Marilyn's Photos - Dec 16 2025 - Canadian Christmas

 

How do other countries view us?  When I look at the site whychristmas.com, our Christmas traditions are described by geographic region and cultural background.  Doesn’t this make sense to us, being so regionally diverse and so spread out.  In general, though, we are characterized as having a European-style Christmas experience, specifically with Germany having given us many Christmas traditions.  And if you are dreaming of a European-style Christmas in Canada, Quebec City is considered a quaint spot for that. So there is a good measure of French traditions too. That Canada vs U.S. comparison around Thanksgiving and Christmas are prime times for comparison. Thanksgiving is the most important holiday in the U.S. with it now taking up a Thursday (for travel)  to Sunday long weekend, and now leaning into Monday as well.  In Canada, Christmas is the greater holiday and spreads across December 24th to 26th. I seem to focus on food - what is the Canadian Christmas Dinner? Here, Canadians point to their European backgrounds.  There aren’t as many hams at Christmas as the German Christmas heritage is turkey, perhaps the alternatives of goose or duck and the French heritage is tourtiere.  These are our two dominant Christmas origin cultures that shape our food choices.  There are many regional ones as well. The identification of the Christmas dessert being butter tarts or Nanimo bars is very funny. Our British and French traditions take over on the dessert table - Yule logs, Christmas pudding with its sugary “hard sauce” and Sherry trifle.  What are the Christmas Day events in Canada? Supposedly, Canadians spend the day in winter activities such as ice hockey or ice skating. Articles are consistent on this enjoyment of the snow as part of the celebration. Again this is very funny - reminds one of the American tourists who used to arrive in Niagara Falls in the summer and ask where the skiing is.   And what are the wreath traditions at Christmas?  Another path to discover. This Maple Leaf picture is from years ago in Toronto.

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Marilyn's Photos - Dec 14 2025 - Cutest Cat

 

Now that there are billions of hits and views of stories, there must be millions of stories to check out. I realized you could watch cute pet stories indefinitely when I saw this screen.  It looks like one families YouTube channel on cute kitten chasing dog tails, and dogs doing silly things together.  All of these YouTube channels promise to “melt your heart in seconds” - there are so many - top 20 dog YouTube channels for 2025, the top 100 pet YouTube channels, and the top 100 pet YouTubers you must follow. You can even get them sorted for you.  This year’s cutest cats?  Well, there doesn’t seem to be an organization that decides the cutest cats, but we can find the Internet’s supposedly most famous cats. The top two listed are Nimbus the Cloud Cat and Simon Yosh the cross-country explorer. Nimbus appears to be mostly bezerk, jumping all over his “cloud” cat tower. He’s got crazy expressions, but I wouldn’t call him the cutest cat.  This was the best picture I found, and it is just OK.  Well, we are now in YouTube realm so don’t expect a lot.  What about that travelling cat, SImon Yosh? Now that’s some cat. Pictures abound, and all of them excellent.  He seems to spend time climbing mountains.  I vote for this cat. Here are some unusual designs and colours of wreaths from past years.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 16 2025 - Christmas is Chocolate Time

 

Is there any time that isn’t chocolate time?  Somehow Christmas is chocolate ad time.   The first edible chocolate bar happened in 1847.  After that conching was invented by Lindt where chocolate was mixed and aerated for hours to create that smooth, creaming, melt-in-your-mouth texture that we consider chocolate. The Europeans took out the chilis and spices and put in the sugars.  There were a lot of inventions, evolutions and developments along the way.  Maybe chocolate is the diamond of the candy world.   Do you know that there are preserved chocolate bars made between 1764 and 1795 for the King of Poland.  They bear the King’s monogram and on display in his Palace on the Water in Warsaw.  Isn’t that curiosity of some sort. And the industrial movement of the 1800s and 1900s meant that wrapping chocolate bars in festive labels became affordable for the middle class, with figurines like chocolate Santas and elves becaming a tradition, along with the Chocolate Advent Calendar.   There seems to me to be a societal evolution where Christmas has become a time of indulgence. The box of chocolates is perfect for the middle class to showcase indulgence.  What could be better than that?  Well, for the rich, there is something.  Le chocolat box includes chocolates, necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets in diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. I found a picture and it doesn’t look that impressive, does it? That’s because it really is jewellery with some chocolate. At $1.5 million, I was hoping for something more compelling.   More affordable (!) in comparison would be Le Madeline au Truffe - a single chocolate truffle costing $250, To’ak chocolate bar - $360 and the DeLaFee’s gold chocolate box with 8 chocolates and an antique gold coin at $390. And there are more options than these. Don’t worry that you will have to choose which one to get for Christmas.  We have a succession of chocolate festive days - Valentine’s and Easter.  Then you can move into World Chocolate Day, International Chocolate Day, and National Chocolate Day. Or you can expand to other religious celebrations - Day of the Dead, Hanukkah and Diwali. There’s an endless chocolate highway with many stops along the way.

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Dec 20 2024 - Christmas Attire

 

Attire seems the correct word for what is worn for Christmas pictures - matching "oatmeal" sweaters are on the front page of the Globe and Mail's Christmas photos coverage.  Sounds elegant for Christmas attire. Last Saturday, I saw a family - mother, father, and baby -  at the Watering Can in matching pyjama-sort of outfits like this below.  I don't remember if they had reindeer antlers on their heads.  That pyjama/sweat pants look is creepy to me, and got creepier every time I saw them again.

