The Community Edition: December 2015

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 • DECEMBER 2015

RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. WRAP US AROUND YOUR GIFTS. IT’S LIKE A HUG.

DECEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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A GUEST POEM, NOT A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Volume 4, Issue 3 Next issue: January 6, 2016

Real Canada

75 University Ave. W Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 519-884-0710 x3564

another day, another attack on Muslim Canadians another Facebook post by progressive white friends this is not the real Canada isolated incidents one-offs with assholes I hate it to break to you this is the real Canada

Advertising All advertising inquiries should be directed to Care Schummer at 519-884-0710 x3560 care.schummer@wlusp.com THE COMMUNITY EDITION TEAM Editor in Chief Jesse Bauman jesse.bauman@wlusp.com

Distribution Manager & Senior Briefs Editor Alistair MacLellan

Publisher Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp.com

Social Media Manager Megan Nourse

forged through genocide built on the backs of coloured peoples a long history of apologies trails the destruction Canadians have wreaked on this land and elsewhere

Photo Editor Matt Smith CONTRIBUTORS Natalee Blagden Elizabeth DiCesare Carolyn Gray Dan Herman Noel Severin Iverson Bashar Lulu Jabbour Stacey Jacobs Cathy MacLellan Elise Marion Leah Martin Elizabeth McFaul WLUSP ADMINISTRATION President Executive Director Advertising Manager Treasurer Vice-Chair Director Director Director Director Director Corporate Secretary

Erin McLean-Purdon Luke Moyer Jessica Pett Erika Preece Christina Proctor Dave Thomas Kurtis Thomas Jane Snyder Dwight Syms Cara Vandermey

Bryan Stephens Lakyn Barton Care Schummer John Pehar Abdiasis Issa Thomas Lillo Rafey Sattar Fred Kuntz Angela Foster Gary Doyle Emily Crump

The Community Edition is an alternative monthly intended to engage and inform the community.

Started in 2012, the Community Edition is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Opinions expressed within the Community Edition are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or Canweb Printing. All content appearing in the Community Edition bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Community Edition is created using Macintosh computers running Mac OS X Yosemite using Adobe Creative Cloud. Canon cameras are used for principal photography.

The Community Edition’s flag font is Lobster, an open source font created by HVD Fonts. We also use Brandon Grotesque and Petrona.

The Community Edition is a member of the Ontario Press Council, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981.

The Community Edition circulates monthly. Normal circulation is 6,000. The Community Edition subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada.

Preamble to the Community Edition Constitution The Community Edition will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Community Edition believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy.

The staff of the Community Edition shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so the Community Edition will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on the community of Waterloo Region. Ultimately, the Community Edition will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Community Edition has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through the Community Edition’s contact with the community. The Community Edition will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of community press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our magazine.

On November 27, Tamer Jabbour and other members of the Syrian community organized their fourth bazaar, to raise funds for relief and peace building work inside and around Syria. CAROLYN GRAY PHOTO

FEATURE

8-9 12 DAYS IN WATERLOO REGION

TCE REINVENTS AN ALREADY REINVENTED CLASSIC, TO HELP YOU SURVIVE AND THRIVE THIS DECEMBER IN THE REGION OF WATERLOO

3 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 13 14 14 15 15

IN BRIEF ON CARING WELL MY FIRST CHRISTMAS CATCHING UP WITH BARDISH ALL HAIL DOLLARAMA SURVIVING CHRISTMAS IF LIGHTS COULD TALK RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN WR A LONG WAY FROM DAMASCUS #BESTOFWR WINNERS SEXPLANATIONS GIFT GUIDE OWEN PALLETT TALKS AT TCE FILM REVIEW: HAIDA GWAII UNBUILT WR: UPTOWN WESTIN THE MISS OKTOBERFESTS OPEN UP CUDDLING FOR MONEY INSIDE THE ARTIST’S STUDIO PURE + LOCAL GIFTS FLESH AND GLUTEN FREE FEASTS DIY HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS CREATING RESILIENT TRADITIONS DRESSING FOR HOLIDAY SUCCESS

tell me again that this is not the real Canada as we experience this violence daily undo the hurt pat yourself on the back for sponsoring a Syrian family screened for our safety, just another example of white authority sorting us into people of colour worthy of a Canadian passport the rest of us will grow your food and make the cute cat socks you wore to the Welcome Refugees party the great white north has a problem with whiteness once we get comfortable talking about it we can begin to build the place you are convinced Canada is.

