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My great-great-great grandparents – Thomas Burton and Dionysia Anstead – were originally from England. Thomas lived in Norfolk and Dionysia was from London. After their marriage in 1848, they lived in Norfolk until they made the decision to move to Canada. They settled in Montreal in 1867 and remained there until their deaths. They are buried in Montreal’s Mount Royal cemetery.

In
Loving Memory
of
Thomas Burton
Died
Feb 22, 1898 Aged 82 years
His wife
Dionysia Burton
Died
Aug 10, 1898 Aged 72 years
Also
Clement W. Burton
Died
Sept 9, 1889 Aged 26 years
Clara Dionysia Burton
Died
June 19, 1930 Aged 74 years

When I was young my parents held a Christmas party at the end of November. It was for all the family – aunts, uncles, cousins. It was lots of fun to see everybody. There were enough of us that we didn’t get together en masse very often. I particularly remember the year it was held the same day as the Grey Cup. I was about 11 and spent much of the party updating those upstairs about the game playing downstairs. I also remember that the right team won (Toronto!)

Christmas Eve was usually spent with my father’s side of the family and Christmas Day with my mother’s. Once we moved ‘out west’ away from our families, Christmas was a much quieter affair. We would sometimes get together with a couple of other families on Christmas Eve but the actual day was usually just us four. Things are getting a little more raucous now with three under-fours running around.

Excerpt from Where the Saints Have Trod, Judith St. John, 1974 (Oxford University Press). The book is based on the author’s childhood memories (ca 1914-1924). She was my great-aunt.:

 “On Christmas Sunday, my mother and father located the six loneliest parishioners and asked them to come for dinner on Christmas Day. “That will give us the round dozen,” my mother said.”

As a child, I regularly sent letters to Santa Claus with my list of requests and to assure him I had been very good. Canada Post had a special service that would send a letter from Santa back to any child that wrote to him. (They still do it. If you’re in Canada you can send a letter to Santa Claus North Pole H0H 0H0!) We also used to write him a little note on Christmas Eve and leave it out for him with some milk and cookies to sustain him on his long journey. Sometimes we’d even include a carrot for the reindeer.

We went to see Santa at the mall most years when I was little enough to want to sit on his knee and tell him what I wanted for Christmas. Mind you, I was quiet enough as a child I don’t know if I ever actually spoke to him. The letters were a little more my style!

Of course I believe in Santa Claus. I have two small children at home and I want them to believe in him. It’s easier if I do as well!

Excerpt from Where the Saints Have Trod, Judith St. John, 1974 (Oxford University Press). The book is based on the author’s childhood memories (ca 1914-1924). She was my great-aunt.:

“Then there came a silence. From outside, we heard the tinkle of sleigh-bells. They gradually grew louder. There, at the back door stood Santa Claus. It wasn’t the real Santa Claus. Everybody knew that. It was Mr. Sampson dressed up to look like Santa Claus. He was jolly and laughed a great deal, but with Ho-ho’s instead of his customary Haw-haw’s. There was a present on the tree for every child. I received a doll.”

This was the first and last year pictures with Santa were this easy!

I actually don’t remember much in the way of outdoor decorations from when I was really little. From about the time I was 10 or 11 though I do recall Dad putting lights out on the bushes and trees in front of the house along with a coloured flood light. He would also sometimes put lights in the back yard along the deck railing. There was usually also a wreath on the front door. I’ve only really been aware of people going crazy with the decorations in the more recent past. Some people around where we live now really go to town with the decorations – blow-up snow globes with Santa and Frosty, Santa’s entire herd of reindeer on the front lawn, a family of snowmen, and enough lights to power a small village.

We are not quite that expressive. In years gone by we have been known to put lights on some of our trees and I usually put a wreath out on the door. This year we bought a mother and baby deer but they have yet to actually make it out into the yard. It is fun, though, to drive around and see what everyone else has done and wonder at their electrical bills.

My parents always sent Christmas cards and I remember being quite excited when we received one. I still like receiving them, though they are much less common than they used to be. I was always particularly interested in those that came from ‘away’ and tended to hope for a stamp or two from somewhere outside Canada.

For quite some time my mother had a large tin can with the ends cut out. (And, in talking to my mother this evening, I discovered that the can was actually originally her mother’s! Almost an heirloom…) It was wrapped in red yarn looped vertically up and down around the can. You put the cards through so that a piece of yarn went down the centre-fold of the card. That way you could flip through and see the front of the cards as well as the writing inside. Today, I just arrange any cards we receive along the fireplace mantel. We don’t get quite as many as my parents did so there’s more than enough room.

Because I like to receive them, I still send cards out. And these days I enclose a picture of the children. I like the idea of a real card, as opposed to sending an email or similar. They certainly take more work, though!

I have a few old Christmas cards that were sent to me floating around somewhere but I don’t have any that were sent to generations previous to mine.

Advent Calendar prompt: Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

A lot of the decorations that I remember best on our tree growing up were souvenirs brought back from our travels or given to us following others’ travels. I continue to buy ornaments whenever I am away if I see something special. Some of the ornaments that were ‘mine’ as a child were given to me by my mother and now populate our tree. I have also been buying an ornament each Christmas for each of my two children and when they are grown, I will give them ‘their’ ornaments for their own trees. 

