With the holiday season upon us, we asked the ECHO team to reflect on their favourite things about Christmas. As a service to all readers, we also asked them to include an embarrassing Christmas picture. They did not disappoint. Please enjoy ECHO’s Favourite Christmas Memories.
Samantha Reynolds, Founder and President
Favourite Christmas Movie
It’s a Wonderful Life
Favourite Christmas Song
“Christmas Time Is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
Cranberry sauce on everything
Favourite Christmas Memory
On Christmas morning when I was four years old, my mom told me that there was a very special gift for me that I had to wait and open last. She had bought me a gold charm bracelet with my name engraved on it. I was so excited all morning about the mystery gift and kept glancing at the tiny wrapped box under the tree. Finally, I had opened everything else and it was time for me to open this precious last gift. Despite how eager I was to see what was inside, I carefully unwrapped it, cherishing even the wrapping paper. I held in my hands a little box with a lid. The room was hushed. I gently lifted the lid. Inside was a layer of cotton filling. I slowly lifted the cotton, pressed it against my heart, and said in an ecstatic whisper, “Oh, mommy, my very own cotton.”
Shannon Emmerson, Director of Content Marketing
Favourite Christmas Movie
Elf. I’ve seen it with my husband and son about 20 times and still get teary when Mary Steenburgen starts to sing.
Favourite Christmas Song
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
After Eights
Favourite Christmas Memory
One of my favourite Christmases occurred a couple of years ago, when my son was just four: old enough to know the importance of this Santa character, but still young enough to not quite understand how it all worked, and free from the rumours at school that this Santa stuff might all be a hoax. We went to Palm Springs that year with my husband’s family, and he was so worried about Santa not finding us–in spite of our visit to the mall Santa and a letter we wrote and sent together, with our new address.
So on Christmas morning, he screamed and shouted, dragging me and my husband out of bed to come and see, come and see. The carrot we’d left out for the reindeer was half eaten, and the cookies and milk gone–not to mention the disappearance of the glass of whisky Dad had suggested Santa might appreciate. My son made me take a picture of the half-eaten carrot on the white plate, and it remains his favourite photo: it’s evidence, he says now, continuing to ask to see it, as his suspicions–at nearly seven–continue to grow. My guilt at the deception is outweighed (most of the time) by his genuine wonder and scientific curiosity.
me in an aunt’s fur coat. Very glamorous as you can see. :/
Norma Larson, Studio Manager
Favourite Christmas Movie
It’s a three-way tie: One Magic Christmas / Miracle on 34th Street / The Holiday
Favourite Christmas Song
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
Chinese Chews
Favourite Christmas Memory
When I was a wee child of four, our family lived in a big house on Oxford Street, in Burnaby. It must have been at the height of my belief in Santa, because it was the most magical Christmas I can remember. At the time, we had a nanny, named Hella, living with us, to help with my twin brothers, who would have been just a year old that Christmas. Hella was from Germany, and she had brought us a beautiful, sparkly advent calendar that remained in our family for years and years. How I wish I still had it! Every day leading up to December 25th, we’d find the appropriate window on the calendar and open it to reveal a little picture. This really appealed to my artist’s heart!
For gifts, she gave my older brother, Ron, a set of Dinky toys; and for me, a sweet little hand-painted clothes hanger. (It now resides on my wall – part of a collection of folk-art that, coincidentally, includes three other kids’ hangers!) It’s funny that I can’t remember what we got from Santa that year, but I definitely remember the gifts from Hella. I also recall being fascinated by the bubble lights on our Christmas tree that year – all different colours, magically starting to bubble when they heated up. I was thrilled when those re-appeared on store shelves several years ago!
But the most vivid memory is Ron and me straining our ears that Christmas Eve to hear Santa’s reindeer land on our roof. I’m pretty sure we heard them!!
Lauren Cheal, Audience Development Manager
Favourite Christmas Movie
Arthur Christmas. The epilogue absolutely destroys me, and I don’t particularly care to stifle those emotions.
Favourite Christmas Song
“The Holly and the Ivy” or “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
My grandma’s sesame cookies. I’m so glad I have her recipe so I can make these little treats for friends and family.
Favourite Christmas Memory
My sister announced to my family that she was pregnant on December 25, 2015. Even though my mom and sisters and I spent most of that day breaking into tears (sobs, really), they were joyous ones and I’ll always remember that day as a very, very happy one. My sister told us that the foetus was the size of a blueberry, and that is what we called it until my little niece, Alice, was born. Blueberry, her mom, and I were on a darts team later that day that demolished some other family members. I think we were an unstoppable force of Christmas cheer.
