Memories of Christmas Past: Story-Sharing, Seniors, and Syrup!

Christmas is coming, and that means lots of holiday memories. But is Christmas today exactly what it was years ago? Some of the older traditions are changing, perhaps, and there is always the danger that the stories of some of our senior population could vanish suddenly.

To help save Christmas stories, we are organizing a memory-sharing event for seniors in Carbonear on December 10th.

"Losing our cultural heritage is tantamount to losing our identity and it can so easily fade from our society," says organizer Florence Button. "I'm hearing all kinds of interesting tidbits from our older population."

At the event, we’ll have a lunch, some Purity syrup and Christmas cake, and I’ll be getting seniors to talk about their memories about Christmases years ago, allowing all the old tales and stories to float to the surface.

Hopefully, we’ll identify some people for follow-up interviews, for the Christmas Traditions section of Memorial University's Digital Archives Project.

The model for the memory-sharing side of the event is the "Mug-Up" program, which was started in Labrador. Folklorist Martha MacDonald, with the Labrador Institute, was one of the key organizers of the Labrador Mug-Ups. Mug-Ups brought people together over lunch to talk informally about stories on various themes. You can listen to an interview I did with Martha about Mug-Ups here.

Memories of Christmas Past
Time: Friday, December 10 @ 10:30 a.m.
Carbonear Pool: Multi Purpose Room
Florence HAS to be notified prior to your attending, due to food ordering and space limitations!!
709-596-7535 or by email: fabutton@yahoo.ca


Absolute last date to book your seat: 8th of December, Wednesday but it is recommended that it be done before that date. Thank you.