Page 24 - Giv'er Miramichi Magazine - Christmas Giver 2023

Homemade Holidays

When I Was a Young Lad by Darlene Jardine

This time of year reminds me of something new for Christmas.
my childhood. A lot of our clothes were
As I bake bread and sweets with handmade. Mom and Gram knit all our
the first snow falling outside, I think socks, mittens, hats and scarves, and
about when I was a little girl, and our Dad made us coats and dresses. Dad
kitchen was bustling with Christmas was a great tailor, and he would cut up
preparations. old coats and other clothing to
Mom and Gram would be busy repurpose them. He was a self-taught
making fruitcakes, nutcake and currant and well-read and could figure out how
cake – special treats that we always to make or do anything he put his mind
looked forward to and were only made to. I can still see the little mackinaw
at Christmas. The pantry and cold cellar coats he made for my brothers.
brimmed with crab apple preserves, I’ll never forget the red plaid A-
pickles, berry jams, and potatoes, line dress he made me. It had a little
carrots, and turnips from the fall collar, short sleeves, and was buttoned
harvest. We’d have about six barrels of from the neck to the bottom of the
salted fish and meat to do us the winter; skirt. Dad could make anything and
salmon, eels, gaspereau, pork, deer, and even helped with the knitting and
moose. cooking too. Later in life, his folk-art
I remember one year when I was wood carvings and paintings would
eight years old, and we were living in our first house, before become sought after by collectors.
it burned. There were six of us kids at that time, my parents, On Christmas Eve each year, Mom and Dad headed to
and Dad’s mother, Gram lived with us too, at the end of the the woods to cut down a fir tree. We stayed home with Gram
Barnettville road overlooking the river. The Eaton’s and ran around the house getting socks to hang up for Santa-
catalogue had arrived, and we were so excited. We mauled usually Dad’s socks because they were bigger. Christmas eve
over that catalogue for weeks and knew what was on every was also a special time because Mom and Dad were married
page. Mom and Gram always ordered us a few things for on December 24 in 1946, the year after Dad came home from
Christmas, along with new boots for whoever needed them. the war.
Money was tight, but every year they managed to get us When they returned, we trimmed the tree with tinsel and

24 www.GiverMiramichi.com Christmas 2023