St. John's Christmas

So after waiting months for our work permits to be renewed we find ourselves in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada in winter instead of summer. This has thrown our schedule out somewhat! When everyone was readying their boats to go back in the water for the sailing season we were hauling out to go and work!

This means we hope to be experiencing our first white Christmas! Weather has given us a taste of snow shoveling when it dropped about six inches on us. It changed the world from a bare branched leaf strewn muddle to a white wonderland. 

We love the house we are renting, the neighbors were laughing at me photographing the snow, promising me there would be much more coming.

Surprisingly it is not as cold as I imagined it would be! Once again I have been assured it will get worse. What we have found is this milder weather does not stop or dampen planned events. Despite snow and wind bringing down temperatures the Christmas parade trundled through downtown. Dancing girls in costumes not made for snow, floats and pets all dressed with a Christmas theme. 

 

Wide-eyed Children clutching large envelopes with Father Christmas's name and address printed carefully in childish scrawl! Eventually the postal service float came by and the posties bent and collected a letter from each child. Their eager little faces full of hope as they handed over their lists to be delivered to Santa! 

More and more decorations adorning houses each day. Driving around at night is a delight. Some people go to huge trouble and obviously great expense to decorate their houses. Christmas lights, giant blowup Santa's and snowmen, reindeer with sleigh, huge wreaths of holly and ribbon.

One of the events we had to see was the Mummers festival parade!

In the past sometime during the 12 days of Christmas, people would disguise themselves with old articles of clothing and visit friends and neighbors. The idea was to keep their identity totally secret! They would hide what sex they were their height their body shape and alter their voice. The game was to guess who they were and if they were identified they had to remove their face covering. They went from house to house drinking performing and singing.

 We are not sure if the house to house is still done but they did crash our Company Christmas party to the delight of everyone and no no one could guess who they were!