The North Cross Band with Christine Smith, performing this weekend at the Norfolk Arts Co. Authors' Book Fair 2010 at the Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Port Dover.

Authors included Harry B. Barrett, Bob Blakeley, Tim W. Butcher, Jane Collins, Mary M. Cushnie-Mansour, Ron Dennis, George Down/Book Band, Bernard Heydorn, Peter Hurley, Suzanne M. Hurley, Charles Jambor, John Jaques, Doris Kienitz, John B. Lee, Henriette MacArthur, Cheryl MacDonald, Ellen McIntosh Green, Allison Montgomery, Wendy Elaine Nelles, Josie Penny, Don Proctor, Thomas A. Ryerson, Judy Trickett, Lillian Tymchuk, Catherine M. A. Wiebe, Tashene Wolfe and Blair Yager.

Photo: For larger image, dbl. click on photo.

The Cayuga Santa Claus Parade is Saturday, December 4, 11 am. Following is an extract from Robertson Davies' The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks: *

"Passed the day very agreeably laughing, patting myself on the back and drinking toasts to myself. The reason for my satisfaction was that I was comfortably at home, and not in Toronto watching the Santa Claus Parade. As I grow older, and the Christmas Frenzy begins earlier and earlier, my relish for Christmas dwindles.

The spirit of love and friendship which would fill us all at Christmas is very dear to me, but it has to struggle against gifts which I don't want, vulgarized Christmas carols, hysterical appeals from the Post Office for mercy, ill-considered entertainments from which the real spirit of Christmas is painfully absent, and a commercial bombardment which sets my nerves jingling. Santa Claus, now utterly divorced from the St. Nicholas of legend, is a crazed old slob, hounding me to buy things I don't like, and give them to people who don't like them either. So on this balmy Indian Summer day, I worked in my garden, made firm but not excessive demands upon my cellar, and laughed and sang the hours away, precisely as though Santa, the patron of the Chamber of Commerce, were not making triumphal entry into the Ontario Babylon."

* Pseudonym for the distinguished "[man] men of letters," Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist, journalist, critic (1913 - 1995) Born in Orangeville, Ontario.

Photo: by Lorna

Tomorrow: Davies' thoughts on Christmas cards.