Merry Christmas, Yorkies! I’m in an unusually good mood, mostly because I’m one of those people who loves this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, I hate it at the weekend, when my only-recently-healed broken ankle is in danger, at every turn, of been stomped on by the massive pulse of mostly grumpy Christmas shoppers. I can pull out some full-on rage for you if you catch me after an ill-timed shopping session.
But let me put my good mood into context. Back home, it’s an average of -20 Celsius right now. It has been since the first of November. January and February will see the average temps drop to about -30. So for Canadians, Christmas is about creating a refuge of happiness where there is little capacity for ANYTHING to thrive, especially happiness. So basically, a month of carolling, drinking mulled wine, and decorating the house with lights and greenery is our daily dose of vitamin D and serotonin. Loving Christmas is a survival instinct for my people.
At least we have sun, though. Lots and lots of sun. Generally, I laugh at my Canadian friends who make disparaging comments about the constant rain in England, because York is actually quite lovely… most of the year. But guys, this winter so far? Are you serious with this rain? I’m not built for this. Give me -40 any day over the driving Yorkshire rain. Because at least Canadian cities basically stop functioning at that temperature. Cars don’t start. Office building doors freeze shut. But you tough Yorkies just head out in the awful rain, which feels like tiny ice daggers ripping into your skin, and get yourselves to work. That rain reduces the best winter gear into sopping wet tissues. Bless you – both in the endearing British sense, and in the sneezing into a thin paper-product sense.
So, very long contextual introduction aside, here are a few things I love about Christmas here in York.
1) Mince tarts
Oh, how you love your mince tarts. And so do I! In Canada, we still call them mincemeat, which means YES, it takes some serious convincing to get newbies to try them. I don’t try that hard though, to be honest, because why share if you don’t have to? But let me ask you something, York. Have you ever tried butter tarts? They are a Canadian Christmas delicacy, and are much more common and loved than their colonial step-sibling, the mince tart. My mom bakes dozens of both tarts every year, although the mince have always been a nod to my dad (who was born just outside of Manchester) and his heritage. Those buttery, vein-clogging butter tarts are where Christmas is AT in Canada. My mouth is watering already.
2) Christmas jumpers.
So, okay. We do have Christmas attire in Canada, but not with the same, shall we call it fervour? as you lot. It feels like in order to earn British citizenship, one must own a Christmas jumper. A new one each year, in fact. And I’m a bit confused by the charitable idea of Christmas jumper day at school. We spend £5-10 on a Christmas jumper, than donate £1 to our child’s school’s charity of choice, for the right to wear said jumper instead of a uniform? So we give five to ten times the amount of the donation to a big clothing conglomerate… Is anyone else seeing the logic failure here?
I’m starting to sound like I don’t love Christmas. I really do. I just don’t think jumpers are the best way to share the love, and I personally wouldn’t be caught dead in one. I’d much prefer to dazzle with an emerald-green Mad Men-esque dress and some classic but seasonally-coloured red court shoes. Which I can’t do right now, as my ankle is still so swollen it looks like I’ve got a rugby ball in place of an ankle, but a girl can dream.
3) Christmas Eve boxes
I’m told this is a fairly new tradition, but it’s one that I love. We always opened new Christmas jammies on Christmas eve, but you lot have taken that up a notch by creating a box of Christmas Eve activity. These boxes are obviously very personal and assembled by a parent with love for each individual child, but generally they contain: pajamas, fancy hot chocolate mix, some kind of bath item (bubbles or bombs, take your pick!) and sometimes a Christmas film or book. I tend towards book because we don’t have anything in our house that can play movies, nor do we have the space to store DVD jewel cases. These boxes are occasionally a matter of great contention among parents who feel stretched thin as it is at Christmas. I get that. It’s a personal choice to make. What I don’t get is people getting angry at others for having lovely Christmas traditions. You don’t like it? Fine, step off, Angry-One, and do your own thing. Just take your anger elsewhere. It’s not welcome in my happy Christmas bubble.
4) Traditions
Speaking of traditions, this is really what makes the Christmas season. We all have our own. And when you move 2,000km across the world to a new city, you bring some along, and you start some new ones. Our Christmas breakfast has been a family tradition for most of my life. My husband loves it too, so we’ve continued making it here (although the feminist in me refuses to use the recipe’s actual name – follow the link above). But we’ve also adapted some local food into our Christmas day mainstays. My favourite? Replacing the dry old dinner roll with delicious Yorkshire pudding.
We’ve spent four of my daughter’s six Christmases here, and therefore have started many new traditions that reflect both our family and our geographic location. We’ve been getting our tree from Dalby Forest for the past four years. It’s an incredible drive through the Yorkshire Dales, and the Gruffalo trail was a favourite walk. It’s been updated recently to the Highway Rat trail, but doesn’t use the same interactive app, which was a serious disappointment for my 6-year-old. It didn’t really dampen our spirits though, because the tradition of the tree and the area is still something she loves – I’m hoping I’ve got at least another 6 more years before she hates me for dragging her down into the valley to pick a tree and follow the enchanting stream through the forest.
We also love to check out the “snow” in The Shambles, although our attempt this year was thwarted by the afore-mentioned terrible rain. Fingers crossed, we’ve got one more weekend to give it a go. It’s not as good as the real stuff back home, but seeing the world temporarily transformed into a true winter wonderland is a pretty good substitute.
5) Fairytale of New York
It wouldn’t be a UK Christmas round-up without mentioning The Pogues’ hit, Fairytale of New York. This song brings out the happiness in even the grinchiest of Christmas Scrooge. I’d never heard it before moving here, but damn if you guys aren’t full of joy when it comes on. Shane MacGowan reminds me a bit of Neil Young, in that they basically have terrible voices, and yet we love and embrace them for their “unique” style.
Song-wise, we don’t really have a Canadian equivalent, although Dominic the Christmas Donkey is on a serious rotation on the radio for the month of December, and of course Joni Mitchell’s (or Sarah McLachlan’s cover) River is close to my own heart.
There’s a lot to love about a York Christmas, and a lot to miss about a Canadian Christmas. It’s a challenging season for many, for a number of reasons. I hope you can find a nugget of joy somewhere – even if it’s in a Christmas jumper.
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