- Bashar Lulu Jabbour

THIS ISSUE WAS POWERED BY: • #BESTOFWR VOTERS • READERSHIP SURVEY FILLER-OUTERS • MARIE FLANAGAN • KURTIS THOMAS • OUR CONTRIBUTORS: LOOK AT THEM ALL!

THANKS FOR MAKING COMMUNITY MEDIA POSSIBLE!

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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IN BRIEF

It’s been over a month since Bardish Chagger won the Waterloo riding in Election 42. But the fun and games are over. We catch up with her on page five. PHOTO COURTESY ANDREAS PATSIAOUROS

Visual LRT progress before the winter. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

NEWS

ARTS

URBAN

1,000 NEW NEIGHBOURS

BAZAARS BOOMING IN WR

48 WEBER REOPENING

Waterloo Region has begun planning to host over 1,000 refugees.

One challenge will be finding housing for the newcomers. Under a Federal program, refugees will receive a housing allowance between $450 for a single person to $877 for a family of six, which is well below Waterloo Region’s market rates.

If you are looking to shop local this holiday season check out the many Christmas markets in the Region. This month the Kitchener Market will celebrate the season with festive events.

Find more vendors at the Christkindl Market from December 3 to 6, and at Stitch’n’Kitsch on December 12.

The apartments at 48 Weber Street are set to welcome tenants this month. The heritage building was shuttered and declared unfit for human habitation by the city in July. The 40-unit building has been completely gutted and renovated, including new floors, windows, doors, electrical and plumbing.

PILES OF LEAVES, PILES OF CASH

KW DRAMEDY SCREENING

COFFEE TO SETTLE IN UPTOWN

Residents around the region raked their leaves to the curb for pickup last year to the tune of $1.2 million. The leaf pickup program in 2014 cost Kitchener $505,510, Cambridge $484,000, and Waterloo $263,000. There are no signs that this year will cost any less, as the program has been over budget five years in a row.

Kitchener Sync, the local webseries released in local movie theatres, will be airing its third episode “Halloween in December” on December 11 at the Apollo Cinema. The half hour ‘dramedy’ series is set in K-W and is exclusively released in local movie theatres. Check out a trailer on the show’s Facebook page.

Uptown Waterloo won’t need to worry about its caffeine kick this winter as a new coffee roaster and café, Settlement Co. is expected to open at 23 King Street North. The space was previously occupied by clothing store Delirium which has moved to The Atrium on Erb Street. Look for their stadium seating, like a Roman bath.

APPLAUDED FOR DENSIFICATION

CRAFTS AT THEMUSEUM

NO MORE SHOVELLING?

A new report by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture identifies Waterloo Region as a positive example for municipalities looking to protect farmland. As urbanization continues to spread across Southern Ontario suburbs are replacing farmland at an average rate of 350 acres per day.

Waterloo Region was praised for focusing on urban densification versus boundary expansion.

Look readers. We make mistakes. Last issue we misspelled the THEMUSEUM. That didn’t stop you from checking out this month’s Beer+ series. Both the second night of Beer+Colouring and Beer+Screen Printing are sold out. However there are more Beer+ events planned for January.

Check out THEMUSEUM website for details. Tickets to boozey craft events are great stocking stuffers.

Twelve year-olds will be out some pocket cash as on-demand snow plowing comes to Waterloo Region via your smart phone.

TouchPlow, based out of Ottawa, has released an app that connects local snowplows with customers.

For $20 to $40 you can get your driveway plowed after an average snowfall, but Jimmy next door might do it for $10 and some of those sweet shortbread cookies.

$15,000 TO MAKE US SHOP UPTOWN

FINDING CHEER AT A SUCCESSFUL LOST & FOUND GOOGLE SEARCH

The City of Waterloo will be spending $15,000 over the holiday season to encourage shoppers to park uptown and visit Conestoga Mall. Uptown businesses have raised concerns about accessibility due to LRT construction, and uptown has lost over 100 parking spots in recent months. To encourage drivers to visit uptown, free parking will be offered in the uptown parkade’s first floor.

Lost & Found Theatre is diving into the backstory behind the classic Christmas story, A Christmas Carol. From December 2 to 12 Charles Dickens writes A Christmas Carol will be performed by a cast of 19 thespians at the Conrad Centre. The production follows the famous English author as he writes the story that some credit with reviving modern Christmas traditions celebrated today.

