Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming!  The stores are ready! The prices are crazy! The selection is......not fantastic.  Most people buy Christmas online.  The reasons are obvious.  Still, its nice to see the stores decked out in their Christmas splendour, and to know there is stuff here you can buy if you're in a pinch. 

On November 26th Northmart advertised they were selling a limited number of Christmas trees.  They aren't all THAT expensive, considering.  My worry is, if the trees were available to purchase at the end of November, when had they been cut down? After all, it's not like they were grown locally.  All the trees had to be cut down somewhere further south and flown in. How soon until the needles start falling off the branches? Maybe people buy them and leave them outside frozen until closer to the holidays.....  

Christmas trees: $89.99 Not bad! Elsewhere
in the city they are going for $120 and up.

My mother thinks the prices for the cookies below and the Toffifee are crazy.  I don't normally buy either of these, so I have no idea.  I just know they are Christmas-y!  Yay!

Arctic Ventures has their Christmas stuff in stock, too.  The upstairs mezzanine has been decorated, and the shelves are full of toys and ornaments.

Arctic Ventures Christmas section.

The toys, though, are crazy expensive.  It's understandable, given they need to pay to ship them up here. Also, unlike groceries, toys aren't subsidized by the Government of Canada.

The same Lego Elves set is selling on Amazon Canada for $12.99

Selling here for $43.29. On Amazon Canada for $21.99.

This one is the worst. Here for $75.99.  Amazon Canada: $29.99.

Arctic Ventures Christmas tree.

This tree is kind of crazy.  It was selling for $449.39. And obviously, given the sign on it, it sold.  Its a nice artificial tree, but its not big.  For reference, my mother is about 5'4", so that tree is about 6' tall, maybe 6 1/2' if you're being generous with the tape measure.

We brought an artificial tree up with us.  I got it at Michaels last year for cheap. I decided to put it up and surprise the kids when they came home for lunch.  Lucky for me, it was dead easy to put together.

I triumphed over the artificial tree, despite my skeptical
mother thinking this would be an all-day event.

Captain Jack Sparrow. Standin' by the tree, yo.

Time for putting the tree up also means time for baking.  Every year Gramma helps Coraline and Captain Jack bake and decorate elaborate gingerbread cookies.  Usually there is so much frosting and candy piled on top of these "works of art" they are difficult to eat.

And of course, you can't forget Christmas concerts.  Keeping with the theme of "Iqaluit loves holidays", Christmas is a really big deal.  Last Thursday was the music concert.  There were performances by all three elementary school choirs, the high school performance band, the french school choir, the french school band, the Inuksuk High School Drum Dancers, and the Iqaluit Music Society fiddle and accordion players.  This week we'll be attending the middle school Christmas play (Coraline does the backstage stuff), and Captain Jack Sparrow's Joamie School Christmas Concert. Then there are the 2 weeks of Christmas Games (an Inuit event I'm looking forward to), the "Lighting Ceremony" at the Legislature building, etc.

I gotta say, while the singing and music on Thursday was great, the best thing about the music concert was the traditional costumes.  All the choir girls (down to Kindergarten age) wore traditional amautis, and all the boys wore traditional Inuit parkas.  Each choir had their own color of garment: the french school wore yellow, Nakasuk elementary wore white, Aqsarniit middle school wore tan, and the high school drum dancers wore black and red.

The choir from the french school. Love those huskies snarling
in the background.

The Nakasuk Elementary School Choir.

Inuksuk High School Drum Dancers.

Coraline's fiddle group

I was going to end this post telling you all about the Christmas craft show.  Turns out, there is a whole lot to the Christmas craft show, so I'm cutting this post short and giving the craft show its own post.  It was the strangest "craft sales" event I've ever been to. So, up next: the Iqaluit Christmas Craft Show!

And: JJ's stories about Kimmirut are fantastic!  I have given him a deadline (next week) for his blog post.  Based on what I've seen of his photos and heard of his stories, this one may end up being a two-parter.  We'll see.  Stay tuned!

PS: got a Christmas package today in the mail.  Inside was a cute card and lots of junk food (yay!).  Also, safely cushioned inside a custom wood frame (sandwiched by books for CJS) was a tiny portable USB stick.  On which had been saved Game of Thrones, season 7. Time to binge watch while eating Sour Patch Kids! WAHOOO!!!!!!!! Thanks R family!