Classic Christmas Stories

by Frank Galgay

  ADVENT

  One solitary item appertaining to this season comes from Old Shop, New Harbor. “The cock does not crow during Advent, ” is, I am assured, a real old saying.

  CHRISTMAS WEATHER LORE

  Chance Cove says “we mostly have a few cold civil days just before or in the Christmas.”

  “A green Christmas makes full or fat graveyard, ” seems to be an old English notion pretty well known about here at least. A London saying is, that a white Christmas makes a brown Easter. I don’t know that we have anything corresponding to that here.

  The 12 days after Old Christmas day indicate the weather of the 12 months of that year. Such is, or was, the old belief at several places in Trinity Bay. So was a similar saying at Bedford, Mass., as to the 12 days at Christmas; and in Nova Scotia they make, it is said, the almanac of the year. There too they say the 7 days of January indicate the 7 months of the year. There is a curious notion at Barre, Vermont, that, as far as the sun shines into the house on Candlemas Day, so far the snow will blow in before the spring sets in.

  OTHER CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS

  At various places about New Harbor the old, old superstition is found, that the cattle kneel down at midnight of Christmas (or old Christmas.) Stories are current of persons who have been to the stables to see if it were time to see them on their knees with upraised eyes (New Harbour), and being driven away by strange unearthly voices (New Perlican). The following extracted from the Christmas Number of the Telegram, for 1886 (the same account may be seen in Sharpe’s London Magazine for 1886 p. 125), will interest your readers:

  THE LOWER CREATION ON CHRISTMAS EVE

  “In the southwest of England there exists a notion that the oxen are to be found kneeling in their stalls at midnight of the Christmas vigil, as if in adoration of the Nativity. The idea is supposed to have originated from the representations, by early painters, of the event as having taken place. But this does not explain the matter; for the idea preceded the creation of such paintings.”

  The Two Oldest Oxen (probably to set a good example to the rest) fell upon their knees and “made a cruel moan like Christian creatures.” This fancy seems all the more strange when one recollects that it obtains, or used to obtain, among the American Indians. In his “Sketches of Upper Canada, ” Mr. Harrison mentions meeting an Indian, at midnight, creeping cautiously along in the stillness of a beautiful moonlight Christmas Eve. The Indian made signals to him to be silent, and when questioned as to his reasons, replied, “Me watch to see the deer kneel; this is Christmas night, and the deer fall upon their knees to the Great Spirit and look up!” In various parts of England bees are popularly said to express their veneration for the Nativity by singing, as it is called in their hives at midnight on the night of December 24. In some places, particularly in Derbyshire, it is asserted that the watcher may hear the ringing of subterranean bells. In the mining districts the workmen declare that high mass is solemnly performed by beings not human in the cavern which contains the biggest lode of ore, that it is brilliantly lighted with candles of miraculous material, and that the service is weirdly chanted by unseen choristers. We understand that similar notions have found their way to this side of the Atlantic as well.

  The Origins of Tibb’s Eve

  by Paul Herridge

  EVER HAVE A FEW alcoholic beverages to celebrate Tibb’s Eve? Many people along the province’s south coast may have, but you might not know how it originated.

  Although the term itself is quite old, according to Dr. Phil Hiscock of Memorial University’s Folklore Department, the idea of Tibb’s Eve as a particular day on the calendar—the day before Christmas Eve—is specific to Newfoundland and Labrador.

  As he explained it, sometime around World War Two, people along the south coast began to associate Dec. 23 with the phrase “Tibb’s Eve” and deemed it the first occasion it was acceptable to have a few Christmas tipples.

  In many of the outport communities, it became a day where the men would visit each other’s homes for a taste.

  Because Christmas Eve was still a part of Advent, and that observance was almost as sober as Lent, Dr. Hiscock indicated most traditional Christians would never consider taking a nip before Christmas Day prior to World War Two, which was even then a little early.

  Tibb’s Eve became a light-hearted means to extend the season—an idea Dr. Hiscock recognized is not unlike when workers in the 19th century would lengthen their weekends by taking “St. Monday” off from work.

