Ornaments bring back priceless Christmas memories for these Islanders

Christmas is a time for traditions — music, food and the decorations that only come out once a year. 

Special Christmas keepsakes have the power to transport us back in time, connecting us to happy memories from the past.

We asked people about their most treasured ornaments and the special stories behind them. 

Valerie Downe of Charlottetown loves looking up at the little-red haired angel perched on the top of her Christmas tree. 

Valerie's parents Jessie and Russell Downe bought the little cardboard tree topper back in 1945 at Woolworth's in Charlottetown.  

29-cent angel

"She's fragile in lots of ways but I think to me she represents how hard my parents made the effort to make Christmas special for us. So she'll always be on the tree."

The little angel cost just 29 cents, but her value to the Downe family is priceless.

"Growing up, my mom didn't work out of the home so my father didn't have a big paycheck, and it would be paycheck to paycheck," Downe recalls. 

At Christmas, however, they'd borrow money so they could make it special for their daughters, Downe said. 

"The anticipation of Christmas was huge for us," she said. "I have two sisters and we would pretend for a month before Christmas — we'd go to bed and pretend who was going to wake up on Christmas morning and we'd take turns. It was that alive for us."

And that Christmas spirit lives on in her family.

"I really believe that Christmas is that time that brings out our better self. And I think for me that's why these things on my tree have all those beautiful memories of past Christmases and people are not with us anymore."

That's why the little angel who has graced the top of their family Christmas tree for close to 75 years will always have a place of honour.

"When friends see the tree for the first time they will always ask, because she's so loved off and vintage, that you know she wasn't purchased yesterday," Downe said. "She has her own story."

'Peaceful and nice'

Kirsten Connor grew up in a small Danish village 60 kilometres from Copenhagen. When she and her husband Tom came to Canada more than 50 years ago, she brought her own Christmas traditions and takes great joy in sharing the Danish food, music and customs with her children and grandchildren.

Connor puts real candles on her tree — she still has some candle-holders that belonged to her grandmother and are 100 years old. She also plays a recording of her own mother's voice singing Christmas carols in Danish every Christmas Eve. 

"We put the candles on [the tree] and then we hold hands as a family and walk around the Christmas tree, and we sing the Christmas psalms and songs as we walk around," she said. "The grandchildren think it's great."

Connor loves to see her children and grandchildren grounded in the traditions of their Danish heritage.

"It's very, very touching and very peaceful and nice. It gives you perspective," she said. "And now the grandchildren are asking if they can play the piano and play those Christmas songs, so this year I think we are going to have quite a performance."

Along with the antique candle-holders, Connor cherishes a table runner embroidered by the woman who made her wedding dress, gifted to the couple after a year of marriage. 

Handmade heirlooms are important to Connor, allowing her to share Danish culture and get away from the commercial side of Christmas. 

"It's a little more real than the rest of what goes on at Christmastime, and I hope that I'm giving them that to take along on the way."

'They can be mischievous' 

Chris Lane loves to decorate his home in Charlottetown with family heirlooms each Christmas with decorations from his mother, who came to Canada from Denmark in 1949. 

His favourites include a collection of tiny red-and-white Nissemen — sprites or elves, who according to Scandanavian folklore would watch over the family farm, although they also had a streak of mischief. 

"A lot of them are handmade and they've got the little clogs on and farmer's clothes, and they essentially look after you," Lane said. "They can be mischievous. So you want to be good, and that's one of the reasons that kids give them cookies, so you keep them on the good side of you."

Another traditional decoration Lane takes special care of is a tiny handmade yule goat that belonged to his mother when she was a child — he estimates it is about 75 years old. 

"The yule goat would bring presents, years and years ago, to the kids. And when Santa Claus was introduced, Santa Claus would ride the yule goat," Lane explained.  

"It's just a little guy but you can't help but smile and feel a pang in your heart when you see something like that it just takes you back years when you were a child," Lane said. 

Lane remembers his mother making delicious Christmas meals served on the family's Royal Copenhagen china, with a menu including turkey, goose, duck, red cabbage and a special rice pudding dessert called risalamande.

"One of the one of the Danish traditions is you put a whole almond in and whoever gets the almond gets a treat, sometimes chocolate but a lot of times a little marzipan pig," Lane said. "Somebody gets a little surprise with the risalamande."

Lane's mother died five years ago but he says surrounding himself with her decorations and carrying on family traditions keeps him connected to her and to the past.

"It's hard to put the feelings into words, but with the decorations and the traditions and the feelings, they sort of become like a fabric of your life and Christmas isn't right without them," Lane said. "It's just part of you."

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