PEN-FRIENDS’ NEWS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22661, 16 March 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

PEN-FRIENDS’ NEWS

Christmas in Canada Extract of letter from girl in Saskatchewan. Sent by .Jessie ■ Mould, Robinson’s Bay, Banks Peninsula. We don’t figure on real winter until round about New Year. We always run the car until then and even if we have very cold weather we do not feel so bad about it if we can still get round in our car. We always spend Christmas at grandma’s, some of us arriving on Christmas Eve and others on Christmas Day about 7 a.m. For breakfast we have brawn —grandma’s favourite —and either beefsteak and kidney, or giblet stew and pickles,

or relish, bread and butter, jam and tea. Then we usually have a dish of puffed wheat or some other uncooked cereal as well. For luncheon we have something light —sometimes a salad (last year it was Waldorf—-apples, walnuts, and celery with dressing on lettuce), Christmas cake, ice-cream, and tea. Then for dinner the main dish is poultry —turkey, goose, or duck, depending on what we have been able to raise. With turkey we have potatoes, peas or corn, bread sauce, dressing, cranberry jelly t and pickles, followed by either mince pie or plum pudding. We always have an evergreen Christmas tree —just a small one last year, because we buy it. We wrap our gifts in pretty tissue and holly paper and tie them with coloured cord. Piled round the tree they are a decoration in themselves. The tree is decorated with candles, tinsel, bells, and a star. We open the parcels before breakfast as the children are always so impatient. In the morning we go to church and in the afternoon play bridge, monopoly, talk, listen to the radio, look after the children, and eat candy, fruit, and nuts. It is only once in a while that we have a crop of wild raspberries here. Most are killed by frost in the blossom stage or by dry weather. We cannot cultivate gooseberries or currants in Saskatchewan on account of a fly that stings the blossom, causing a grub to hatch in the berry. Blackberries are a rare treat with us. It is hard to imagine killing them as a noxious weed. From India I have no actual garden but have a huge terrace and on that I have 100 pots of plants of all types. You can imagine what a job 1 have morning and evening watering them. Ido not trust the job to the native servant because he would not take the same care as I do myself to see that each plant gets sufficient water. I always think we are too pampered in India as we have servants to attend to our slightest wish. If I want a glass of water or anything else it is in front of me almost before I have asked for it. Of course, living in this country is very expensive—so many servants and house rent is costly. This will give you some idea. I have a bearer (personal servant) who looks after my clothes and all personal belongings, a cook, a table servant, a cleaner and driver for my motor- ' car, and last, but not least, a J sweeper who has to clean the house, (Continued on page 6)