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A French-Canadian Christmas

 Holiday Traditions from the Era of New France and Beyond

It’s that time of year… Christmas cards, decorations, Christmas trees, overindulgence and, to the delight of some and the chagrin of others, non-stop holiday music everywhere. These “traditions” are all fairly recent. As a genealogist and history enthusiast, I’ve often thought about my French-Canadian ancestors and how they might have celebrated the Christmas holidays centuries ago. Did they come together with friends and family as we do? Or was Christmas mostly a religious holiday?

For Catholic New France, Christmas was a rather solemn religious ceremony celebrating the birth of Christ, with traditions brought over from France. In 1640, the Ursuline nuns in Québec made their own nativity manger, with small figurines and animals made of beeswax. In 1645, French colonists got together in a Québec church to celebrate midnight mass, sing “Venez, mon Dieu” and “Chantons Noé,” an ancient Christmas song, and unveil a nativity manger. Musical instruments were brought over from France as early as 1645 but were mostly played by (or for) the upper classes during the holidays.

While Christmas wasn’t exactly a joyous affair, New Year’s Day certainly was. Over the centuries, however, the whole of the holiday season became a time for French Canadians to let loose with friends and family—to dance a jig, sing old songs, tell stories and entertain children with marionettes. This was, after all, the end of a long period of abstinence and penitence imposed by the church during Advent. Christmas was the start of a series of evening festivities that lasted until the Feast of Kings, celebrated on January 6th (also called Three Kings’ Day or Epiphany). These were the “twelve days of Christmas.” Most of these traditions were common across French-Canadian groups: Québécois, Franco-Ontarians and Acadians.  

Preparations for the holiday period started weeks in advance, especially for those living in the country. Around the second week of December, once the cold had set in, it was time for “the butchery.” Chickens, geese, turkeys, pigs and sheep were slaughtered in order to make the meat dishes. This could take as long as 3 or 4 days. Then, women prepared traditional dishes such as ragoût de pattes de cochon (pig’s feet stew), boudin (blood sausage), creton (a pork spread), tourtières (meat pies), ham, head cheese, beignets and other pastries. As refrigerators didn’t exist, the food was kept in the “summer kitchen,” an unheated room adjoining the house. Preserved vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, parsnips and radishes could also be served during the holidays, having been grated and salted in the fall. To prepare the vegetables, they would be rinsed, then seasoned with vinegar, pepper and sometimes maple syrup.

After the meal preparation was over, the women would make candles from the leftover animal fat. The candles were used to light houses and a portion was donated to light the parish church.

More privileged families had access to imported goods for the holidays. Prior to 1850, ships from Europe and the Caribbean would arrive at the end of November. Those living along the shores of the St. Lawrence would sell their slaughtered animals or prepared meat dishes at the various markets of Québec, Trois-Rivières and Montréal. With the sale proceeds, they could buy exotic imported goods from the ships. Aside from the pantry basics such as sugar, brown sugar, molasses, vinegar, olive oil and spices, they could buy cheese, nuts, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and sweets. Starting in 1850, goods also arrived by train from the United States. Canned goods started to appear, especially canned seafood. The English especially loved oysters and included them in many of their holiday dishes.

Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was an important tradition that many still observe today. Bundled up for the cold, the whole family would go to the village church in a horse-drawn sleigh, with the exception of the mother, the grandmother or the eldest daughter. Someone had to stay home to watch over the children (only those over 14 or 15 could go to mass) and ensure that last-minute preparations were made for the réveillon (the “awakening”), the meal eaten at midnight. In this era, each family had their own dedicated pew in the church, which was well lit by all the candles and decorated for the occasion. High mass would be performed, then low mass. The priest would recite prayers and the congregation would sing old Christmas songs, some dating from the Middle Ages. In more recent times, “Minuit chrétien” (O Holy Night) was performed. Three masses were then conducted, each followed by a well-known Christmas carol: Les anges dans nos campagnes (Angels We Have Heard on High), Ça bergers and Dans cette étable. Once services were over, villagers would exchange Christmas greetings and head home to the réveillon, in which children also participated.   