  “So, it’s very much a modernist thing, but just when that modernist thing kicked in we don’t know.”

  Tibb’s Eve is sometimes known by several different names depending on the community. In some places, it’s called “Tipp’s Eve” or “Tipsy’s Eve”—an evolution of the name in characteristic folkloric fashion.

  He laughed “For someone who thinks of it as a day to get tipsy, then Tipsy Eve is perfect. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a good way of calling it.

  “And, of course, it’s all based in the kind of humour that people have had for hundred of years. So, there’s no reason why people should not make humorous adjustments to it in the present.”

  That explains how Tibb’s Eve became associated with Dec. 23 along the south coast, but the phrase itself holds the key to its Christmastime connection.

  Dr. Hiscock hinted Tibb’s Eve became sort of an old-fashioned way to say “never” as in “a day that doesn’t exist.”

  He noted there’s an interview in the Folklore archives at Memorial with a man from a community in Placentia Bay, born probably in the early 1900s, who asks the student who’s interviewing him when she plans to get married.

  She says, “Oh, probably never” and so he kind of winks his eye and says, “Oh, on Tibb’s Eve, hey!” And on the tape she has no idea what he’s talking about. For him, that’s a normal way, a joking way, but a normal way of something “that’s not going to happen.”

  Dr. Hiscock noted several hundred years ago in England, “‘tibb” was slang for a woman who was sexually promiscuous—a direct reference to a female cat. He said many English plays throughout the 1600s would feature roles with the name.

  When a character named Tibb would walk onstage, people would laugh because they knew what was about to happen.

  “Tibb was a kind of loose-moraled girl, and to say there was a Saint Tibb was clearly a joke for those who were in the know, but for the children it wasn’t a joke at all. They just treated Saint Tibb as they would Saint Mary or Saint Catherine or whoever else, but adults would always know there was no Saint Tibb.”

  Because it didn’t exist, Tibb’s Eve was a non-time. Dr. Hiscock suggested there are several similar silly phrases in the English language, the “twelfth of never” and “when two Sundays fall together” being others.

  And thus, the Christmas tie-in.

  “One of the traditional ways of reputing what Tibb’s Eve was when a kid would ask ‘Whens Tibb’s Eve?’ was to say, ‘Oh, it’s neither before nor after Christmas’ or ‘It’s neither before nor after New Year’s.’”

  Flashing Back to Christmas in Corner Brook 50 Years Ago

  by Gary Manning

  EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE WesternStarpresentedaseries of articles in connection with the city’s observation of the 50th anniversary of the start of modern day Corner Brook. The material for that series was based on the files of this newspaper. The following article is a description of that 1923 Yuletide season as recorded in the pages of the Western Star.

  As Christmas time 1923 approached, residents of the Bay of Islands must have known that their part of Newfoundland would never again be a collection of sleepy fishing villages. The previous spring had started the work of constructing a giant newsprint mill that would transform the Bay of Islands into a buzzing industrial centre.

  With the start of construction had come hundreds of men. Many of these people would be going home to other parts of the island for Christmas but others, who had come here inten
t on making Corner Brook their home, would be staying to spend their first Christmas in a new community.

  Winter was late in arriving in the Bay of Islands in December, 1923. Consequently, it was a busy month for the coming and going of various vessels. The SS Sagona arrived in port at Curling Dec. 2 from the northwest coast. There had been fog and gales to plague the boat during its trip and the Western Star reported that the Sagona had handled “large quantities of freight” throughout the trip, “the ship being practically loaded all the time.”

  The Sagona was to have left almost immediately but did not leave until Dec. 8 when it sailed north full of freight and “unable to take all that was offering.”

  Also in port at Curling at that time were the schooners William C. Smith and the SS Sable Island waiting to take on loads of herring from the fish plants there. The Sable Island had come down to Curling from Humbermouth where it had left material for the companies working on the mill project. Also in the Bay of Islands at the time were the SS Amphitrite which had discharged materials for the mill at Corner Brook and the schooner Mackenzie King which had delivered oil to the Corner Brook operations.