Search giant Google can finally stop looking for more space, as they move over 300 employees into new digs in downtown Kitchener. The new office in the Breithaupt Block provides the company with over 100,000 more square feet spread across the historic factory. This also frees up space in the Tannery, Google’s previous location, for the UW tech incubator, Velocity.

DECEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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CARING BETTER AND WORSE THIS DECEMBER

MANY OF US FEEL EXTRA GENEROUS THIS TIME OF YEAR, BUT NOT ALL OUR BENEVOLENT IMPULSES ARE EQUAL

JESSE BAUMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF We give and we care for all kinds of reasons, and it seems we care a bit more each December. This is also, coincidentally, when the non-profit industrial complex tends to ramp up its fundraising efforts, providing us with myriad opportunities to “give back” to those in need: cans for the hungry, socks for the homeless, and a goat for every war-affected widow.

This is great, but we can give back in better and worse ways.

I’m going to use food as my example throughout this self-righteous reflection, because I worked for two years at a food bank, and because I’ve never not had enough to eat.

My grandfather was a preacher for much of his adult life, which meant he and my grandma and their five kids were relatively poor. His unpredictable salary was some percentage of every fourth week’s offering.

One Saturday night, as my grandma was bathing her children, a congregant arrived at their home, bearing gifts. More specifically, five old laying hens, which she assured my grandmother were still “good eating.” However, the hens were still alive. Because she had to be up

early for church—pastor’s wife and all that—she put them in breathable burlap bags, on their basement floor, until Monday—because of Sabbath, and all that. In telling me the story my grandma described feeling frustrated, which is basically the worst thing I’ve heard her say, however indirectly, about anyone, ever. These birds, edible as they might have been, were not a gift, not in the true sense of that word.

In other words, this congregant cared, but badly. This is a tricky thing to say, because it matters quite a lot that the woman cared at all—some might say it matters most, but no, we know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The food bank I worked at depended (and still does) on community donations. Some of those donors gave badly, and maliciously, like when they wanted to drop off a truck full of “crispy fried onions” past the best-before date. More often people were just a bit ignorant, and defensibly so: they had never been poor, and anyway it’s kind of impossible to truly put yourself in another person’s shoes.

Take, for example, Kraft Dinner. I was initially surprised by KD’s relative unpopularity with our patrons.

I presumed it was ideal for people living on a low income, until my boss shared a bit of research from the University of Calgary. Researchers there found that “food-secure Cana-

dians tend to associate Kraft Dinner with comfort, while food-insecure Canadians tend to associate Kraft Dinner with discomfort.” KD tastes better or worse depending on your socio-economic position.

The researchers identified a few different reasons for these divergent experiences. Food secure people choose when to eat KD, and when they do, they prepare it with milk and butter and whatever else is in the fridge. From this perspective, KD is a wonderful, inexpensive, warm and comforting meal-in-a-box. Food insecure people–especially those relying on assistance–are rarely choosing to eat KD, and must often prepare it without milk or butter, and for consecutive meals.

Caring well, then, means not assuming that what works for you will work for someone in a completely different situation—before you organize a food drive, or go shopping for the homeless shelter, give them a call and ask what they need.

That is my sage advice for those who wish to care by sharing practical, material things. This is probably the most popular way to care, but it is not the only way. We can and should also care to understand the deeper, structural reasons why, for example, people are food insecure.

So understood, caring well also means supporting organizations whose work addresses the reasons why: why people are hungry, or

homeless, or whatever.

Keeping with the food example, we know that one in 20 families in Kitchener-Waterloo are food-insecure, meaning they cannot consistently afford real, culturally appropriate food. This is the case not because food is too expensive, but rather because “people living on low incomes cannot afford to make healthy food choices after paying for rent and factoring in other costs of living.”

This line comes from the Region of Waterloo’s 2015 “Cost of the Nutritious Food Basket” report. The report takes the average lowest retail prices of 67 different food items at seven local grocery stores, assumes that families entertain no guests and never eat out, and spits out how much it costs to eat healthy food in the Region.

This year’s report describes how, in 2015, a family of four must spend five per cent more than they did in 2014, to eat healthily. It also describes how food costs are increasing faster than inflation, and more generally, that food is getting more expensive faster than other consumer goods. Most significantly, food costs are rising faster than incomes and social assistance rates.

