Merry (Almost) Christmas

Christmas definitely starts earlier in Canada! As soon as Halloween was over, Christmas decorations appeared overnight in office buildings and shops, Christmas carols starting filling the airwaves and gingerbread lattes were suddenly available everywhere.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the winter agricultural fair. It was a nice day out with lots of farm animals, local produce, horses, giant pumpkins and some amazing butter sculptures. We felt the need to sample a 'pulled pork parfait' made with mashed potato - it tasted much better than it looks, I promise!

On Saturday night we watched the Cavalcade of Lights, a Christmas concert and fireworks display at City Hall. The bands played carols which was nice, if a little premature. One singer put it best when she wished the crowd a "Merry almost Christmas!" The Santa Claus parade on Sunday was good fun and drew a massive crowd eager to see Jolly old St Nick himself.

It's starting to get colder now, but there hasn't been any snow in Downtown Toronto yet. I'm really looking forward to the first flurry but I have to be careful when I say this, as the locals tend to groans and roll their eyes at me. The novelty has definitely worn off for some!

 Christmas display in a department store window