STARRY NIGHT
At Starry Night, visitors experience a little taste of what the season was like in 1914. We discover what goes into making the night so magical and meet a longtime volunteer
WITH THE SOFT GLOW OF LAMP LIGHT and the sweet, rich smell of roasting chestnuts wafting through the air, visitors to Waterloo Region Museum’s Starry Night event get the surreal feeling of being taken back to 1914, as they walk through the museum’s Doon Heritage Village.
The moment a Starry Night visitor arrives at the museum, a warm cup of hot chocolate awaits, and “every kind of Christmas cookie that you could ever want,” says Wendy Connell, Waterloo Region Museum’s supervisor of programs for the past 26 years.
As soon as they stroll into the village through the trees and past the historical buildings decorated to suit the period, they can let the frenetic pace of the holiday season fade away.
Waiting for visitors inside each historical building is a knowledgeable interpreter dressed in 1914 period clothing — as well as a sampling of the seasonal delights.
“We have the tabletop Christmas tree. We have an advent wreath. We have a candle in the window,” says Karla Kale, a costumed interpreter in the German-themed Sararas-Bricker Farm.
“It was a very common German tradition to light a candle because Kris Kindle would bring you your presents on Christmas Eve,” says Kale. “So you would light a candle in your window to welcome him, and then of course children would run outside and look for footprints in the snow in the morning.”
Also at Sararas-Bricker, visitors will find a display of traditional German Christmas food on the dining room table.
“We have ‘stollen,’ which is a Christmas bread and ‘pfeffernusse,’ which is a Christmas cookie...” says Kale. She adds that for Starry Night, they’ll serve visitors cheese straws, a sort of savoury shortbread.
Every house in the village offers treats unique to the heritage of the building’s former residents, including McArthur House, a home originally built by a family who came from Scotland. During Starry Night, you can try black buns, a rich, moist fruit cake covered with pastry traditionally eaten in Scotland during the holidays.
Recreating Christmas 100 years ago is no small feat, and planning for Starry Night,
a fundraiser for the Friends of Waterloo Region Museum, starts long before December arrives.
Fifteen months before Starry Night begins, Old Order Mennonites start working on the lovely star-themed quilt, which is the top door prize for the event. And to pull together all of the details that make Starry Night special, Connell collaborates with the members of the Friends of Waterloo Region Museum, as well as museum staff and volunteers.
“There are so many things that you have to consider: Is everything sanded and salted? Is everything up and going? If it’s snowing, then you have to keep an eye on the lanterns because we have lantern posts throughout the village.”
In fact, more than 60 staff and volunteers work during the event to provide an optimal experience for visitors. But they’re careful to introduce only a few new items each year to Starry Night.
“They tend to be subtle changes; it might be a change in the food,” says Connell, who says they proceed cautiously because people really “don’t want you messing with their tradition.”
Around March, she’s attending to other details that make the night unforgettable.
“I book any outside entertainment. We have a group of ladies and gentlemen that sing in the church and do the carols,” says Connell.
Live music in the white wooden Freeport Church at the edge of the village is a Starry Night favourite. During the event, the church has a wreath in each of its windows and professional carollers sing for the full three hours of the event, often encouraging visitors to sing along.
“I remember sitting in the church once, there was a light snow, the church is lit with lanterns and there are carollers singing, and there’s all the people in church. I remember thinking, ‘It doesn’t get much better than this, it really doesn’t,’” says Connell.
She also starts to arrange the horse-drawn carriage rides for Starry Night in March, knowing the rides will be particularly popular, especially with children. The horses are brought in from Ayr, while the museum provides the wagon.
Then, of course, there is the decor. If you think decorating your home for the holidays is difficult, try decorating a village. Each November, it can take three days to decorate Doon Heritage Village for the season with evergreen and cedar garlands. And it turns out, once is not enough.
The staff redecorate the village in December prior to the Christmas tours and events to make sure the garlands look fresh.
“There are a lot of homemade decorations” true to the 1914 era, says Kale, so some years, new ornaments need to be made.
“We will get some more reproduction postcards and then we’ll cut them up into ornaments, and then retire some of our
more tired ornaments,” she adds.