The report also considers the cost of housing in the Region, using data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. A single adult receiving Ontario Works, also known

as welfare, requires an additional $237 a month to eat well and afford market rent—and nothing else.

A family of four with one adult earning minimum wage, full time, spends about 40 per cent of their income on rent, and 30 per cent on food. This leaves $923 per month for all other living expenses for the family.

From this perspective it’s clear that even the best food bank donations do not address the reasons why people need food assistance in the first place.

Fortunately, there are good evidence-based policy options to reduce food insecurity, including raising social assistance rates or introducing a guaranteed basic income, improving and increasing the stock of affordable housing, and universalizing pharmacare.

Supporting the organizations that advance these causes is another way to care well, especially for future generations. We should demand the same concern from those we elect.

If you’ve made it this far, I trust we have similar concerns. We want to care well, about the right things, and in such a way that in the future our neighbours need not depend on our caring, and can instead buy their own chickens—dead or alive, as they see fit, and probably not on a Saturday night.

Lights, inflatables and candy canes decorate lawns and houses throughout Waterloo Region in celebration of the holiday season. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

ON FIRST CHRISTMASES IN WATERLOO REGION

LIKE ANY TRADITION, CHRISTMAS CONTINUES TO MEAN ALL KIND OF DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE

NATALEE BLAGDEN CONTRIBUTOR More than 20 per cent of Waterloo Region residents were born outside of Canada, so there’s a good chance that some of the people you run into on King Street may not be looking for shortbreads or an inflatable Santa for their front yard. TCE met with two Kitchener residents to talk about feeling at “home” during the holidays.

Omar Awsage’s roots trace back to Palestine, though he was born in

Iraq. The holiday season is “definitely difficult without many of the people you care about,” says Awsage, reminiscing about extended family.

Currently spread across several countries, they all too far away to visit regularly.

Awsage and his family fled Iraq when conflict escalated in 2003.

They sought safety in Jordan. “That was impossible without travel documents so we ended up between the borders for two months,” he says.

The family spent nearly five years in the Al Houl Camp in northern Syria, fearing they would die there.

In 2009 they were offered a chance to move to Canada, sponsored by a local church. They now live in Kitchener.

As Eid is not a statutory holiday in Canada, Awsage tries to book vacation around those days. He and his wife enjoy taking their kids to a bouncy castle or other fun activities “to make it special for them.”

In Iraq, “my friends would come over and celebrate with me at Eid, and I would go to their house for Christmas, too.” Awsage says he receives celebratory greetings from Christian friends at Eid here, and he hears a lot of the same songs he heard in Iraq, where both Eid and Christmas were celebrated. “It’s like if you went to Australia,” he says—similar holiday themes, but a different feel. “We have a Muslim community here, so we’re not left out,” Awsage says.

Among the traditions he values continuing here, Awsage mentions Ramadan. It’s “a fast for the soul,” more than merely fasting through mealtimes, he says. It is a month of doing no harm.

University of Waterloo student Khadija Hamidzai similarly views the holidays as a time for “generosity, kindness, and amending our human flaws for good.” As a newcomer to Canada, Hamidzai says winter and snow were unfamiliar. “In India, we didn’t get a whole lot of that,” she said.

Now, she associates the holidays with tubing, skiing, horseshoeing, and ugly sweater parties. “I make sure to attend as many food drives that I can because they are usually

held at fun events like open-mics and slam poetry events that I am interested in,” she says. “It gives me an excuse to get out and meet rad new people in our city,” she adds.

At home, Khadija and her family bake cookies, sip hot cocoa, “and binge watch all the childhood holiday classics... Among my siblings and I, it’s a great way to reminisce over our childhood and laugh at the same one-liners.”

“Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas… at the end of the day [it is], for us, a way to spend time and create memories with those we hold near and dear,” Hamidzai says.

Whatever else Christmas means to each of us, this sounds like something worth holding onto.

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

MANAGING OUR HOLIDAY BURDENS

5

CHAGGER SHARES ABOUT NEW ROLE

TCE CHATS WITH OUR NEWLY ELECTED CABINET MINISTER ABOUT HER NEW JOB

DWIGHT SYMS CONTRIBUTOR

ELIZABETH MCFAUL CONTRIBUTOR

I remember quite clearly the first Christmas after my father passed away.

