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Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Talks. My name is Kyla and I'm the

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online engagement director here at Trinity Streetsville. And this week we are getting closer to

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Christmas and so I thought it would be fun to sit down with some folks who have celebrated Christmas

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in other places around the world and just talk about what that has looked like and how it compares

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to some of our Christmas celebrations here in Canada. So I'm super happy to be sitting down

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here with Naomi and Johanna. Welcome to the podcast ladies. Thank you. So maybe we'll start with you

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Naomi. Can you just tell me a little bit about your background and where you were born and

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how long you've been here in Canada? I'm Naomi. I was born in a town called Kulagol Fields which

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is a gold mining town and near Bangalore, India. And we've been in Canada for almost 20 years now.

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Okay. Wow. And what about you Johanna? Well, I'm Johanna and I've lived here for about two years.

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I was born in Ottawa but I moved a lot as a kid so I've been to quite a few countries.

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Okay. Yeah. How many different places have you lived? About like seven or eight.

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Okay. Wow. That's a lot. Yeah. So for both of you living outside of Canada for a while,

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what were your Christmas celebrations like? Did you celebrate Christmas? What about you?

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Oh yeah. We celebrated Christmas a lot. I've been in India for a long time and then moved to Dubai.

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We were there. So even in Dubai we did celebrate Christmas much more I think than what we did in

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India. Okay. India the celebrations would start quite early. We would have choristers from different

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churches coming around caroling and of course with prior notice and we would really look forward to it.

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We would prepare a lot of goodies for them and then join in with the carols as they came in.

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And churches also had a lot of concerts, nativities, lots of Christmas programs.

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So for about 10 years we were in a gated community and there we were very few Christians as such

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but it was the non-Christians who really looked forward to our Christmas programs which was done

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very elaborately and these non-Christians would come forward to participate in the carols singing

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and we would have the nativity, the tablo, we would most of them by non-Christian kids and we would

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go around the whole colony in a flatbed truck with live animals. Oh wow. Yeah. We would have

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animals on the truck and some animals walking along with us and a whole lot of people so we would

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walk right around the colony singing carols and ultimately meet in a place where we would have

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a program. So that was there and at home back home yes we used to prepare a lot of goodies,

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share it with neighbors, friends and one thing that we really looked forward to was attending the

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sunrise worship and as a tradition we always wore new clothes. Okay and was that on Christmas day?

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The sunrise? Yes, yes on Christmas day. Wow. So you get right right to church not opening the

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presents or the other big great church. No, no, no, right to church. Okay, wow that's great. And as you

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should just like here even there we had like houses would be decorated lit up we would have a Christmas

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tree so many of us would do that. Okay, yeah great. What about for you Johanna what did

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Christmas look like in the different places where you lived? For me we did a lot of like I'd say

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sort of the same things as most people would hear like we had the tree we had the stockings and all

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of that. We'd put on Christmas music mostly like the poppy ones though so I don't really know like

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the old classic carols but we would put on Christmas music and stuff and just decorate the tree

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and my younger siblings would try to undecorate it as we're putting ornaments up. Okay, some

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Christmas is though my grandparents came to visit and then we'd go on a trip with them to like a

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different place depending on which country we're in. So one Christmas we went to Johannesburg and

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we stayed there and it was a really great time and the next we went to Cape Town and we got to like

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have a beachy Christmas. Oh that's good. Yeah that's what's more common for me. It's just like

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Christmas in the sand versus Christmas in the snow but I'd say it's pretty similar. Yeah okay cool.

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So are there any traditions that you have sort of carried from other places and are continuing

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now that you're here in Canada? It's the same thing like I said we were in Dubai for many years

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and even in India so Dubai was more like you would find the malls our homes like decorated

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lit and we would make the same goodies things that in Dubai normally so summer months we would go

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away to India. Okay. So we would really get everything ready for our Christmas cake in June.

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We'd soak it so called the dry fruits a little bit in the fridge and go so we would get together to

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make friends would get together to make things goodies so that continues here preparation

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of goodies distribution to neighbors friends that continues and things like nativity okay we do it in

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school though we're not supposed to a little bit we do we do celebrate Christmas but only this year

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we've been told particularly not to use the word Christmas this year but yeah but things go on like

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that and going to church yeah yeah are there any different foods that maybe you had in India or in

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Dubai that you make now in Canada as well that might be different than oh yeah yeah yeah okay make a

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lot see here normally it's like cookies and you know different cakes and all that so there are

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different types of foods that we make here yeah okay and with you know molded the thing which they

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called roast cookies which comes in the form of a flower yes yeah that we do and lots of other things

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which I've learned from my mother and I continue to do it here okay well that's great yeah what about

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for you Johanna for our Christmas dinners we had lamb a couple times actually okay so I've

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stuck to that a bit because I quite like lamb yeah and we'd use our best dishes and stuff and

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just be like a really fancy table spread and so I kind of try to replicate that for myself

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since I've come to Canada okay nice um and were there any elements of Christmas in Canada that

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maybe seemed strange or that you didn't understand at first I mean you mentioned already Christmas

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in the snow versus Christmas in the sand yeah that's obviously quite different yeah it was different I

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mean like uh I grew up watching like Christmas specials of like cartoons I'd watch and stuff so

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I knew that Christmas was snowy in places of the world but I'd never experienced it first hand I