  The Amphitrite also went to Curling for a load of herring to take to Halifax. It and the Sable left Curling with their loads on Saturday, Dec. 15.

  When the Amphitrite left Corner Brook, the Western Star writer for that area reported that it was “likely the last steamer for the season” even though the Humber Arm and the Bay of Islands “is as free of ice as in midsummer.”

  The Sable Island, however was expected to make at least one more trip that season for more herring. The herring fishery was not going so well. “Only small catches are taken daily, ” the paper reported. The codfishery was better and there was a ready market for fresh catches, according to one report.

  In Corner Brook, work was going well at the site of the mill and the adjoining townsite. “Over 300 are employed at the townsite and several buildings are in the course of erection, ” the Western Star reported.

  Work on the large warehouse was “being pushed rapidly ahead, and the weather has been favourable for the work.” The warehouse was to have a capacity of 40,000 tons of paper and was steel framed and had walls of corrugated iron. It was “near completion, ” according to the paper.

  The foundation for the general office was completed and forms were being erected for the reinforced concrete walls, it reported.

  Meanwhile at Deer Lake there was a lot of work going on building the power plant that was going to supply the hydroelectric power for the mill at Corner Brook.

  The Brief and Newsy column of the Dec. 12 edition of the Western Star reported that “at Junction Brook there has been a curtailment of concrete work for the winter months. This work will be resumed at full blast as soon as conditions will permit in the spring.

  “At Deer Lake a large number of men are at work and will continue all winter. Besides those working all excavation work there are between five and six hundred in the woods.”

  The personal column of the paper reported that Mr. Alexander, general manager of Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., builders of the Corner Brook mill, and his wife were passengers on the Wednesday, Dec. 5 No.1 express enroute to England “where there will spend three or four months, returning here again in April or May.”

  As mentioned earlier, December, 1923, had been rather temperate and the paper reported that there had been a “little frost” on Sunday (Dec. 9) night, that “dried up the mud a little and slightly improved the conditions of the roads.”

  Then on Monday night (Dec. 17) two or three inches of snow fell. According to the paper’s report it was “the first of any account for the season and gave the surroundings somewhat of a Christmas season appearance . . .”

  Earlier that day, hunters from Lark Harbour had arrived by that day’s express from “up country” where they reported the caribou to be “scarce.”

  The Dec. 19 edition of the Western Star noted that many stores were decorated for the coming holiday.

  “Many of our shops have their windows very nicely and appropriately dressed for the approaching festive season.”

  The merchants were advertising their Christmas wares in the local newspaper. One such ad by Jas. Pennell of Curling noted that the store had “For Trade” and “All from Xmas Trade” and “All from Fresh Stock” such items as “Fresh Beef, Mutton, Fresh Pork, Geese, Turkeys, Sausages, Oranges, Apples, Grapes, Cakes and Biscuits” and a “Full line Great Assortment of Confectionery.”

  The Humber Valley Stores in Corner Brook was advertising its “Annual Xmas Sale Now On.” Ladies coats regular $25 were on sale for $11.98. “Everything must go regardless of cost, ” the ad read. “Buy today, $1 as good as $2 at the Humber Valley Stores.”

  The Armada Tea Company was sponsoring a Christmas Contest offering a $10 first prize, $5 second prize, $2 third prize and 10 tins of Armada Tea. The contest required those entering to supply two missing lines from a jingle each line starting with a letter from the name “ARMADA.” Entries had to be mailed to Harvey and Co. Ltd., St. John’s by Dec. 15. As it turned out there were 5,000 entries but no one from western Newfoundland was among the winners.

  C. & W. Bartlett of Petries probably placed the most elaborate advertisement that Christmas. “Oh! Say, its Xmas at Bartletts. I’ll tell the World, ” the ad read.