He came from a very poor and uneducated family, and worked hard to become the principal of our local elementary school, and a leader in the community. In March of 1976 he had a heart attack. It was his second, and it killed him. I was 15 years old that spring, and the middle child of five in a suddenly single-parent family. My mother was shocked by the sudden loss of her husband and the new reality of raising her children alone. The loss of my father left a hole in our family, which was exceptionally pronounced the first holiday season after his death.

We each felt the loss in our own way.

More recently I worked in private practice as a couple and family therapist. I often noted two groups around the holidays.

The first group looks forward to Christmas. They love the decorations and anticipation, and welcome the opportunities to reconnect with family and friends. Gift buying and gift giving thrill them, lifting them from their depression and giving them focus.

And then there is another group.

The holidays remind this group of their loss, most often the death of a spouse, parent, or friend. They resent the forced family dinners and expectation of faking happiness. Christmas, for this group, is something to weather: to get through and around, not to experience or enjoy.

For those dreading the upcoming holiday break, here’s some advice from clients who successfully managed the demands of the season.

It’s okay to take care of yourself.

Some of my clients did not feel that they had the right to say no to dinner invitations. The office party was not the highlight of the season for them.

Say no, or limit yourself. Set a time you will attend an event and target the people you want to talk to. By setting boundaries you protect yourself and take control of the event.

Think about what the season means to you and honour that. We often think of Christmas as including a specific set of “normal” experiences, rituals or traditions: people getting together, sharing presents, laughter and a big meal. But keep in mind that many people do not celebrate this holiday, or have different expectations, or have had really negative experiences during previous holidays. Ask yourself, what does this season mean to me?

And don’t set yourself up–unrealistic expectations are not your friend.

This can be especially true around gift buying. How many people are afraid to open the credit card bill in January?

Set a budget and stick to it.

If it’s really bothering you, talk to a good friend or family member. Or if you feel like it’s really impacting your enjoyment of life, talk to a professional.

Call 1-844-437-3247 (HERE247) to get started. “Here 24/7” is this Region’s front door to the addictions, mental health and crisis services provided by 12 agencies across Waterloo–Wellington–Dufferin.

Bardish Chagger won the Waterloo riding in Election 42 on October 19.

Since then, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed her Minister of Small Business and Tourism. Here she shares with TCE about her work thus far.

BC: There have been a lot of briefings and communicating with people that my portfolio worked with in the past. A regular day hasn’t started, since the house sits in December... So far it has been long days with lots of information. I’ve been talking to partners, employers, provinces, territories, and post-secondary institutions. I’m reaching out to find out what has been done well, what can be improved on, and what challenges they’ve noticed.

It’s been a lot of listening and taking in information.

TCE: It’s been a busy few months for you. Tell us how you went from winning the election to being a Minister.

TCE: As the Minister of Small Business and Tourism, what can we expect from your office?

BC: [The election] was an amazing experience. People got involved that had never been involved in campaigns before. People of all ages, of all backgrounds were really engaged in this campaign and helped set the agenda.

BC: We really need small businesses to grow... It’s really important that we get Canadians working in meaningful employment. Small and medium enterprises employ 90 per cent of the private sector workforce and account for 40 per cent of our GDP. I’m coming from the Waterloo region, where people… around the nation [and] around the world choose to come. We are a welcoming community.

Dwight is the Manager of Adult Services at the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington Dufferin.

TCE: Tell us about the transition into the role of Minister of Small Business and Tourism.

We are innovators.

TCE: What are some of the big things that you’d like to accomplish as an MP? BC: I want to ensure there are opportunities for people in this community to be part of the dialogue.

When it comes to electoral reform or senate reform, I want to ensure there is an opportunity for people within our constituency to have a voice…

We had a voter turnout higher than the rest of the nation in this community. We have the capacity to be very engaged.

TCE: The holiday season is getting closer. How do you celebrate? Does your family have any unique traditions around the holidays?

BC: My family all gets together and we’ll have turkey and a family dinner.

I make some visits and spread some holiday cheer. I take it as an opportunity to appreciate life being good. Over the last few years, rather than giving [gifts] amongst ourselves, we’ve been

trying to reach out to people who need it the most. We’re blessed, life is good, so to be able to help someone else who might not have as much Christmas cheer is great.

TCE: What’s your favourite holiday experience in Waterloo region?

BC: I like visiting Waterloo Park when all the lights get put up. I enjoy a bit of tobogganing, hanging out at the park, and taking some of the kids from the neighbourhood there.

