Here Comes Santa Claus ~ excerpts from CHRISTMAS IN ONTARIO*
In Ontario, the tradition of visiting Santa at a store goes back to the late 1800's. In some cases, he was an invisible presence ~ one Toronto bookstore billed itself as Santa's depository for gifts. But stores that featured a real live Santa had a definite edge, especially if his arrival was marked by a special event.
The most special event of all was Eaton's annual Santa Claus parade, which started in 1905. Prior to that time, Santa was enthroned in the Toronto department store's Toyland.

"This compilation brings to life the very best holiday stories from across Ontario." ~ Cheryl MacDonald

Cheryl has been writing about Canadian history for nearly thirty years. A long-time resident of Nanticoke, she is a full-time writer and historian.

*Available in The Neat Little Bookshop $9.95

"A composer friend, visiting Heine, found the poet at his desk gloomily surveying a blank page. Asked what the trouble was, Heine replied, "Well, I just met X in the street, I stopped for a moment to exchange ideas, and now I feel like a complete idiot."

~ Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), After 1831 he lived in Paris, where he was involved in radical political journalism, wrote essays on French and German culture, and composed satirical verse.
THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, 1985

"Frosty the Snow Man is a fairy tale, they say; He was made of snow, but the children know how he came to life one day. There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found,

For when they placed it on his head, he began to dance around. Oh, Frosty the Snow Man was alive as he could be, ~And the children say he could laugh and play just the same as you and me. Thump-et-y thump thump, thump-et-y thump thump, Look at Frosty go. . .

Words and Music by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins

The Old-Fashioned Christmas Tree ~

"Everyone enjoys the tree enthusiastically. It seems as if we are all in never-never land. We are children again, or at least completely comfortable with our childlikeness I realize that this is exactly what many trees might have looked like a century or more ago ~ not just hung with the old ornaments, but imbued with a spirit of a far different time...

"Gifts are exchanged and admired. Tasha reads "The Night Before Christmas" to us from one of her own versions. It is tremendously comforting to sit around Tasha's tree and have her read this Christmas classic to us, as she did years ago to her children, as her father did even more years ago to her. The past and present seem to merge, as they often do at Corgi Cottage. All the Christmases past become a seamless part of this Christmas."

~ Tasha Tudor, American illustrator and author (1918 - 2008) Forever Christmas, 2000

"The Moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave a luster of midday to objects below. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer..."

"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On. Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!"

~ A Visit From St. Nicholas, Clement Clark Moore, 1823

Photo: The Niagara Escarpment, West Hamilton. Taken last winter when we had snow ~ Lorna

With a hearty "Ho, ho, ho!" Santa calls out each name then off to the North Pole again. "A book for Susie, a comic for Sam." Santa smiles. "Bundles of fun.""In a land way up north ~ at the tip of the North Pole ~ there's a magical place where winter stays the whole year long. Elves upon elves zigzag their skis through the snow on their way to a very special house ~ the Toy Shop of Mr. and Mrs. S. Claus." "How was your trip, Santa? Merry Christmas!" Couldn't do it without Elf Mike!

~ Santa's Toy Shop, Walt Disney Classic Edition, 2000

THE AVRO ARROW
A PICTURE HISTORY ~ "When the magnificent new Avro Arrow fighter jet thundered into the sky over Malton, Ontario on a cold March morning in 1958, Canada became a world leader in the aviation industry. Less than a year later, the Arrow project was dead. What happened?
The story of the Avro Arrow has been told, retold, and analyzed so often it is fading into myth. This book brings the Arrow, and the people who made it, back to life through over 100 historical images cataloguing every step of the Arrow's development ~ and its shocking demise."
~ Local author, Lawrence Miller, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., 2011.

NEW ~ Autographed copies available at The Neat Little Bookshop $9.95 (Limited quantity)