The midnight meal was welcomed after the fasting of Advent. For some French-Canadian families, a light meal would be served consisting of meat pâtés and a few accompaniments before going to bed. For others, a more generous dinner included tourtières (meat pies), roast pork, potatoes and pastries. Common holiday desserts included a nutmeg-flavoured egg tart, a tarte à la farlouche (molasses pie), tallow pie, sugar pie, white or apple cider vinegar pie, cookies and Savoy cakes. For Acadians, pâté à la viande (cousin to the meat pie) was the main dish and a special dessert called croquecignoles was prepared (a kind of doughnut dough was rolled lengthwise, then cut into six-inch pieces that were twisted and cooked in melted fat; over time it became known simply as a doughnut). For English Canadians, the meat of choice was normally roasted and stuffed goose, served alongside mince pie, which was filled with poultry, pheasant, partridge and rabbit. Eventually, turkey replaced the goose. For dessert, plum pudding and fruitcake were favourites.

Christmas Day for French Canadians was a relatively quiet affair, when families rested, played card games and received visits from a few friends or family members. Many families also had a unique lunch, served only on this day—a pig’s head, boiled and roasted for the occasion, which was served whole on the table.  

Another réveillon took place on New Year’s Eve (or Day, depending on the mealtime). The following day, the tradition was to visit friends and family to offer well wishes, and children would receive gifts. As was the case in France, gift-giving took place on January 1st, not on Christmas (same goes for English families). Baby Jesus was the one who brought children their gifts. Until the late 19th century, New Year’s Day was more popular with French Canadians than Christmas. Another tradition no longer seen today was the customary New Year’s Day morning blessing by the father of the household.  

On La fête des Rois (Feast of the Kings), celebrated on the 6th of January, a final holiday meal would be shared by the family. A galette des Rois (puff pastry filled with frangipan, a type of almond cream) would be served for dessert. A small item would normally be hidden inside the galette, like a bean or a penny in more recent times. Whoever found the “treasure” would receive a small gift. After the meal, friends, family and neighbours would gather to sing, dance and play music with violins, accordions and harmonicas.

After the British conquest of New France, not much changed by way of Christmas tradition. The one exception was the arrival of the Christmas tree. Originally a German custom, it made its way to the United States. In 1781, a British General of German descent, Von Riedesel planted the first Christmas tree on Canadian soil in Sorel, Québec. The practice of decorating Christmas trees, however, was generally limited to bourgeois families. It only became popular in French-Canadian families around 1930.

The biggest transition came from 1885 to 1915, when a more commercialized Christmas tradition made its way from the United States to Canada. Stores in Montréal began advertising heavily and the character of “Santa Claus” was introduced to children. Slowly, Santa replaced Baby Jesus as the distributor of toys for children, and Christmas dethroned New Year’s Day as the favourite holiday, as more and more children received gifts on Christmas instead. New English, French and American traditions found their way to Canada, such as Christmas stockings, Christmas cards, decorated Christmas trees, eating turkey, etc. This period also signalled the change of Christmas as a religious holiday to an increasingly commercial one. Québec nationalists and conservatives fiercely objected to the commercialization of Christmas at the time, stating the holidays were being distanced from Catholic morals. For most anglophone families in Canada, this transition to a more commercialized Christmas took place in the late 19th century. For francophones, however, traditions did not change until the end of World War I. This also coincided with the name change of “Santa Claus” to “Père Noël” in Québec (which translates to Father Christmas). Many French Canadians associated “Santa Claus” with Germany, so efforts were made to "indigenize" Santa after the war.

Children in Québec and Acadia had a custom of leaving their shoes near the chimney for Baby Jesus (and later Santa) to fill with toys. In some Québec families, children would attach stockings to the foot of their bed. This tradition ended in the 1930s when Christmas trees became prevalent and gifts were left under the tree.  

French Christmas Carols

Here are a few other French Christmas carol classics, some wonderfully modernized.

Images from Canadian Christmases Past

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