Hay Rides and Sleigh Bells on Banks of the Cowichan River

Is it really that time of year again? Where does time go...?

So, next week, the Chronicles will observe the coming Yuletide with a look back at Christmas as it was celebrated a century ago in the Cowichan Valley, and as recounted by Margaret Williams in 1971.

It was a different world back then. Life, or so it seems to us now, was slower and simpler, oriented more to family and friends and traditions than to the comparative frenzy and commercial glitz of today.

So be it; it is what it is, as that tiresome expression goes.

Next week, a look back at Christmas before the world went to war for the first time, back to when country life, not just in Cowichan but throughout B.C., seems almost idyllic by today’s standards.

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PHOTO: I found this great photo, unframed, at a local flea market, years ago. Alas, there’s nothing on the back to give it provenance. The little girl’s outfit could be, what, 1940s or ‘50s? The expression on her face, the look in her eyes, was nothing like I experienced as a toddler when my mother took me to see Santa in the front window of the Hudson’s Bay Co. in Victoria. He seemed a giant to me, and frightening, rather than friendly. What did I want for Christmas? I just wanted to go home! —Author’s Collection