Memories of Christmases past and present

The sound of children singing carols or the smell of baking treats is enough to bring back happy memories of Christmases gone by.

We stopped by the College Park Retirement Residence in Regina to ask seniors about their favourite Christmas memories from when they were children.

“Putting on concerts, that was a lot of fun,” Irene Luterbach, said recalling her days in a one-room schoolhouse in Steelman, Saskatchewan. “We had plays with our Christmas concerts and recitations, somebody always had to do a recitation.”

Luterbach said times were hard for her generation, and Christmas was about the simple things.

“I think we were glad to get a present in our age group then,” she said, noting that a doll would be a precious gift.

Irene Smyth recalls unwrapping one special present under the tree when she was a little girl.

“I remember getting a doll wrapped in brown paper and we were going to the neighbours for Christmas dinner and I had to take this doll with me,” she said. “So mother wrapped me in a feather quilt and the doll with me and we went in the sleigh to the neighbours’.”

Now many of them have grandchildren to share the magic of the holiday season.

Gloria Lang is perhaps just as excited as her four and six-year-old granddaughters to share traditions in the kitchen this year. She said they call her on the phone to tell her they’ve been good and ask if they are going to bake cookies and make perogies.