December 19

A black and white drawing of a large group of people playing Charades. There are three people acting out their parts, while a group of people watch on the left and right of the drawing. The woman is hiding her face behind a fan and looking away as a…

Victorian Christmas Amusements – Acting a Charade,
Illustrated London News, 1859

A game in the Parlor any one? 

Victorian games that still exist today.
Link: http://www.victoriaspast.com/ParlorGames/parlor_games.htm

 December 20

An attractive, well designed painting of four giant Kachina figures dressed for the Zuni Shalako Festival on land with a small mountain in the distance. In the background are two smaller Kachina figures and a crowd of people. The colours in the pain…

Zuni Shalako Festival featuring giant Kachina figures.
( Painting by Mary Wright Gill, 1900)

What the Zuni’s always knew and few Victorians accepted
and how much we still have to learn today.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27wha

 December 21

A Christmas post card of eight young children dressed in lovely colours pulling a log of wood on a small cart with wheels. They are in the country painted in a charming landscape. All are wearing hats and there is a bird on a tree in the middle of …

The Yule Log by Eliza Ann Lemann, Hildescheimer

Happy Winter Solstice

Link: https://surreyancestry.co.uk/2018/12/19/the-christmas-of-our-ancestors/ 

Something extra special to move from darkness into the light

Link: https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/yule/

December 22

A postcard of the four-storey Grand Hotel is attractive with red brick on the lower three storeys and a grey fourth floor with windows and a few peaks. The front entrance has porches, painted green, attached to the first and second storeys. The road…

Vintage Postcard The Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia  

The link between the Victorian-style Hotel and
Perry Como’s “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” 

“One of the most popular songs for the season is “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” It was written by Broadway composer Meredith Wilson and first made famous by singer Perry Como in 1951. When the song came out staff at Yarmouth’s Grand Hotel were sure that it and the town were the inspiration for the song. 

The song’s lyrics make reference to “the tree in the Grand Hotel” and “one in the park as well.” Also the “five and ten” is mentioned which was a general store in the town.  

The staff recalled the visit of a songwriter to the hotel in the late 1940s. The gentleman said he wanted some quiet to write some songs. The hotel log during this period does reference a “Wilson” who stayed as a guest. Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood said she hopes the story is true and said it’s great to say that it’s our song.” 

History of the Grand Hotel 

Link: http://yarmouthhistory.msrna.ca/yarmouthhistory/Albums/Pages/Original_Grand_Hotel.html

Perry Como - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (Music Video)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hflKegTHAkg

December 23

Adele Hugo looks forlorn in the brown sepia photograph. She is not smiling as she sits with a garden in the background. She is in a three-quarter pose and holding an umbrella. The vintage photograph was taken in the late 1800s. Her dress is fancy, w…

Photograph of Adele Hugo

A Playwrite, a sorrowed daughter and a house
that still remains on Barrington Street, Halifax. 

Adelle Hugo’s legacy. 

Link: http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1800-67/Hugo5.htm

The story of the remaining house. 

Link: http://halifaxwestweekly.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_article95fd7fb9-e5b2-4b0f-9431-4f1810e79cf0

 

December 24

A colourful vintage postcard of a red trolley on Barrington Street. There are cars on the street and a few people. In the foreground there is a partial vehicle (top) with two men talking, one is leaning against the car. And a woman near-by standing …

Postcard of Barrington Street, Halifax

Hop on board for a ride from the past to the present.

Link: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/streetcars

Watch a special video. 

Link: https://skyrisecities.com/news/2016/06/once-upon-tram-halifax-street-railway

December 24

A lively gathering of costumed skaters is acting in different roles stretched across the painting. One is on stand speaking, dressed as a cat, and another is a clown—everyone in a costume. The colours are beautiful, with orange being the dominate co…

Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

The painting by Rutherford from 1875 displays
some of the costumes at a costume skating party in Halifax.   

The Halifax Skating Club was formed in 1862, and skating on Griffin’s Pond in the Horticultural Society’s grounds became a very popular pastime. By January 1863 the skaters had developed a barn sitting adjacent to the pond into an indoor skating rink complete with gas lighting to enable evening ‘ice dancing’ and fancy costume balls.

gardens_green.jpg

From Public Gardens Board 

We wish you all Joy, Love, Peace and Safety into the new year.
Let us be Merry and celebrate that we are all still here.
A gift of song and dance for you to bring on more Cheer! 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ce7FWOAM8&feature=emb_rel_pause 

(“Stoned Love” by The Supremes. Recorded in 1970, it was a plea
for an end to conflict and animosity in the world)

Click here for Archival pages December 1 - 9

Click here for Archival pages December 10 - 18