Last week in our look at Timmins history, we found out a bit about what Christmas was like in the early days of the mining camp.
In the 1910s, the celebration was built around mostly single people who couldn’t go home. A Christmas night masquerade ball was usually the highlight.
This week, we move into the 1920s, with museum director-curator Karen Bachmann.
“Things changed a little bit again,” she explains. “We’re looking at community celebrations, Christmas tree lightings and those kinds of things and that was usually done by the Kiwanis Club, the same people who brought you all of those wonderful Halloween things, where we burned half the city down.”
The 20s also ushered in things like tree-lighting events, dancers and musical performances – things we still experience today, when not in a pandemic.
“And the celebrations were starting to become family centered more, but still big community celebrations,” says Bachmann. “So you would go out on Christmas Day to something and attend something.”
Next week: Christmas in the 1930s and 40s.