Something we’ve always done in my neighbourhood is exchange little boxes of chocolate or go over for a cup of hot chocolate or tea. Little things like that are really exciting to me. It’s the one time a year that I feel that people take a step back and have a little bit of time.

TCE will keep checking in with this Region’s MPs, but we need your help. What do you want us to ask your elected representative? Favourite children’s book? Metal band? 19th Century German philosopher?

We can’t know until you tell us.

Tweet @TheCommunityEd.

The new Dollarama, downtown Kitchener, is one place where people on a fixed income can afford to buy food and other essentials. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

DOLLARAMA DELIVERS ON DEMAND

UNTIL EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN DTK, WE’LL NEED DOLLAR STORES

LEAH MARTIN CONTRIBUTOR Downtown Kitchener is full of anticipation. The proliferation of condos, high-end restaurants and a sleek, new transit system all seemingly cater to young, higher-earning professionals, and so mark demographic changes in the downtown’s core.

All this change is good for some, and yet I fear it is also bad for others.

Capers Sportsbar, currently located in the American Hotel building, is likely to be displaced when that building becomes more condos and an upscale retail space.

Establishments like Capers represent, to many, the old face of downtown, one sorely in need of a facelift.

To others, Capers is an (increasingly) important space on that block, and

gathering place downtown. Every year, Capers serves a free Christmas dinner for many downtown community members. And while Capers isn’t a public space, its closing down means there is one less place downtown for those those who may feel less welcome among the influx of affluent tech professionals and the amenities that attract them.

Indeed, I am writing this article in the beautifully renovated public library in downtown Kitchener.

This branch of the KPL is one of few places in this city where all people are welcome to spend time and are not barred if they are unable to pay the cost of admission (even if it’s one cup of coffee). This is great, and important: there should be room for everyone in downtown Kitchener, regardless of where they fall on the socio-economic spectrum. I am not alone. Waterloo Region’s Gentrification Fixation, which ran in the last issue of the Community Edition, included many voices in this com-

munity who aim to keep downtown inclusive.

And so November 11 marked a significant day for our Region. At exactly 5:30 p.m., Dollarama opened its doors at King and Frederick Streets.

Since 1991, the building housed the Bargain Shop, the discount chain launched by Woolworths, which occupied the building for 80 years.

When the Bargain Shop closed in January, downtown resident Kathryn Leisemer told the Record that “the bargain store is a means of necessity for the downtown people, to buy laundry soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, even food.” There are no other grocery stores within walking distance, she continued, and “Shoppers Drug Mart is too expensive.”

I was, admittedly, less than thrilled when I first heard rumours of Dollarama moving into the space the Bargain Shop vacated. As I walked past the Woolworth’s building every day on my way to work, I started to see Dollarama’s presence in the

downtown in a new way. Again, there would be a place for people to access the essentials, a place where their hard earned dollars or insufficient and rigidly fixed incomes stretch further.

To be clear, purchasing cheap, imported goods made by underpaid individuals abroad is not going to create the deep social and structural changes required to foster a truly inclusive society or downtown.

However, the presence of Dollarama in downtown Kitchener is one step towards creating a more inclusive downtown, where people of varied income brackets have access to services and shops that meet their needs.

Until our government decision-makers recognize the inadequacy of government assistance and actively support policy that means everyone has enough money to afford the essentials of life produced in a way that benefit us all, I will continue to celebrate Dollarama’s presence in the downtown.

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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WATERLOO REGION UNDER REVIEW

DAN HERMAN COLUMNIST

Christmas lights around Kitchener and Waterloo. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

IF CHRISTMAS LIGHTS COULD TALK?

OVER TWENTY BRIGHT YEARS ILLUMINATING VICTORIA AND WATERLOO PARKS

DAVE THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR As winter arrives, and with it dark December nights, so to do coloured lights to cheer up the night in Kitchener-Waterloo. It’s time for the annual festive displays!

The Wonders of Winter in Waterloo Park and the Christmas Fantasy display in Kitchener’s Victoria Park are annual traditions in both cities, and have been for more than two decades.

Waterloo was first to light up their park in 1994, and Kitchener joined them a year later. Each started with

a group of service clubs approaching the city with an idea: to create a family-friendly atmosphere in the park to celebrate the holiday season and to get more people outdoors. Bill Weiler of the Waterloo Lions Club spearheaded the clubs’ efforts to establish the attraction, and still heads up the Waterloo group.

