6 Canadian celebrities' magic holiday memories

George Stroumboulopoulos watches sports and gets ribbed
Despite the inevitable last-minute shopping, CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos loves the whole process of hurriedly wrapping gifts, packing up the car, fighting the traffic and then hitting the pay-off: getting to hang out with his family in suburban Toronto. "I'm too busy or too lazy to put up a tree at my house, so I love coming into my grandmother's and seeing the tree and everybody sitting there. We celebrate Christmas Eve at my baba's house. I've always loved that. It's such an important thing to me. One of my favourite times of the year" -- second only to Halloween, he says.

He's a sentimentalist, our George, but only to a point. "There's always a sporting event on TV. Christmas Eve is the hockey game; Christmas Day is the basketball. We eat early, then part of the family breaks off to go to midnight mass, and then I go to a late show at the movies. It's a great day to watch sports, visit your family and go to the movie theatre!" The mile-a-minute TV host kicks into hyperspeed at the mention of food. "My grandmother makes the best perogies on the planet! We have turkey and ham. So good! I'm a gravy guy. If you put gravy on it, I'll eat it! And my grandmother makes great chicken soup. She's awesome. It reminds me of being a kid and going to her house every weekend. We're a very small but very tight family. Sitting around the table, we scrap all the time about religion and politics and television. They give me a hard time about the news and my show ["The Hour"]. But it's really fun, and that's when I feel so comfortable. I love it."

Loreena McKennitt is puzzled
For harpist and folk singer Loreena McKennitt, who grew up on the multicultural Manitoban prairie, Christmas is a time to reflect on the interconnectedness of music, food, the earth and its seasons with -- as celebrated on her Juno-winning CDs -- the interwoven nature of our diverse cultural histories. But it's the tranquillity of downtime with family and "Christmas strays" she relishes most.

"I buy a fresh jigsaw puzzle every Christmas. It gets put out and everybody chips away at it over the duration of the time we're together. They're usually fairly hefty puzzles, sometimes up to 2,500 pieces. It's the kind of thing that causes you to sit quietly but in close proximity to each other. It's a team thing and something the various age groups can enjoy. From the time I was a child, I've always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, and I think it has shaped me in a way that every challenge I encounter professionally or personally is approached from the standpoint that it's probably like a jigsaw puzzle!" laughs McKennitt. "And the making of dinner in itself is a joint-effort ritual -- very commonplace, probably. There is an enriched experience in life to be achieved when you share the consumption and preparation of food, working side by side. Those are beautiful, beautiful memories."

The uncool Bob Hallett remembers his first accordion
Great Big Sea's Bob Hallett was about 15 when his mother bought him an accordion for Christmas. "It wasn't considered cool at that time any more than it is now. I certainly didn't ask for it. Bummer: underwear and an accordion! But it was very prescient on her part because it led me down the career path I'm very glad to have travelled." Playing accordion, fiddle and mandolin with the chart-topping Celtic rock band for 14 years, Hallett has become what he jokingly calls a professional Newfoundlander, proudly beholden to the musical mythos of his native St. John's.

"Playing for each other, sharing music with relatives and friends and neighbours is when I think you feel closest to the values that started Christmas in the first place. Christmas in Newfoundland is very much a 12 day affair. The house is always full of friends and relatives who travel home from away. That celebration of family togetherness is the key, and hand-in-hand with that is always music. A lot of families spend their money just getting here. And that's the gift -- being surrounded by people you might not see from one year to the next. These people are spread out around the world and to have them all sitting in your living room is a great feeling!"