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guess yeah so my first Christmas when I came here and it was cold it was fun at first but then the

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snow like it lasts too long and it's the trip in it and everything so yeah I kind of like Christmas

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better when you can go outside and play with your presents and everything and it's just like a nice

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sunny day versus like I guess the snowy cozy feeling is good too but I do prefer the hot weather

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sure yeah yeah was there anything else yeah yeah I for one look forward to a white Christmas okay

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and yeah seeing snow was the first time here that's the main difference

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India with Dubai there was no snow of course in 2000 we went to the holy land so that was the

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first time we saw snow in Jerusalem yeah and then here of course in plentiful yeah um and was there

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anything else about Christmas in Canada that seemed different to you than than what you had

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experienced other places or mostly just the weather um the only thing I found difficult I think even

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my husband so we've been here for the last 20 years when we first came the shocking thing was

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that there was no service during Christmas church service yeah so we had to go around to a couple

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of churches there's been times when we went to Scarborough to attend Christmas service because

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we've been brought up like that attending service on Christmas day and we really missed it you know

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even though there was a new uh Christmas eve service but we missed going to church on Christmas day

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so we've been there going around and we've been attending quite a few services but a couple of

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years back I think it was Pastor Ben who started the Christmas service here and then we were thrilled

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that we could attend the Christmas service here at Trinity and that continues now so I'm really

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happy about that yeah no that's great um and are there any Christmas traditions that you have started

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since coming to Canada that maybe were different than what you had done before something new yeah

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no no okay nothing new okay what about for you Johanna um for me I started um volunteering at

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Christmas stuff so okay sorry um yeah the streetsville BIA has some Christmas things like Christmas in

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the village and everything so last year I did it with the BIA and this year I volunteered with

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just the church I did both last year but this year it was pretty much just the church I've been

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volunteering with and it's been fun like leading up to Christmas I guess just getting into the spirit

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and like um yeah just having a good time with the community yeah oh that's great um and what do you

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have a favorite Christmas tradition that you do in in your house or or that you do um tradition is

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usual Christmas lunch yeah yeah we meet up with friends okay or family family and friends and um

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then of course here it's not the sunrise service so we come late go back and um for so the last

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couple of years instead of having something at home we go out for lunch okay with friends and family

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and it's only now since my dad and mom have passed and there's no more if not every year we would

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try to go back for Christmas sure just to be with my parents yes okay wow to be with my parents yeah

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and so where do you usually go for lunch do you have a usual spot uh last year it was Mandarin

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okay yeah and this year we were planning something else okay but I think we're going to Newcastle to

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my son's place oh nice this year okay that's great what about you Johanna any favorite Christmas

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traditions yeah um candy canes I love them a lot I eat them all the time I would eat them year round

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but they're harder to find when they're not in season yeah so Christmas time is really great for me

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because there's candy canes in like every store and I get to just gorge on them yeah okay that's great

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what I like doing most is I know the kids in school they look forward to the season as well

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yeah so lots of arts and crafts yeah and I also like going to all the visiting all the Christmas

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bazaars yeah so I look to it like what they have every week so that I could go and see because they

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have a lot of handmade stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah one of my favorite things when I was living home

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with with my parents is my mom and I and and sometimes my sister would come along and we would go to

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these different Christmas craft fairs and markets yeah just to see all of the different things that

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people have made and of course all of the yummy sweets that people can create as well yeah yeah

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yeah oh I also started um ice skating around this season okay you know I didn't get to before

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right being hot and everything yeah but um uh yeah I really sucked at it at first like I felt a lot

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yeah but it's it's just really fun and it's so much different than roller skating because I've done

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that but it's just I don't know and um at Celebration Square they had it last year and I believe there

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was like a massive tree and yeah I just like chased my friends around it it was really fun oh that's

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great yeah um do you have any favorite Christmas memories a story from something that happened

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in the past that that you really like I know for me like I said yeah going to those Christmas

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markets with my family and also I've the church that I grew up in didn't do a candle light Christmas

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eve service but the church where my parents are attending now they they do this Christmas service

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with the candle light um and so that's something I've really come to appreciate too and I know a

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lot of other folks appreciate that as well so even here I we do go to different carol services

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wherever we are invited or we know that we are welcome we do attend different carol services

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and the best part is I like that uh silent night at the end with candle lights yeah yeah

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that's really special it's really special very special yeah um for me um something that I really

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like about Christmas that I remember it was the trips with my grandparents because I don't get

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to see them all the time and it's great to just have that like one part of the year where it's like

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everyone's united and we get to see each other for the first time in a while so yeah yeah Christmas

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is also yeah it's a good time for family and just getting together and yeah seeing some of those people

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that you don't get to see normally that's what we used to do in India also okay with a lot of family

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yeah and um yeah we do have some family here we do meet them mm-hmm well that's great and another

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thing I look forward to in during Christmas here Christmas and Easter is the musical that they have

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in church on the Queensway oh okay yes yeah it's really worth seeing yeah okay oh that's great

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good well thank you both very much ladies it's been really fun to get to dive into the Christmas

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spirit a little bit this morning um yeah and so for those who are watching hopefully you've also

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been able to get into the Christmas spirit with us um and maybe you can share some of your own

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favorite Christmas memories and traditions we would love to hear from and we will see you again

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for next week's episode of Trinity Talks goodbye you