Adam Stenhouse, Photo and Production Specialist
Favourite Christmas Movie
It’s a Wonderful Life or Home Alone
Favourite Christmas Song
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
Pfeffernüsse — German gingerbread biscuits, and I demolish packs of them at a time
Favourite Christmas Memory
I was about 13 and we had a full Polish Christmas Eve Wigilia (vigil). Christmas Eve is essentially a fast day in Poland so you do this by not eating meat, but tons of everything else including fish, because fish isn’t meat (haha). The feast includes a late dinner of seafood with lots of specialties, starting with the sharing of oplatek (honey wafers) before the meal. We offer best wishes with sparkling wine (even for 13-year-olds) and then several appetizer courses. I remember borscht with mushroom pierogi, jellied mackerel, smoked salmon, and sledzie (pickled herring on pumpernickel).
All that food was followed by a full main course and dessert. We capped off the night by going to Mass at a local Polish church at midnight. It was the last time the family was all together in good health and I cherish that memory.
Cathy Smith, Art Director
Favourite Christmas Movie
A Christmas Story
Favourite Christmas Song
“Do They Know it’s Christmas” (BandAid, #sorrynotsorry) or “White Christmas”
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
My mom’s butter tarts and Nanaimo bars!
Favourite Christmas Memory
Every year I LOVED going to get our Christmas tree. It always felt like weeks before we were able to put it up, but really, I am sure it was just a day or two to dry it off a bit. I loved decorating the tree with our homemade ornaments and then turning on the lights every morning as soon as I woke up. We had the Charlie-est of Charlie Brown trees and they were spectacular. Later in life, I loved sleeping over at my sister’s house so I could spend Christmas Eve with my niece and nephew and see how excited they were. It was like being a kid all over again.
Alison Smith-Cairns, Project Manager
Favourite Christmas Movie
A Muppet Family Christmas (“Watch out for the icy patch!”)
Favourite Christmas Song
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
My Gran made the most delicious mince tarts – derived from that odd English culinary tradition of minced meat, these were sweet and spicy (and thankfully vegetarian) and made with perfect pastry that she always – and misguidedly – claimed was “as hard as the back of God’s head.” Now that Gran’s gone, my aunt Cynthia has taken up the challenge. Her tarts are just as delicious and her modesty almost as eye roll-worthy as my Gran’s.
Favourite Christmas Memory
When I was 21 I was living in the South of France and my two friends (Jens from Germany, Dylan from California) and I decided to rent a flat in Paris over the Christmas holiday; it was my first away from home. It was a gorgeous place in the Eighth Arrondissement and we spent our days exploring one of the most magical cities in the world. Every night we’d reconvene in the flat’s tiny kitchen, and make slapped-together-but-delicious dinners, with food foraged from the market down the street. And without a tree or our families around, Christmas dinner was no different (though we may have splurged on a stinkier hunk of cheese and a 20 franc bottle of wine).
But what did make the 25th particularly special was that it was Jens’s birthday. He’d been unlucky enough to share his birthday with another, more famous Capricorn, and thus through his 24 years, his special day had always been a little obscured. Rather than each of us exchanging gifts, Dylan and I got Jens actual birthday presents – mine was a lovely notebook and though I don’t exactly remember, I’m sure Dylan found Jens the perfect flea market treasure, as was his specialty. The focus that December 25th was on Jens, which reduced any homesickness we may have felt spending this significant holiday away from our families.
After dinner (and a few bottles of wine) we took to the slick cobblestone streets—empty, dark, and foggy—and with that feeling you have in your early 20s of absolute freedom, power, and elation at the present moment, we owned the ancient city, with all our Christmas traditions out the window and a lifelong memory solidified.
Andrea Fraser-Winsby, Studio Manager + Content Marketing Coordinator
Favourite Christmas Movie
Love, Actually — oh, and Die Hard, of course
Favourite Christmas Song
“Last Christmas” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (but only the Bob & Doug McKenzie version)
Favourite Christmas Treat or Dish
STUFFING. ALL THE STUFFING
Favourite Christmas Memory
I spent most of my Christmases as a kid in Chase, which is a teeny-tiny town in the Interior of British Columbia. We had a big house that was always full of friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and had a real, crackling fireplace and a high ceiling to accommodate a monster Christmas tree. Outside, tons of snow every year with perfect tobogganing hills and a lake you could skate on. So I basically spent my Christmases inside a greeting card.
More recently, for our first Christmas Eve as a married couple, my husband and I got into our jammies at 6pm, threw all of the pillows and blankets in the house on the floor of the living room, drank wine and ate snacks for dinner, and watched movies all night until we fell asleep. The height of romance, in my books.