Chris Duncan of the Pioneer Lions has been at the centre of the Kitchener effort since the beginning. He remembers a small group of volunteers putting up the displays the first year during what turned out to be an unseasonably cold and early start to winter. Since those small beginnings, the displays have grown, as have the partnerships that sustain them. Each group continues to build a corporate sponsorship base and both have part-

nered with their respective city and local electrical utility corporations.

The number of displays and bulbs has increased significantly in both parks since the 90s, and yet energy use continues to decline. Both groups started transitioning to LED bulbs several years ago, and hope to complete the process within the next year or two. Duncan estimates that they’ve decreased the electricity usage in Victoria Park by one million watts.

While their concerns about efficiency are noble, the main focus of each fest is fun. The two displays don’t really compete, Weiler says, and many people will visit both parks. Wonders of Winter has a number of moving displays and character features, from dinosaurs to Dora the Explorer. There are about 100 displays this year.

In Victoria Park, the theme is reminiscent of a Victorian Christmas, focusing on lighting up the park’s structures (including bridges, the Boathouse and Pavilion), as well as the large, majestic trees, says Duncan.

There are about 70 different displays.

For the volunteers, the benefits are plentiful.

“It’s been a great journey for more than 20 years,” says Weiler. “Our reward is seeing kids and their parents laughing, smiling and having a good time,” he added.

Duncan agrees, saying “we want this to be an ongoing tradition that people can enjoy for many winters to come.”

The lights are on each night in Waterloo Park, starting November 28, and from December 5 in Victoria Park, until New Year’s.

SCOUNDREL TO CELEBRITY SCHOLAR

RUSS KELLY, AND THE LOCAL ORIGINS OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN CANADA

LUKE MOYER CONTRIBUTOR The small town of Elmira is well known for its maple syrup, horsedrawn buggies and streets named after birds. Fewer people know it as the site of a special night of drunken vandalism, which would set into motion significant changes to the Canadian criminal justice system.

Russ Kelly had a difficult childhood.

At six he lost his father, and nine years later, at the age of 15, his mother. He started drinking and using a variety of drugs, and on one particularly drunken night, tore through Elmira with a friend, vandalising cars, homes, boats and fences. The two friends committed 22 acts of vandalism that night, and the next morning, police officers apprehended them both. In questioning, Kelly admitted to everything right away.

“That’s how I was raised,” he says.

What happened next would eventually become the subject of a documentary, numerous public lectures and an invitation to the Oprah Winfrey show.

It started with a hand-scribbled note by his probation officer, Mark Yantzi. The note was simple, and asked the judge to consider allowing the offenders to meet their victims, to work out a way for the two teenagers to make up for what they had done.

“There might be some therapeutic value to the offenders meeting their victims,” he wrote.

According to Yantzi, the judge in the case, Justice McConnell, was a fairly conservative and intimidating force, but to Yantzi’s surprise, McConnell agreed with the idea. The judge said that the only challenge would be finding legal precedence for victims and offenders meeting one another.

Shortly thereafter, Yantzi took Kelly and his accomplice back to Elmira, where they apologized for their actions and offered restitution arrangements.

When Kelly went from home to home, his reactions were mixed. Some wanted to fight, some wanted money and some offered tea. In all cases, Kelly

says that looking people in the eye made him realize what he had done.

“Going to jail would have been easier,” he often says. “It was like having a mirror stuck right in front of you,” he said of his experience meeting victims.

They each received 18 months of probation instead of jail. Kelly didn’t shake all his demons that night—he is nine years sober now—but did eventually meet Irene, “the love of [his] life,” who helped him leave his most destructive behaviours behind.

By 2002, he was ready for a career change. He enrolled in a law and security administration program at Conestoga, where he always sat at the front of the class.

Julie Friesen, from Community Justice Initiatives, shared a guest lecture at one of his classes. She explained that their organization has been at the forefront of leading over 100 victim-offender mediation mediation cases a year in the Region.

To illustrate how this process began, she told the story of how their organization started, when a young man named Mark Yantzi, fresh out of university, convinced a judge to have

offenders meet their victims.

She proceeded to recount the story of a vandalism spree in Elmira in 1974, and how the case set in motion a significant change to how the courts handle criminal justice.

Kelly was floored during this lecture.

