CHRISTMAS SCRABBLE?
City celebs talk holiday traditions
Daryl Cloran: At home with Edmonton’s icy traditions
When Citadel Theatre artistic director Daryl Cloran moved to Edmonton in September 2016 with wife, Holly Lewis, and sons Liam and Jack, the family set out to experience the city’s great holiday traditions. They found some hits.
“The boys got really excited about the Ice Castles, and they’re at a great age for that,” Cloran said about the boys, aged 9 and 6. “They kept saying, ‘This is our new Edmonton holiday tradition’.”
Candy Cane Lane also impressed. “We live not too far from Candy Cane Lane and that blew their minds, too. Those are really Edmonton things that we didn’t have back in B.C. that are exciting ways for them to feel this is a great new home and a great new place to spend the holidays.”
David Shepherd: The Doctor is in every Christmas
’Tis the season for sci-fi for Edmonton-Centre MLA David Shepherd.
“I watch the Doctor Who Christmas special,” he said, when asked about his favourite tradition. “I have always been a little bit of a sci-fi geek, ever since I was a kid.”
Shepherd discovered Doctor Who (a popular BBC series about a space travelling time lord) eight or nine years ago and said he just kind of fell in love with the quirky show.
“I spend the day with my folks, with my family, and come home at night and watch the Christmas special,” he said. “The 13th doctor is on his way out, so this will be his last appearance, and they will introduce their first female Doctor.”
Brett Kissel: Some do-it-yourself outdoor fun
Country singer Brett Kissel’s favourite family tradition started with some outdoor innovation on the family farm.
“It’s a little redneck sport we invented a few years back called ‘plywooding.’ It’s simple, actually quite safe — and as hillbilly as it gets,” said Kissel, whose new album, We Were That Song, was released a couple weeks ago.
“It’s a sheet of plywood with a rope, tied behind an ATV or snowmobile. You get someone who is sober to drive the ATV, and all the other cousins pile on and you wrestle. You do it around the farmyard, that’s why you need a responsible driver so you don’t smash into a hay bale or fence,” the country singer laughed. “It’s awesome — you can get whipped into a big fluffy snow bank.
“Grandpa Bear invented it. With all of us grandkids causing trouble cooped up in the house, he rigged this up. He got us all out there when we were little and he says, ‘All right. This is plywooding. Here’s the one rule: no crying.’ Two is best for a round robin, we’ve got eight. Last man standing is the champion.”
Kissel walked away with the bragging rights last year. “I have to defend my title this Christmas.”
Deborah Saucier: The tree is tops
The president of MacEwan University says her family’s holiday traditions have changed over the years, but Deborah Saucier’s favourite moment has stayed constant: selecting the Christmas tree and decorating it.
“My husband, daughter and I spend a lot of time discussing each tree on the lot, searching until we find one that is just right. Then we get it home, let it thaw and begin to decorate,” Saucier said.
“Over the years, we have accumulated a number of very different Christmas ornaments — mittens, whales, snowmen — and we spend a lot of time discussing where we got each one or who gave it to us.”
The final touch is always a Cajun Christmas alligator that Saucier bought in New Orleans. It sits at the top of the tree, right next to the star. “It has got a little battered over the years, he’s a bit more glue than glass in some places, but to us, he is just perfect,” she said.
Sarah Hoffman: Taking time to connect and care
Growing up in Kinuso, Alta., Health Minister Sarah Hoffman treasured seeing her family’s name on a special community Christmas card.
“The high school grad class as a fundraiser would put up a massive Christmas card,” she said. “For $20, your family could add their name to that Christmas card. The years I helped with that, the years I put it up, I’d walk by to see our name and other family names on it.”
Now at home in Edmonton, every year is a little different for the MLA for Edmonton-Glenora.
“But the piece that’s the same is taking time to tell my family how much I care about them and to connect with my friends.”
Dale Wishewan: Holiday food from scratch
Booster Juice founder Dale Wishewan and Golden Knights NHL franchise part-owner lists two beloved family Christmas traditions.
“Firstly, making perogies or perishke from scratch,” he said. “It’s a way to remember my grandma and grandpa and to stay in touch with our family’s Ukrainian heritage.”
A Secret Santa gift exchange on Christmas Eve is the second mustdo.
“We are not big on doing a lot of Christmas gifts, but we like to do the Secret Santa exchange with a $50 maximum. After the person opens their gift we have them try to guess who their Secret Santa was.”
Richard Wong: Tending to the spirit and spirits
Shaw Conference Centre general manager Richard Wong has a trio of Christmas traditions.
“I like to go to midnight mass,” Wong said. “And I like to follow that up (during the day) with a walk in the river valley and a good bottle of wine at dinner.”
This year’s wine will be a 1985 Chateau Montelena “because it’s 32 years that I’ve been in the tourism and hospitality business.”