Hand-blown glass ornaments and wood-beaded or popcorn garlands complement these decorations. To preserve the ornaments once the holidays are over, the staff takes great care storing them away using acid-free paper and special boxes.
And as for those treats? In early November, volunteer bakers make close to 6,000 pieces of tasty shortbread cookies, which schoolchildren visiting the museum during the holiday season as part of their school experience also get to enjoy.
The bakers also make “hundreds and hundreds of different varieties of cookies,” says Connell. The staff also pitches in, making treats and warming them up for the Starry Night event.
The tasty helpings slide down easily with apple cider and hot chocolate, both also available during the event.
Children attending Starry Night might be impressed by the food and decor, but true to the holidays, it’s often their visit with Father Christmas that highlights their experience. He wanders through Doon Heritage Village giving out candy canes during the event, fuelling the festive spirit with his white beard and long red suit.
It’s the “cheery” on the top of a lovely, local holiday tradition.
STARS IN HER EYES Starry Night volunteer Alison Jackson has enjoyed a love affair with Doon Heritage Village for nearly 40 years
One of Starry Night’s biggest supporters and longest volunteers is Alison Jackson of Cambridge. Her enthusiasm for the event is palpable as she describes the night as “one night of magic.”
Alison is a member of the board and pastpresident of the Friends of Waterloo Region Museum, which developed Starry Night as a fundraiser.
For this year’s festivities, Alison has many roles, including preparing some shortbread
cookies, a ginger cordial and black buns for the Scottish McArthur House.
Alison also co-ordinates the preparation of the star-themed quilt, the event’s top door prize, which is put together by a generous group of Old Order Mennonites.
“We go out together, we pick out the fabric, choose the design we’re going to have,” says Alison. Then the Mennonite ladies work on the quilt over the winter, giving Alison the quilt the March prior to the next Starry Night event.
Alison called Scotland home before moving to Waterloo Region. Full of energy and curiosity, she started researching the region’s history shortly after she arrived.
“When I moved to this region I saw the name Blair, I also saw Galt as a name, and I was born seven miles from where John Galt was born,…” she says. “I started to poke into the history. What did they do here? Why are things named after them?”
Alison found some of the local history books and started reading. “You start looking at connecting things,” she says.
She soon discovered her curiosity and growing historical knowledge was appreciated.
“I came here in 1978 and I was asked to come on the board of the museum here about six months later,” she says. “I have been here ever since.”
At that time, the museum board was known as the Ontario Pioneer Community Foundation and was responsible for the Doon Heritage Village. Throughout the 37 years Alison has volunteered with the museum, she has witnessed the transitions to what we now know as the Waterloo Region Museum.
“It’s been a great place. I just always felt that my commitment to it is worth it,” says Alison.
The Doon Heritage Village museum was transferred to the Region of Waterloo government in 1983, and Alison was on the negotiating committee that helped make this happen. It’s a move she believes has been very positive.
“The region has been so faithful. They have given the community something to be proud of.... We’ve got a fabulous museum. It has been really well interpreted. They’ve done an excellent job,” she says.
And she shows her appreciation to the community with deeds, not just words. For example, when she saw the needlework on some of the museum’s pieces was fading, she became interested in learning how to do traditional embroidery, a skill she initially acquired in school in Scotland but never really pursued.
She became a member of the Guelph branch of the Canadian Embroiders’ Guild, is now a leading local authority on needlework and also teaches classes in Guelph on the subject.
One fine example of Alison’s embroidery skills is the cuddly door prize she made for this year’s Starry Night.
“I was in the Seibert House this summer, one day a week. That’s when I made the teddy bear,” she says of the toy decorated with intricate needlepoint.
Alison’s extensive volunteering with the Waterloo Region Museum is only part of the work she does in preserving and promoting local heritage resources.
“Wherever I’ve been, I’ve always been interested enough … to learn how these places tick. What makes them go? What changes have happened? Why does it happen?” she says.
Wendy Connell, Waterloo Region Museum’s supervisor of programs for the past 26 years, praises Alison’s hard work and dedication at the museum and throughout the heritage community.
“She is the ultimate volunteer,” says Connell. “She has given back to her community many, many times.”