Quebec provides the perfect setting for the holiday season. There are decorations, lights, Christmas trees, and outdoor markets everywhere. Best of all, there is snow. I can’t remember the last time I have had a truly white Christmas. The snow and the cold do not stop anyone here; adults and children of all ages just bundle up. Little children in snowsuits, with or without sleds, hit the hills both in town or on the Plains of Abraham. The toboggan run in front of the Chateau Frontenac is billed as one of the oldest winter attractions. Zipping down at top speeds is relatively inexpensive, but a lot of fun.
Other than the first novel, set in Quebec, I have opted for short, novella length, Christmas stories that might not be very well known, but are appropriate for all ages. However, these particular selections are some of my all time favorites. Whether you celebrate the holidays or not, whether you believe in the First Advent or not, I hope you will try out the following Christmas stories. There is something magical in each one.
Tea: Because this time of year is cold and the days are short, let’s get our tea first. Quebec has a number of lovely cafes and coffee shops, plus tea companies. Maple, blueberry, and iced wine teas are some of the types sold in shops all around. Just today, I
had a lovely dirty chai (coffee and chai tea) sweetened with maple syrup. At one of the German Christmas Market stalls by the Chateau Frontenac, I bought a Christmas tea, Tisane du Noel, from Labrador. It is made with leaves and forest plants hand picked by Fabien Savard and packaged under the name Foret Boreale. The leaves look like under the name Foret Boreale. The leaves look like smaller, curly bay leaves, which are said to have medicinal qualities for digestion and cold symptoms. It brews to a lovely pale color with a very subtle, pleasant flavor.
However, one of my favorite teas of all time is served at a Persian/Iranian cafe in Montreal, Cafe Ajuna. Called Persian Fog, it is made with black tea and frothed milk topped with chopped pistachios. The secret ingredient is the saffron syrup. Interestingly, the syrup is a pretty golden-orange color, but when added to the black tea and milk, turns rosy pink. Absolutely delicious at any time of the year, but at Christmas it is an excellent nod to the Wise Men or Magi from the east who brought gifts to the infant Jesus.
Novel: Shadows on the Rock is a 1931 novel by Willa Cather. Although Cather is not from Canada, she is recognized as an important American novelist. This novel, set in colonial Quebec City of 1697, is also not focused on Christmas. Similar in the style of Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs, Cather describes the incredibly diverse society in the French provincial capital through the eyes of Euclide Auclair, the apothecary, and his young daughter, Cecile. From the Count de Frontenac, Auclair’s patron, at the top of society to the deformed Blinker, who lives most of the year in a cave, at the bottom, the politics, personalities and conflicts of the New World are portrayed with respect and sensitivity. The most admired characters, like Pierre Charron, are described as having “had the good manners of the Old World, the dash and daring of the New” (172).
Two lovely scenes with a winter focus are the day Cecile and little Jacques, the son of one of the ladies of ill-repute, spend sledding down one of the hills above the lower town, and the setting up of the Creche on Christmas Eve. The Creche de Noel or Nativity had been sent to the Auclairs from family back in Paris. In order to bring a little bit of a Canadian touch to the exotic scene, Cecile covers the roof of the stable with evergreen boughs and Little Jacques adds a carved beaver to the animals around the manger.
Novella #1: Paul Gallico’s Miracle in the Wilderness: A Christmas Story of Colonial America, combines a similar setting as Shadows on the Rock with the legend of the talking beasts on Christmas Eve. Wonderfully atmospheric, a great grandmother relates this tale, set in the Intercolonial Wars between the French and English and their Native American allies, in front of the fireplace on another Christmas Eve. A young family of settlers in upstate New York are kidnapped by Algonquin warriors on Christmas Eve with the intent of marching them to French held territory. The encounter of an unusual scene in the forest right at midnight and the retelling of the First Advent story alters their awful fate in a miraculous way. I have yet to come across a story by Paul Gallico that I don’t like, but this is one of his best.
Novella #2: Despite the fact that Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, very few of his stories have a “happily ever after” ending. One of his Christmas stories, The Fir Tree, has only a touch of the melancholy rather than a full blown tragic ending like The Little Match Girl. The little fir tree who grows up in a lovely forest surrounded by fresh air, sunlight, birds and animals, dreams of grander things. However, much like many of us, the little fir tree does not recognize the wonderful times he is experiencing until they are past.
Novella #3: A friend introduced me to this last story three or four years ago, but now The Best/Worst Christmas Pageant Ever is probably one of my all time favorites. Barbara Robinson, who wrote this in 1972, tells the story of the six Herdman siblings, the worst kids in town, who hijack the annual Christmas play. Told from the point of view of a beleaguered classmate whose mother has unexpectedly been put in charge of the pageant, this is a hilarious, politically incorrect yet poignant little book. Instead of a complete disaster, the narrator, the whole community, and we, the readers, gain a better understanding of the meaning of Christmas. “‘Hey! Unto you a child is born!’” (108)
Artwork credited to Aurora Draws - contact aliceechesley@gmail.com for more details
All photographs by the author
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