THE THEATRE, THE TREE & SANTA
Seasonal exhibit now on display in the Cut Knife Library, 113 Broad Street.
“Santa Claus Day in Cut Knife brought a huge amount of excitement for we children. After viewing a show at the theatre, Santa usually arrived at the huge Christmas tree set in the center of Main Street. After speaking to Santa and receiving our candy bags, we children were then taken to Margot’s Store where we proceeded to do our Christmas shopping.” ~ Cheryl Rowswell, page 32
“The Christmas tree stood in the center of town and was cut from the old Dunn farm. Trees escaping the annual choosing remain standing west of Veikle’s.” ~ Lorna Sayers, page 35
“We seem to recall it being at the south end of Main Street in front of the train station in early years, but in the middle of Main Street later.” ~ Amy Singh, page 39
“For many years, Bob McInnis played a major role in Cut Knife’s annual Santa Claus Day… I remember an event that took place a few days after Santa’s visit. Our daughter, Marj was about five years old. She was with me shopping in Bruce Douglas’ bake shop. Bob McInnis came into the shop and picked up Marj and said “How are you today, young lady?” Marj just looked at him and said ‘You sound just like Santa Claus’.” ~ Joyce Levere, page 15
“In the early 1950’s, one did all their Christmas shopping in Cut Knife. The general stores, Dion’s and Margot’s provided all kinds of gift ideas for the season. The hardware stores, Finley’s and The Brackenbury Brothers, did as well.” ~ Lorna Sayers, page 35
“There wasn’t the variety, quality or quantity in local village general stores to meet all shoppers’ requirements. Shopping for a day in our closest cities, the Battlefords, proved expensive for a car and cafe meals put a strain on the family purse, so the only alternative was mail order shopping from catalogues put out only by the T. Eaton and Robert Simpson Companies. In most cases they gave satisfactory service.” ~ Ruby Sleath, page 55
“Christmas was an exciting time at our house. Mom shopped by mail through Eatons’ or Simpsons’ catalogue and parcels from Margot’s and Dion’s came home wrapped in brown paper tied with red or green string.” ~ Bonnie Ramsay, page 25
“Trips to North Battleford were rare, but there would always be one before Christmas. All dressed up, we would crowd into the car, excitedly counting our pennies and planning how to spend them to get the gifts we needed. With five kids to ride herd on when we arrived, Mom’s threat, as Kathi recalls, was “If you aren’t good, you can’t come next year!” This was a dire threat indeed, as Woolworth’s, Kresge’s and the Metropolitan stores with their dazzling array of inexpensive goods was too wondrous an experience to jeopardize, so we would all be on our best behaviour.” ~ Amy Singh, page 37
Previously: School Concert to Christmas Concert | The School Concert, Part 2 | The School Concert, Part 1 | Intro to Prairie Christmas.
If you have any memories of early Christmases in the Cut Knife area that you’d like to share with our readership, please email or add to the comments below. We’ll put them all together in a final blog post in early January.
All excerpts in this Prairie Christmas blog series will have been taken from Prairie Christmas: A Collection of Stories and Recollections published as A Clayton McLain Memorial Museum Project, Cut Knife, Saskatchewan 2006 – 2007. Remaining copies are available for purchase for $10. See the website’s Gift Shop page here.
~ Debbie M.
Clayton McLain Memorial Museum 