Christmas: Beaver Creek Style

We didn’t plan to spend Christmas in Beaver Creek, but such is the nature of Cairo’s job. And I suppose, things rarely go as planned. After all, we hadn’t planned on moving to Beaver Creek!

When we learned that we would be staying for the holidays, I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, there’s no place more wintery and Christmas-card picturesque than Beaver Creek in December. Trees are covered in snow; the sun (for the short time that it’s in the sky) makes the ice sparkle. It’s idyllic. On the other hand, I’d never been away from my family over the holidays. And isn’t Christmas all about spending time with family?

But, staying in Beaver Creek would allow us the opportunity to create our own Christmas traditions. This is a good thing.

And just because I wasn’t near my family didn’t mean I couldn’t spend time with them in other ways. Skype and other communication platforms are wonderful. It feels like these were created specifically for predicaments just like this. 

 So let me describe my first Christmas in Beaver Creek sans family.

OK, truth be told I wasn’t completely without family.

As soon as I realised we were staying, I called my cousin in New York. “It doesn’t feel that cold. Really,” I said as I persuaded her to come up north for the holidays. My cousin is kind and adventuresome and wasn’t that keen on being without family in New York over the holidays so It didn’t take much convincing. But perhaps I should have been a bit more truthful because it does feel cold. But that’s neither here nor there. Samm came to Beaver Creek (population 75) from New York City (population 8.6 million) to celebrate Christmas with us.

Our first order of business was the tree. We ruled out artificial—that was not an option. We never had an artificial tree while I was growing up, but my parents tended to change the type of tree virtually each year. One year they opted for the sparse, orphan tree. You know, the kind. It’s disdained by customers day after day, and at the end of the selling season put through the wood chipper without a thought. A few years later, they chose a bushier tree. More branches on which to hang ornaments. Then it was the supermarket special, nice and cheap, and wrapped tightly in binder twine so you had no idea what it actually looked like until you got it home. Finally, they dispensed with the tree all together. Enter potted bush number one. Then number two. And so on. We had several variations of the potted plant Christmas tree, each of them deemed a resounding failure among the Todd children. In recent years my parents have either opted not to have a Christmas tree at all, or they take it down soon after Christmas. My personal favourite (not!) was the year my mum insisted the tree come down on Christmas Day because it was a fire hazard. 

I’ve painted a dire picture of my family’s Christmas spirit, and if the impression you have right now is rather ‘bah humbug’, I’m doing them a disservice—they’re festive, I promise you. It’s just the tree decisions that are decidedly questionable.

So, in the spirit of new traditions, our tree was going to be a BIG part of the Beaver Creek style Christmas. Of course, we would cut it down ourselves. After all, we had an axe and a saw, we’re outdoorsy, and surrounded by trees. Also, there are no neighbourhood tree lots. A friend and fellow Beaver Creeker suggested I use flagging tape to identify my tree during the summer so that it would be easier to locate during the winter. Advice I wish I’d heeded.

As it turns out, northern conifers aren’t just a little sparse-looking. They’re out and out scrawny. Fortunately for me and my Beaver Creek style Christmas, sparse-looking Scandinavian Christmas trees are currently de rigueur. 

Samm and I ventured out together to find and fell our tree. I expected the sawing to be difficult and the scouting to be easy, but in fact it was the other way around. After some time trudging through cold and snow, disdaining stunted specimens left, right, and centre, hoping for something better just a little farther, cold and tired, we finally settled on a tree that resembled a gangly teenager, the kind who might be mercilessly shoved into the lockers by the school’s cool kids (i.e. the Noble Firs). 

We decorated it with ornaments I’d selected for their colour (imagine variations of Pantone ‘Winter White’) and I chose lights that were teeny tiny and a soft gold colour. Bless my parents, but this new tradition is quite a departure from their indiscriminate mish-mash of hand-me-down glass balls and bread-dough ornaments made by a grade two klutz (ok, that was me), and their ‘only-way-to-go’ multi-coloured lights. The Beaver Creek tree was sparse, but she looked good. Subdued and aesthetically balanced. Step one was deemed a  success.

One of my favourite family traditions growing up was the Christmas baking my mum did. For me baking smells are an essential part of Christmas. My mum didn’t hold back when it came to the cookies, the loaves, and the bars. There were always plates stacked on tins stacked on Tupperware, everything filled with her baking. I knew that this was definitely something I had to incorporate into my Beaver Creek style Christmas. 

I couldn’t possibly meet my mum’s level of Christmas baking, but I did my best and the most important thing for me to include was my mum’s Stollen. A recipe passed to her from her mother, my mum always pulled out that well-worn recipe card and mixed, kneaded and baked multiple loaves both for us and as gifts. I did the same and it’s definitely a tradition I’ll uphold. 

For those of you who are interested, the recipe is at the end of this blog post. Don’t worry—it can be enjoyed at any time of year, not just at Christmas. 

In my family, Christmas Eve was always the most important day but I changed things up in Beaver Creek. On Christmas Eve, I thought a Beaver Creek style Christmas might include watching a movie. We watched the Christmas Story, (something I won’t be doing again). Next year, I will stick to trusty classics like Home Alone. Christmas morning involved opening presents (new cross country skis for Cairo: in true Beaver Creek style) and a lengthy Christmas breakfast, complete with belly-laughs and good food. Our Christmas meal came a day later on Boxing Day and involved a great deal of food (there can never be too much, right?) and many of our neighbours.

We connected with my family several times over the phone and via Skype, but one evening in particular, we arranged to simultaneously open presents (which we’d all packaged and shipped via Air North) and share in holiday laughter and love. Though I can complain about the cost of Internet in the north (and I have—see my blog post on that very topic), sometimes it’s just worth it. Cheesy, I know, but true nonetheless. 

Probably the biggest departure from family traditions for me was the inclusion of the community. Many residents of Beaver Creek are away from their families, and for some, this year was also their first Christmas in the community. Boxing Day was very, very special and meant the blending of stories and traditions from people from all over. We shared food and good spirit and it brought us together and allowed us to create a new sense of family. Not the kind that means lineage and blood, but one created by shared experiences, warmth and caring. 

I had a wonderful Christmas, one I will always remember and cherish, and for this I am thankful.

Todd/De Boer Family Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:

500 grams flour
200 grams sugar
1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and cardamon
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
175 grams butter
250 grams cottage cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon rum extract (optional— I did not add that)
4 drops each lemon and almond extract
250 grams raisins (optional— ew, raisins, did not add these)
125 grams slivered almonds

Instructions:

Blend flour, sugar, nutmeg and cardamon together. Cut in the butter and then break it up with a fork or your fingers. Mix the aforementioned ingredients together and then add the cottage cheese, eggs, vanilla, extracts, raisins (ew, don’t, but you could add other fruit if you’d like— mixed peel perhaps?), and almonds.

Knead together and form into two (or four!) oval loaves. Make a slice in top lengthwise.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins to one hour, depending (i.e. keep your eye on those bad boys!). After removing the loaves from the oven, rub with chunk (yes, I mean a chunk) of butter, then sift icing sugar on top. They should be warm for this!

Pro tip: You should weigh your ingredients with a scale. It’s a real pain in the neck, I agree, but it will produce the best loaves!