet fights" and trying to stay awake so we could hear Santa on the roof.

Once when I was five and again when I was eleven we spent the Christmas holiday in England, meeting other cousins and second cousins, and most fun of all, being given the Grandma treatment: unheard-of sugary cereal for breakfast and a good homecooked meal every night.

A British Christmas involves pulling crackers and then wearing ill-fitting paper crowns in varying colours, reading riddles, and tucking in to a huge turkey dinner with all the fixings. The official dessert at our dinner was always raspberry trifle, which I hated (though I would sometimes pick at the custard and whipped cream, leaving the abhorrent sherry-soaked cake in the bottom of the bowl).

In later years, my sister and I would do the Christmas baking: Dream Bars, Oatsies, and Dodonut Balls*.

When my son and nephews were younger, everyone would make the effort to come together for the kids. But for the last few years for various reasons our family has been drifting apart.

So my husband and I started a new tradition with our son.

Now we go away, just the three of us. Disney World is our usual destination, but this year my husband didn't have enough time off from work (he used it up to take care of me after my surgery in June), so we are going "up north" to Deerhurst Resort for five days over Christmas.

This is the first time we've had a dedicated WINTER holiday, with skiing, snowshoeing, dogsledding, sleigh rides, snowmobiling and all that, so I am really excited about it.

And there's a fireplace in the room so when I am not out enjoying the snow, I can sit inside by the fire and knit.

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* My mom had a friend down the street in our old neighbourhood. The friend’s kids were older (they all took turns babysitting us, I think). My mom must have raved about some delicious treat she had at her friend’s house once, because the woman made her son type the recipe out for us on a manual typewriter. Poor guy had it all typed out, I think, before realizing he’d put two D’s in the title instead of two C’s. We got the recipe given to us like that anyway. To this day, my sister and I still make “dodonut balls” every Christmas.