And mass, for him, has to be at St. Joseph’s Basilica. “It’s a magic place, even for those who aren’t Catholic. It’s a great place to be, the architecture, the history, just being silent. It’s a good place to reflect.”
David Eggen: Spelling it out before rocking out
Education Minister David Eggen’s Christmas morning always begins with a family game of Scrabble.
“In my family, we are all very competitive so these games often involve family members creating new words that don’t exist in an attempt to be crowned the winner,” said Eggen, MLA for EdmontonCalder.
Then, there’s the Christmas jam session. Even though Eggen owns many instruments, he will rent more for Christmas so they can form a family band.
“This is always a blast and has to be my favourite Christmas tradition with my family.”
Muriel Stanley Venne:
Turkey with all the fixings
A big meal with family is the holiday highlight for Order of Canada recipient Muriel Stanley Venne, founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women.
“We try to get all the family together, three sons and one daughter, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren,” said Stanley Venne, who was honoured this year by the provincial government naming a government building in Edmonton in her honour.
“We usually have a beautiful turkey dinner with cabbage rolls and perogies, because we lived in (a Ukrainian) area, and who can resist cabbage rolls and perogies?”
Michelle Draper: Festive fruit
salad for family
Growing up, Edmonton public school board chairwoman Michelle Draper believed fruit salad was a pivotal part of breakfast on Christmas morning. Every year, when her parents hosted her grandparents and other guests for breakfast, she was tasked with chopping up fruit for the dish.
Years later, she found out her fruit salad duties were mostly busywork, orchestrated cunningly by her parents, to “calm me down after a frenzy of present opening.”
She still makes fruit salad and cinnamon buns every Christmas morning.
Every Christmas Eve, Draper also reads a pop-up version of The Night Before Christmas, which was a gift from her dad.
Jana O’Connor: Each ornament a
treasure
Playwright and improv artist Jana O’Connor’s favourite tradition is tied to trimming the family tree.
“Shortly after my husband and I moved into our first home, just after we got engaged, we hosted a Help us Trim our Tree housewarming,” she said. “We received many wonderful ornaments from our dear friends that have decorated our family tree for over a decade. Every year, we take such pleasure in unpacking each ornament.”
They’ve added to the collection over the years, said O’Connor (also a member of La Teatro La Quindicina theatre ensemble), including a fisherman in a sou’wester from their honeymoon in P.E.I. and sweet handmade creations from their two children. “Though some Christmases have been merrier than others, each year there is both comfort and joy to be found in these beautiful remembrances of holidays past,” she said.
Don Iveson: A delicious Christmas roast beef
For Mayor Don Iveson, the holiday season would not be the same without his father-in-law’s roast beef.
“Usually on Christmas Eve, my parents will come over to our place and we’ll have turkey. That’s fairly conventional,” said Iveson. “But one of the things I’ve come to really love is that my father-in-law, Sarah (Chan’s) dad, cooks a mean roast beef. On special occasions he doesn’t do turkey, he doesn’t like turkey. He does an amazing roast beef.
“Christmas Day we’ll have roast beef, the night after Christmas Eve turkey, and that’s a pretty good one-two punch. I always look forward to that,” he said. “Because it’s possible to have too much turkey, it really is.”
Christina Gray: A light, flaky
Christmas
Labour Minister Christina Gray says her sister’s croissants are part of what makes Christmas morning fabulous. She makes them from scratch, Gray said, and pairs them with butter and jams from the farmers markets.
“It’s delicious, but I also know she cares and she puts all this effort into it,” said Gray, MLA for Edmonton-Mill Woods.
“We go to my parents’. They’re in the city, so it’s my parents, my husband and my sister, and we all get together and do stockings, which we love. We’ve stopped doing the big gifts, but we all fill each other’s stocking.”
Terry Jones: Christmas means road trips with family
For Postmedia sports columnist Terry Jones and his wife Linda, Christmas has meant central Alberta road trips between their families’ homes in Lacombe and the Ferintosh-Camrose area respectively.
“We’d take son, Shane, and twin daughters Nikki and Trina to Christmas Eve church services in Camrose and Christmas morning with the Borgstrom clan in Ferintosh,” Jones said.
“With Linda having six sisters and kids galore, the Christmas morning gift opening was an incredible experience. After the big Christmas dinner we’d drive to Lacombe where an entirely different Christmas would begin. The cards would come out and games would be played through Boxing Day. Then we’d head home to the final event with giant Christmas stockings.
“With Linda’s mom, Ruby, now 98 and my mom, Doris, 92, we now have a modified version of that with Linda and the twins featured singing at the Christmas Eve church service in Sherwood Park and gift opening at home with grandsons James and Aiden.”
But the family still travels for visits in Ferintosh/Camrose and at the home of Jones’ sister, Sherry.
“It’s a pretty special Christmas and always has been,” he said.