  “If you are forlorn and adrift come to us. Come where Dolls and Toys and the blended radiance of gilt and tinsel and (Crystal) and color glisten prodigally and magically in myriad forms. Plunge into the thick of the throngs and you can’t escape the contagion—the contagion of happiness. The Carnival spell is intense. The gay, strange things born of man’s brains to en-trance the errant fancy of children will entangle your twisted thoughts, and the old cold spark—the human spark—will burn again.”

  All that prefaced a long list of the available goods at Bartletts. Baggs & Co. Ltd., Curling, offered “a splendid assortment of Christmas goods.”

  According to the reports in the Western Star, a radio had been installed at Humbermouth that Christmas season and an item in the Humbermouth notes mentions that “it is no trouble to get a bit of news from Paris or New York.”

  Closer to home there was a bit of news that was probably more talked about by the local citizenry than anything they might hear from the capitals of the world. A report in the Dec. 19 edition of the paper said that “a man doing business at Corner Brook was held up by a foreign gunman between Curling and Corner Brook some nights ago and was relieved of fifty dollars.”

  As Christmas neared more and more people’s minds turned to getting home for the holiday. A special train passed through the area on Wednesday, Dec. 19 with Premier Warren and wife returning to St. John’s from an imperial Conference in England. The following day, a special passenger train left Port aux Basques for St. John’s “to accommodate the large number of people who will likely be wanting to go home for Christmas.”

  The Western Star reported in its personal columns some of the people who were going elsewhere for Christmas. J. C. FitzGerald of the Newfoundland Power and Paper Co., Corner Brook, left Dec. 19 for Christmas with his parents in Grand Falls.

  Mrs. M. A. Johns went to Grand Falls to spend Christmas with her parents in Grand Falls and “Miss Bethune, who is teaching at Corner Brook, went to St. George’s on Monday (Dec. 24) to spend Christmas with her mother.”

  In addition, some like John McEvoy “arrived home from St. John’s to spend Christmas with his parents.”

  The churches were prepared for the coming feast. The paper reported that “the officers of the Salvation Army accompanied by a number of its members went to Corner Brook by horse teams on Sunday (Dec. 16) and held services.”

  The paper noted that “special services” were planned for the Methodist church on Christmas Day. The “usual Christmas Midnight Mass” was slated to be held at the Church of the Sacred Heart and “usual Christmas celebrations” at St. Mary’s church were to start at 8 a.m.

&nbs
p; In its Dec. 19 editorial, the Western Star noted its regret that it was unable to present its usual illustrated Christmas edition since it had not received the illustrations it ordered for the paper.

  In the editorial, entitled “God Bless Us Every One, ” the paper stated:

  “The Christmas season with its feasting and merriment is with us once again. We see its influence reflected from the many happy faces as they pass us by. There seems to be a subtle magic in the air that is expressed by the heartier handclap and a warmer welcome.

  “What joyous gladsome ring there is to that good old-fashioned wish of ‘Merry Christmas, ’ that we get from our friends. ‘The same to you and many of them, ’ we cheerfully answer back, with a sparkle in the eye.

  “Christmas is the one season that takes us away from the bickering and cares of business and fills our hearts with human love and understanding and sympathy; and poor indeed is the heart that does not respond to its magic call. Truly, at this season ‘The Bethlehem Message’ is a living inspiration.

  “. . . We feel we cannot better express our feelings and wishes to our numerous readers and patrons in more fitting words than those of poor Tiny Tim in Dickens’ delightful fantasy, A Christmas Carol, God Bless Us Every One.”

  The Dec. 26 edition appeared the day after Christmas and its editorial read as follows:

  “Christmas day passed off very pleasantly. The weather and surrounding appearances were quite a contrast to that of the past two years. Two years ago a bridge of ice spanned the Humber while last year the Humber was frozen the first week of December. Christmas Day this year, however, not only finds the Humber open, but to date there has not been a particle of slob. The sprinkling of snow which fell on Christmas Eve just saved us from having a green Christmas. Special services were held in the different churches, and last night (Dec. 25) there was a social in the Salvation Army Hall.”