Christmas at the Page Farm

Thanks to Iris Page (daughter of Morley and Grace Page) and her daughter Michelle for sharing their memories of Christmas. 

Christmas at the Farm

Christmas dinner at the farm was a big affair with lots of good food. We always started with a glass of tomato juice, we never had it at any other time. We would eat chicken, not turkey as we had chickens on the farm. We would have 3 vegetables, always potato, turnip and peas and carrots. Mother would make gravy and the chicken was always carved at the table. For dessert we would have a choice of plum pudding with home made ice cream or minced meat pie with home made ice cream. The plum pudding would have lots of dip, Dad always loved lots of dip for it. There would be light and dark Christmas bread, shortbread and squares as well.

We would have family come for dinner, Aunt Edna and Ruth, Uncle Herm and Aunt Gert with their kids and sometimes Aunt Glad and Uncle Harry from Detroit. Herm and Glad were Dads brother and sister. We would switch each year with Uncle Herm and Aunt Gert, one would do Christmas dinner , the other New Years. At home after dinner we would go tobogganing, there always seemed to be lots of snow.

Recipes:

Mince meat pie and plum pudding recipes have been lost, the plum pudding recipe did not have any suet type ingredient in it, it was very much a plum pudding and always had a dip with it to pour over it.

Christmas cake recipes also not found although the dark Christmas cake was the usual type, and the light Christmas cake was basically a white cake with raisins, peel and candied cherries in it.

Squares and shortbread :

Shortbread:

1 cup soft butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar, gradually add flour ¼ at a time. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut into shapes, decorate with cut up candied cherries.

Bake at 325 for 9-12 minutes will be done when golden around the edges

Cherry Squares:

Bottom:

1 ½ cups flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

Mix like pastry and press in 11x7 pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes

Top:

2 egg whites (beaten stiff)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 ¼ cups brown sugar

2 tsp flour

1 cup glazed cherries , chopped up

½ tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon on top of cooled bottom

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Butter Mallow Squares:

Bottom:

¾ cup soft butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 ½ cup flour

Mix like pastry, put in 9x12 pan and prick well. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes

Top:

2 envelopes of unflavoured gelatin

½ cup cold water

2 cups sugar

½ cup warm water

½ tsp vanilla

Food colour , red or green

Options – ½ cup maraschino cherries, cut up and /or ½ cup walnuts in small pieces, if you do both then use ¼ cup each

Soften gelatin in cold water

Combine sugar and warm water in a pot, boil for 2 minutes

Dissolve gelatin in hot syrup

Beat with mixer until stiff

Add vanilla, food colouring and cherries/walnuts, mix

Pour over shortbread bottom

Cool

Cut with hot knife

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This is one of my personal favourite Christmas songs.  My Grandmother, Marion (Davy) Foreman taught me all the Christmas carols and we would start practicing them in November.  She played the piano and we both sang.  When I could read music, I was in charge of turning the pages.  With The Twelve Days of Christmas I would sing the numbers as fast as I could to see if I could sing them all before she could play them all on the piano.  I always won the race and we would laugh and laugh.  These are some of the best Christmas memories.  

The twelve days of Christmas lie between December 25 and Epiphany, January 6.  it was on January 6 that the Three Magi brought gifts to the Christ Child in the manger - the first Christmas gifts!  It was a common folk belief that on the even of January 6 animals were given the power of speech.  

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each day.  The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin.  The tunes of collected versions vary. The standard tune now associated with it is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who first introduced the now familiar prolongation of the verse "five gold rings".

World War Wednesdays Brain Log: Faces of History

     World War Wednesdays has definitely followed my historical career over the past year in a lot of ways, and I'm really excited to be able to look back on it in the future to see how far I've come. I figured it's been a while since I checked in and did a post for where I'm at right now, so here's a bit of a brain log for this week!

     If you didn't already know, I'm working for the summer at Elgin County Archives and it's already been almost a month! In this short time, I've already learned a lot and it's made me think a lot about my perspective on life and ideas about history. Most significantly, I've been thinking a lot about what is left to remember a person long after they are gone.

     Since my job involves newspaper digitization, I deal with materials that sometimes cover the better part of a person's life. Newspapers in the past covered so much more of the events in people's lives, and I've come across so many unbelievable, interesting, and tragic stories about the fine folks of Elgin County. I've also learned a lot just by flipping over some of these articles. I've encountered articles about historical events involving some of the more notable Canadians that I read about more often, and some that are comically indicative of how much things have changed (like why people should think about buying a smoke alarm and how women should react to their husband's cheating). Reading these newspapers and the people's stories has really added a personal element to the history, and that's one of my favorite parts.

     This brings us to the topic that literally makes me feel sick and want to curl up in a ball of tears. The fact that more and more, the little pieces of the past that we have in print are becoming the only thing we have of that time as the people themselves disappear. There are fewer and fewer people everyday who can tell us what life was like when Diefenbaker was Prime Minister or when ladies followed etiquette books.

     I guess what I'm trying to say is that we should all take advantage of the faces of history that are near to us before they are just a photograph in a newspaper. Go call your grandma and ask her something out of left field about her life in, say, the 1960s and I guarantee she'll love answering. It's something that people love talking about but rarely get the chance, and I promise you'll appreciate the new perspective.

    I've had the privilege of meeting several Holocaust survivors and veterans, and those are some of the most memorable experiences of my life. As time marches on, such experiences have become increasingly rare, but I hold them very dearly when they do happen. I've also come to realize and appreciate the histories of the people a bit closer to me, and I think that we could all benefit from tuning in to what our older relatives can tell us about life. And if you've missed an opportunity or wish you knew more, you'd be surprised at the kinds of things you can find at Elgin County Archives.

Here's a link if you'd like to start exploring:
http://inmagic.elgin-county.on.ca/ask/

Thanks for reading,
   Delany