The female staff in Shoppers Drug mart were wearing elf dresses yesterday.They are a retro 50s style, so that must mean this is a trend gaining momentum.  Halloween is very popular, so why not dress up at Christmas given all the opportunities.  The trend is more towards women's vintage 1950s dresses.  If you remember the dresses in the movie White Christmas, that's the look.  Even with white gloves.  Not as many pajama outfits this year.  But maybe families all own the matching pyjamas, so are being pitched something different this year.  As I look through the dozens of pictures, I notice that  the dog dress Christmas Candy costs more than the Elves Blue Reindeer jumpsuit for people.  What do you think of this? Here's a retro style dress with a novel print - white gloves would go with this outfit - I wonder if this is a Christmas Carol.  And we're back to asking why this dress is listed for $34 compared to a dog outfit for $48. Here's a holiday greeting from a few years ago - let's see if this much snow falls today.

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Dec 15 2024 - The Vampire Facial

 

Yesterday's fabled story of Martin Luther lighting up the Christmas tree seems sort-of believable.  It is a simple myth of eternal Christmas.  But it pales in comparison to the myths of eternal youth be found today.  I heard about this on Gavin Crawford's Because News yesterday morning on CBC Radio, and have looked it up.  I had visions of blood smeared all over one's face and then a mask on top of that - a messy horror sort of movie. So the Vampire Facial! Sounds gruesome.  Sounds like blood is involved.  Sounds correct. But very different from my fantasy. Here's the information from the American Academy of Dermatology: "...platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has received so much attention that it may seem as if we’ve finally found the fountain of youth. Despite the hoopla, there’s little evidence to show that it works — or doesn’t work. We all have platelets in our blood. PRP is 3-step procedure that involves having your blood: Drawn from your arm (2 to 4 tablespoons) Placed into a machine that separates the platelets from the rest of your blood Re-injected into you (only the part of your blood that contains a high concentration of platelets).  For the "fountain of youth" it is injected into your face using microneedling.  And in 45 minutes you are done and have spent $1,300 in Toronto. Orthopedic surgeons use PRP to help athletes recover more quickly after an injury.  In dermatology, PRP is being tested as a possible treatment for hair loss. PRP may also speed up wound healing. A few dermatologists are using PRP to give patients younger-looking skin." I don't think it sounds like "a few" - unless you consider a "small number" to be in the thousands or even tens of thousands.  An expression like "art is not just for the few" refers to a minority of people and that could be in the billions on this planet.  But then I can't imagine the American Dermatology Association wants to own this one, given the lack of research conducted so far. What the Association does say is that researchers have found that most patients who get results have 3 or more treatments. That means, you’d have to go to your dermatologist’s office 3 or more times to have blood drawn, treated, and injected back into you.  The results will show up in a few weeks to months.  Expect "a bit of pain, bruising, and swelling afterwards. These tend to go away within a few days."   Sounds definitely like evasiveness on the association's part.  The McGill University Article called the body of evidence "anemic"  and a research review of the procedure  said is was "modestly beneficial." with dark under-eye circles getting the most consistent improvements. So maybe that's why it was covered in the news recently.  It makes for a truly surprising Christmas present.  You can count on me to bring you the best in Christmas-cringe-worthy presents.

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Dec 13 2024 - Most Popular at Christmas

 

There are many most popular things at Christmas - top of the list is gifts.  There's urgency in the ads - who knows which ones will "sell out" - given gift cards are the top of the list, it doesn't seem likely that they are going to sell out.   Do you know that the top selling toy of all time is Barbie (at a billion).  You can see the most wanted toys for Christmas over the decades or years - think Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Kids, Furby, LEGO, and don't forget Rubik's Cube.  Shopping-wise, the experts say that it is Christmas-themed things - lights, decorations, trees, all that sort of stuff that actually sell the most at Christmas. Christmas decorations are on sale at the floral store year-round, but would you want to buy your Christmas decorations in July?  Michael's had an understanding this year of how popular Christmas items are and how to position Christmas items.  They had some Christmas trees and decor out before Halloween.  It was a heads-up on what's to come, and a nudge to the early birds to get going.  Christmas is a magnet for all kinds of things to be "beloved" and "most popular" at Christmas.  This comes in the form of "tradition" generally. With both a religious event with its traditions and a secular one - Santa and the presents that has generated its own traditions.  There are so many things that align to make special meaning.  Things like our favourite dinner, favourite dessert, favourite cookies and candies - candy canes in particular. And then expand out to Christmas experiences - Santa Claus Parades, Christmas concerts, Christmas movies. We don't do this the rest of the year to such an extreme.  Christmas is the ultimate event for us.  It makes me wonder what would that next level of mass celebration could look like.  Who knows? Here's a Floyd Elzinga sculpture with a few sparkles added.  That looks Christmas-y to me.  And isn't that because we've squished in the Solstice Celebration of lights into the holiday.

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Dec 11 2024 - We're in a great state

 

This from the CBC news:  In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump said that if the U.S. is going to run up lopsided trade deficits with Canada, it might as well become a state. Trump posted that he was happy to have dinner with "Governor Justin Trudeau, governor of the Great State of Canada.  I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!"   The CBC named it "a jab" in the article but the headline said Trump again teases Canadian takeover with 'governor' Trudeau post.  Another headline said that Trump's quip about the 51st state was a joke by a Minister that was present.   This shouldn't be a surprise joke or jibe - there's still talk of Trump  "purchasing" Greenland.  Will we get more of this - what do you think?  Seems to go with the package. There's nothing like an Amaryllis at Christmas - this picture from last year.

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