One good thing about big social gatherings being cancelled this holiday season is you’re gifted the absence of morning-after booze blues. You can look forward to no longer agonizing over every minute detail you shared with a quasi-acquaintance at your friend’s work holiday party the second you wake up. Nor worrying whether you spoke too […]
christmas
Posted inLifestyle
DeRico Symonds takes responsibility
Dinner is best eaten shared and DeRico Symonds is doing his part to ensure that every family has that chance during the Christmas season. Since 2016, he’s run The Give BACK, an annual Christmas holiday initiative that takes a communal approach to assisting families across HRM. The Give BACK takes donations from members of the […]
Posted inLifestyle
50+ holiday evenings to unwrap
Thusday, December 5 Brunch with Santa and Mrs. Claus Bacon and the big man! Get a photo as you feast. 10am-1pm, 3 Dakin Drive Friday, December 6 Christmas Glow Glow is a seasonal community festival, bringing together people you love to stroll, laugh and play under the twinkle of half a million lights. 3-5pm, Dec […]
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The big heart behind Santas for Seniors
After Robyn Carruthers’ grandmother died in 2006, she missed the joy of surprising her with Christmas gifts. Fourteen years later, Carruthers’ gift-giving hobby has helped to support nearly 1,000 seniors across the municipality who can’t afford to celebrate; an initiative she calls Santas for Seniors. “I’d go to the mall and see something she would […]
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Say, what’s in this drink?: 7 seasonal local sips
Holiday Candy Cane Liqueur Coldstream Clear(20% ABV) There are a lot of icky, minty concoctions available around this time of year. This is not one of them. Coldstream makes reliably tasty vodka and liqueur, and its gift packs tend to fly off the shelves. Its candy cane liqueur is available on its own, too—but it […]
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Christmas carol showdown
“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” SJ: Have you ever roasted a turkey? You need to fucking know. I want to know if you’re gonna be here because I have shit to do. I have to make up a bed, I have to set an extra place, the grocery stores are a fucking madhouse, it’s like, […]
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A case against holiday giving
It’s impossible to look around and not see that our society is broken—or to be invited to fix it, one can of soup at a time. Especially at this time of year, charity is presented as the best way to help those in need. Real solutions to our problems, however, do not look like Giving […]
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How to steal Christmas from a Who near you
Christmas is coming, it just can’t be stopped With trappings and trippings and Christmas tree stuff. From Black Friday to Eve, shopping stores in a frenzy Blasting one type of music for two months too many. They want whosists and whatsits, phoneXs and trumpets. Going into Who-debt as tall as Mount Crumpit. Proclaiming that only […]
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Gonna find out who’s noggy or nice: A blind tasting of seven egg nogs
Seven nogs. Many Dixie cups. One completely amateur blind taste test. In the name of holiday imbibing we got to the bottom of the standard egg nog selection and discovered both minor and complex differences in the flavour profiles of the yellow (or supposedly yellow) elixir. The resounding winner? Scotsburn’s classic Holiday Nog. But there […]
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What Christmas means to me
Christmas celebrations and the Christian faith are not exclusive to the western world. Practicing Christians in the Middle East, Africa and India have traditions that don’t centre on egg nog, Santa and shopping. These non-western traditions are widely celebrated, even here in Halifax, yet are rarely considered in the mainstream narrative. Nurse practitioner, poet and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
800 Sobeys employees laid off just in time for the holidays
As reported by everyone today, some 800 workers for the Sobeys grocery chain are losing their jobs thanks to corporate restructuring. According to the Chronicle Herald, 150 of those job losses are office workers in Nova Scotia. The company’s Stellarton headquarters will be hit particularly hard. The corporate head office will lose 100 employees. The […]
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The holidays make me reflect on my mother
[Image-1] My Mom was a lovely, caring woman who meant well, but she was an alcoholic. She would swear that she would give her life to protect me. But she was an alcoholic. I tried to help. It’s hard, though, when others around you are enablers. As a kid growing up, I knew Christmas would mean […]