As a child, I made popcorn and cranberry strings and made paper chains. I remember putting the popcorn chains outside after Christmas for the birds to finish off. My children are still too young to really get into making decorations but I look forward to continuing those traditions when they’re a little older. As a child, I also made decorations in school and at Brownies. There was never any shortage of decorations for the tree.

I remember a tinfoil wrapped cardboard star topping the Christmas tree, usually along with a little angel situated near the top. For the first few years of our marriage, our tree didn’t have a topper but last year I finally found a metal star that is cut out like a snowflake. I wonder if my children will have similarly fond memories of that star.

Excerpt from Where the Saints Have Trod, Judith St. John, 1974 (Oxford University Press). The book is based on the author’s childhood memories (ca 1914-1924). She was my great-aunt.:

“It was a busy month. New decorations had to be made for the tree. We threaded chains of macaroni, with red cranberries in between the pieces. I liked breaking the long brittle sticks best of all. We made chains of paper squares, separated by short pieces cut from drinking straws. We made plain ones of cranberries, as well. We constructed baskets from stiff, red paper to hold salted nuts and candy for the Christmas dinner table.”

Too young at six weeks to appreciate either the decorations or the tree:

Our Christmas Eve meal is fairly traditional. It would be even more so if we were French Canadian. Some years ago my mother started making tourtière, which is traditional French Canadian Christmas Eve révillion fare. None of my family is French Canadian, but the tourtière is delicious!

Christmas morning sees us drinking champagne and orange juice (or orange juice and club soda depending on the age of the drinker!) and eating ‘sticky buns’ (homemade cinnamon buns). That’s the only time of the year we make those and nothing says Christmas to me more than they do.

Our Christmas dinner is the standard turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes or turnip, mashed potatoes, etc. Dessert is often whatever Christmas baking happens to be left over or cranberry pudding.

A current favourite cookie is Chocolate Chip Shortbread!

1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla with fork until mixed. Add flour and mix with fork or hands until combined. Add chocolate chips. Drop on cookie sheet- press down with fork. Bake in 325 degree oven for 10-20 minutes until lightly browned.

Excerpt from Where the Saints Have Trod, Judith St. John, 1974 (Oxford University Press).  This book is based on the author’s childhood memories (ca 1914-1924). She was my great-aunt.:

“When we reached home, my father explained to Mother about the strange family in the old shack. My mother was busy cooking the dinner, but Aunt Rhoda minded the vegetables and roasting chickens while Mother cut cold ham and got potatoes, carrots, a turnip and some apples from the cellar.”

Growing up we always had a real tree. We’d go out to a local tree lot and pick the perfect one – as best as one could in the dark. I remember it was usually evening when we were out choosing our tree. I’m not sure whether that was because of the shorter winter days, the fact we went after my father was home from work, or because my memory is faulty. Once the tree was home and in its place of honour in the living room we would put on some Christmas music and help my mother decorate the tree. When we were much younger we would have created chains of popcorn or paper and there was usually a newly handmade decoration or two from school or Brownies or Beavers. Once decorated it was nice just to sit and watch the tree. Once I was old enough, that was made even better by the addition of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine! 

I always thought it was somehow ‘wrong’ to have an artificial tree. Then, for one reason or another, my husband and I ended up buying a pre-lit artificial tree soon after we got married. That’s the tree that we will be putting up this year. The tree that our preschooler will help us decorate and our baby will probably try to climb. My hope is to go back to buying a real tree once they are old enough to understand the difference. Until then, our artificial tree will be beautiful instead. I have bought a new Christmas decoration every year for the preschooler and intend to do the same for the baby. Once they are grown and on their own I will pass on the complete set of ‘their’ decorations. As we decorate the tree I also try to tell them about the history of each decoration as we hang them. I hope to get them both interested in their history before they are old enough to know what’s happening!

Jane Summerville was my gg-grandmother. She was born around 1851 in the Sharon, ON, area and died in 1884 in Uxbridge, ON.  These are some of the pictures I have of her in my records. The first one is from 1873, the year before her marriage. The others are undated.

 

When in Quebec a few years back, we visited Athelstan. My grandmother had been born there and her mother’s family had lived there for years. We found the cemetery where my great-great-grandparents and my great-grandmother were buried. The Presbyterian church is quite striking. The cemetery is in behind it.


The cemetery was small but quite beautiful. We were there in late October – it would have been even prettier a few weeks earlier when the leaves were still on the trees.

This is where my gg-grandparents and my great-grandmother are buried. (My great-grandfather is actually buried in Montreal, although his name is on this tombstone.)

John Johnson
1847-1939
His Wife
Alice J. Burton
1848-1928
Margaret
1883-1971
Wife of John Fee
1878-1967

J. Arthur Lumsden
Sept. 22 1911 – Apr. 14 1995
His Wife
Alice Forget
Dec. 3 1919 – Oct. 22 1997
(Arthur Lumsden was John and Alice Johnson’s grandson. His mother was their eldest daughter Emily.)

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