{"id":1883,"date":"2012-12-22T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T14:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2012-12-22T22:14:08","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T02:14:08","slug":"my-fun-trumps-fussy-family-christmas-in-globe-and-mail-plus-recipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/my-fun-trumps-fussy-family-christmas-in-globe-and-mail-plus-recipes\/","title":{"rendered":"My Fun Trumps Fussy Family Christmas in Globe and Mail (plus recipes)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why a fun holiday trumps a fussy one<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In the 1980s, Susan Swan’s uncle John (at the head of the table) started displaying his Christmas trees in unusual ways. (Photo courtesy of Susan Swan)<\/h1>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Special to The Globe and Mail<\/div>\n
Published Saturday, Dec. 22 2012<\/div>\n
By Susan Swan<\/div>\n

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From the moment I sat down to write the scene that describes a traditional Southwestern Ontario Christmas dinner in my new novel, The<\/em> Western Light<\/em> , I knew exactly what I was going to say, since my family has served the same meal during the holidays for more than a hundred years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It only seemed natural to model the lavish spread in my book after the dinners prepared by my late grandmother, Pauline Cowan, who was born in 1892 and whose spirit still dominates our Christmas gatherings. Christmas for her \u2013 as it is for Big Louie, the character in the novel endowed with my grandmother\u2019s extraordinary gusto \u2013 was a chance to celebrate the pleasures of food and drink with a vengeance. One of our ancestors was a temperance reformer who walked from Vergennes, Vt. to Augusta, a small Ontario village near Brockville, in 1830 \u2013 and we have made up for his austerity ever since.<\/p>\n

Susan Swan’s family recipes<\/h4>\n