The Zeiger Family Homestead Blog

This year, as I do every year, I struggle to find a really good “Christmas read,” adult-level reading with a seasonal theme. This year, I’m returning to the tried-and-true. I’ve gone back to a book I read several years ago, and loved: A West Coast Christmas: Celebrating the Season on the Edge of the Pacific, edited by Anne Templeman-Kluit (paid link) (check your local bookstore, it will probably need to be special ordered).

This book is a collection of vignettes, essays, stories and recipes. All are accounts of the Christmas activities of inhabitants of the West Coast of North America, from Southeast Alaska to Oregon. They all come from older sources, mostly around the turn of the last century. Some involve famous people—at least famous to people on the west coast: the artist, Emily Carr, Reverend William Duncan of the Metlakatla Mission, and others. Most are the adventures of little-known pioneers along the coast, most of them living remotely, making a life with all its attendant holidays, from the wilderness. Do you see why this book would appeal to me? Continue reading →