Christmas Periodicals
In December, the Muskoka Lakes Museum’s online exhibit is featuring community periodicals from the holiday season. Showcasing how various periodicals, especially community newsletters, showed Christmas spirit and warm wishes over the ages. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
The Trumpet
This is a page from the Xmas edition of The Trumpet, the Port Carling Continuation School’s newsletter. This page shows the program for their Christmas performance with hand-drawn illustrations. Other pages show local news, Christmas wishes from local businesses, and an editorial on Christmas spirit.
Bracebridge Herald Gazette
This clipping from the Bracebridge Herald Gazette describes an Indigenous family’s Christmas ritual of cooking a beaver for dinner. The father, a trapper, would catch the beaver and the mother would stuff it with potatoes, bread, and pepper. The end result was a hearty meal that makes the family “just as happy at our camp as if we were the highest hotel“.
St. Elmo News
This is a copy of the Aug 21st, 1937 edition of The St. Elmo News which has been rebound as a Christmas gift. Though the newsletter itself is not published for Christmas, the inside cover has an inscription reading: “With very best wishes to you all for a Merry Christmas and health and happiness in the New Year from all of us. Etta.“ The newsletter contains poems, interviews, and recipes as well as local news. It calls itself the “Largest Circulation of all Muskoka Weeklies“.
Port Carling Church of England Magazine
This week’s feature is the December edition of the Port Carling Church of England Magazine. It contains religious material such as the timing of holiday church services and sermons. It also contains poetry, illustrations, and puzzles made by community members.
The Globe
As a bonus for the holidays, here is an image of Lake Rosseau which accompanied the 1888 Christmas edition of The Globe.
