Being away from Prince George over the Christmas season was always the most difficult time of the year for me when I moved away. I love pretty much everything about Christmas in Prince George: the snow, the lights, giant family dinners, sledding, skiing, bonfires and the Christmas carol insert that comes in the Citizen every year. Before Google, the insert was needed so I could sing loudly and off-key Christmas songs and carols with accurate lyrics.
To celebrate our first Christmas in our new house in Victoria, my husband and I proudly went to Home Depot to buy our first set of outdoor Christmas lights. I love brightly decorated Christmas decorations. The tackier they are, the more I'm happy. Victorians take pride in their classy decorations and we wanted to bring Christmas to Victoria, P.G.-style. In that spirit, we decided to go with dark blue outdoor lights. Then we waffled a bit about whether or not just having blue Christmas lights was too boring so we thought it would be a great idea to switch every second blue bulb with a white bulb. Awesome. It took us the better part of a rainy November day in Victoria to deck our roof with our brand-new lights. So exciting. Now it started to feel like Christmas.
I was thinking about our Christmas traditions as I was sweeping up my third garbage bag full of pine needles that have been shedding off my dead, dead Christmas tree. (This poor tree was thrown off the deck of our house a mere two weeks before Christmas and now our very lovely fake tree is up instead.) Every time I swept the needles into a pile in the living room, my 16 month old son would come and stand in the middle of the needles in his bare feet and laugh and do a Christmas jig.
I was trying to pinpoint what about Christmas in Prince George was so special to me? What traditions do I want to pass along to my son?
This year my husband, son and I have a date planned at the hospital today to get the stitches removed from my son's forehead. He fought the wall and the wall won. It is my hope that this doesn't become a new tradition.
I remember my parents taking my brother and me on a drive through Candy-Cane Lane for the first time. When we drove by the first house, my brother and I were amazed! Everything was so beautiful and we couldn't believe that it was here in Prince George! I think that each year I try to recreate that feeling of wonder from that drive.
As the pine needles are scattered for the fourth time, I think that no matter what traditions we keep from the past, any Christmas in Prince George will be memorable. I can't wait for my son to destroy the carefully wrapped presents and play with the paper and boxes rather than the toys. I love this city and the people here and I hope that everyone has a merry and safe Christmas and a fantastic new year.
Merry Christmas Prince George!
