Thank you for all of the wonderful posts. Tom, My g-g-grandparents left England between 1875, when they were  married in Bristol, and 1877 when their eldest son was born in Quebec. Family lore says they left for Canada almost immediately after they were married, I have never found their ship's record, just their marriage record and birth record of their son. It didn't look like people were too happy at Christmas time back then, my family certainly didn't look like they had lots of money, but they worked at jobs so I don't think they lived in workhouses. I remember my nan (great grandmother made pies, something that we never did on the sicilian side. To this day I can make a mean apple pie, thanks to her. she and her (3rd) husband, both in their 80's, used to drive down from Washington to the San Francisco bay area to visit, but seldom on a Christmas,  the roads were too snowey up in Washington. Her son, my grandfather was on his 3rd wife by the time I came along so no traditions were passed down there, they celebrated how ever that wife celebrated, I don't remember ever going to their house for Christmas, we always went to my mother's side of the family. Looking at the amount of marriages that side had, maybe the mothers were struggling single moms at times and had no time or resources for traditions. It is hard to imagine what life would be like for a single mom back then when jobs for women were not very good. Jo SaundersJS http://joni.tribalpages.com/