Tales of Christmas past: P.E.I. seniors share Christmas memories

Christmas can mean many things to many people. For some, it can create cherished, life-long memories.

CBC News invited residents of the Whisperwood Villa seniors home in Charlottetown to reflect on the Christmases that have stuck with them over the decades, and talk about how the holiday has changed.

Decisions, decisions

Margaret Power, 89, says she learned what the holiday season is all about when she was just eight years old.

Her father along with other men in the neighbourhood used to go carolling every Christmas. One year, her father came home, took her mother aside and told her about something he'd seen while he was singing.

The children were in bed "waiting for Santa" when an older sibling called them downstairs.

"When we came down my mom and dad had tears in their eyes. We thought they were having a fight so we were scared out of our skins," she said.

"What they were crying about was dad had told her about a certain family that had their stockings hung up, with holes in them, not a thing in them."

Power said she and her siblings were given their gifts early so they could decide which one they would be giving to the family in need.

"I couldn't decide what to give. My dad said, 'You have to give something Margaret, hurry up and make up your mind. We have to go back and put it in their stockings before they get up looking for Santa,'" she said.

"That was one of the best times of our life. We learned the meaning of Christmas."

A simple Christmas

Arthur Johnstone said growing up in the '20s and '30s made for a simpler Christmas, with gifts of socks or mittens, sugar candy and an orange.

"I think we were grateful for smaller things than today," he said.

He thinks there were more white Christmases when he was young, and remembers going outside to look for reindeer tracks in the snow first thing in the morning.

Johnstone said his family would gather with aunts, uncles and cousins at his house every Christmas, but they weren't eating turkey.

"Goose was the common thing. And everybody would have a goose but you'd always have a fat rooster that would be on the oven at the same time," he said with a laugh.

During the Christmas season, he said, it was common to circulate from home to home because everyone in the community knew each other.

"Out in the country where I grew up, I never knocked on a door ... nobody ever knocked on the door," he said.

"You turned the knob, went in, if they're eating, they'd set a place and you're welcome. And today people don't know their neighbours, nobody visits but it was a common thing. Every night people were coming and visiting."

Remembering the good times

For Eugene McNeill, 90, memories of Christmases past can be bittersweet. 

Dolores, his wife of 63 years, passed away seven years ago. When he thinks about the holidays, it's impossible not to think about her.

"I loved her ... I miss her terribly because Christmas is not the same," he said.

"Having the family together and everybody happy."

McNeill had seven kids, and the family would host parties over the holidays with friends and family.

"We had kind of a party house ... The boys and their friends, they used to come and they all enjoyed themselves so much that they well they used to say, 'It's more like home,'" he said.

"We didn't have a big house but we packed them all in."

McNeill said the parties became a well-known event on the Christmas calendar — and there was at least one year when he didn't know one of the guests.

"I didn't know this fella, and I said to one of the boys, 'Who's that fella down there?,' 'I don't know but so-and-so saw him standing on the corner and took him out to the party,'" he said with a laugh.

"We didn't have that much money but we always made do and there was always a place at the table for you."

He said being able to offer people a place to celebrate the holidays was — and still is — important to him.

"One fella, he used to be there and he'd bring a rose to the wife all the time because he really enjoyed being at our place," he said, emotion rising in his voice.

"He couldn't have those times at home, you know. We welcomed everybody and that's the way it was."

Though the memories can be difficult to handle at times, McNeill had some words of advice.

"Life is really something if you enjoy it. And we enjoyed it."

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