Due to a glitch in scheduling, apparently there is another season of significance occurring concurrently with Canada's most celebrated season; the National Hockey League. Most Vancouver residents are hoping that the Sedin twins will skate down their chimney and deposit a Stanley cup in their Canuck monogramed stockings. Those that have been able to tear themselves away from the twenty four hour analysis of all things puck related, have been perplexed by the appearance of the mascots of the rival league.
Lights, wreaths and spray frosting abounds in this new realm populated by people on stilts dressed as twelve foot ginger bread men and Santas keeping warm in malls assisted by a bevy of busty Jagermeister elvettes. Being a nation of heretics, Canadians have a muddied understanding of the Christmas traditions. In fact many here believe that Christmas Day was celebrated on February 28 this year, with the gold medal victory over the United States of America in the men's ice hockey. This belief was compounded by the presence of "The Great One" (Wayne Gretzky) who Canadian children are raised to view as the bearer of gifts.
Another staple of the Christmas period is the Canadian traditional "Deck the halls" the origins of which have been sugar coated over time. Originally the song was written to document a pagan practice of Canadian lumberjacks involving the ritual sacrifice of a maiden named Holly. The shrub that we know as Holly is a symbolic representation of the act, the berries are the viscera and the serrated leaves are like the lumber saw used to sacrifice the virgin. The woodsmen thought that this ritual would ensure a bounty of fresh lumber in the coming year and reduce the sinus problems associated with milling Red cedar.
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