“I had no idea until that class,” he said. “I thought, holy crap, I almost had to pinch myself… I was feeling nervous, my palms were sweating, I couldn’t take notes.”

Today, Waterloo Region is known for creatively finding alternative solutions to crime and conflict resolution, and Russ’s case set it all in motion.

To Friesen, the Elmira case is a prime example of the potential for restorative justice. It shows how crime effects and harms a community and how, in order to repair that harm, people on all sides need to humanize one another. Restorative justice is not a silver bullet that will immediately correct all negative feelings. It can, however, be a building block to getting your life on track, and for Russ, while it took some time, he is now able to look back and inspire others to humanize the way we handle crime.

In 2009 life smiled on my wife and I as we travelled through Africa and the Middle East on a year-long honeymoon. Our final destination was Syria.

From Damuscus through to Aleppo we saw a beautiful country, steeped in history and racing towards tomorrow.

Yet beyond the dramatic Roman ruins at Palmyra, the waterwheels of Homs and the gleaming shopping centres of Damascus, we also grew to know a political tension that foreshadowed the horrors of war that were to come.

Fast forward six years and we awoke one morning to an especially horrific image of the legacy of this war: threeyear-old Alan Kurdi’s body on the front page of our newspaper. As a father of two young boys, the image and all the thoughts that accompanied it were tortuous.

All too often these thoughts are incapacitating. Yet as Meg and I talked about what we might do, texts and emails started to trickle in from others who were equally moved to action.

At that point, the topic of refugee sponsorship was not on our radar. But then, within a week, we had a group of ten community members committed to helping resettle a Syrian family in Kitchener-Waterloo.

With $30,000 committed to the cause, and working alongside the exceptional staff at the Mennonite Central Committee, we quickly obtained paperwork for a family of seven that has spent the past three years living as refugees in Lebanon. We’ve spent the last month mapping out potential accommodation options, collecting furniture and households goods, and learning about the variety of support services available to the family once they arrive.

We don’t know when they’ll get here, though the Liberal Party’s commitment to bringing 25,000 refugees before year end could speed the process.

We do know that many of the challenges they will face will be tall ones.

Our group members have reminded each other from the start that raising money for this cause is the easy part.

While there’s no question that they’ll be safer in K-W, building fulfilling lives here will require exceptional effort and support given significant linguistic, scholastic and skills-related challenges.

But these investments will be more than worth it. Collectively providing this family with safety and opportunity is the right thing to do, period, but it also provides a net benefit to each of us already in Canada. When I started my first job, twenty years ago, my boss was a man who had come to Canada from Vietnam with his wife as refugees.

Despite starting with nothing, within a decade they owned their own business and employed dozens of young people like me. Canada is made from stories of resilience and integration like this, which together weave the fabric of our national identity.

We are lucky to live in as prosperous a community as we do. And we are far too lucky to not do our part to help others in need.

Correction: In Waterloo Region’s Gentrification Fixation, I wrote that Netsuite’s office is at King and Francis Streets. It is in fact at the corner of King and Ontario.

Also, Netsuite will close an ATM alcove but not the larger separate atrium. -Ed.

BEST OF

WATERLOO REGION 5,217 OF YOU VOTED, AND AFTER MULTIPLE RE-COUNTS AND NO SMALL AMOUNT OF GERRYMANDERING, THE RESULTS ARE IN. HERE IS A PARTIAL LIST OF YOUR FAVOURITE SPACES, PLACES,

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On the first day of Christmas my community newspaper gave to me...

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local feast

At TCE we like to eat, and eat well!

We also, you know, have friends and like to cook, especially with the wonderful food produced in this Region. Legacy Greens in downtown Kitchener can meet all your locally sourced vegetable needs—so can the Kitchener Farmer’s Market. Got wheels? Get your flesh fix from the St. Jacob’s Farmer’s Market or the family owned Stemmler’s Meat & Cheese in

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Knowing as you do that stable housing is key to well-being, you might consider supporting The Working Centre’s Affordable Housing Capital Campaign. There are currently over 3,000 families waiting for affordable housing in the Region.

The Aids Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo & Area (ACCKWA) works towards a future where new HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs and blood-borne infections are rare in our Region.

And finally, The Cambridge Self Help Food Bank provides a range of services and programs that support people to move out of the so-called cycle of poverty, in addition to sharing emergency food. Sharing is caring, friend.

local shopping options

So you’re probably going to buy presents, whether you like it or not.

Why not buy them from your neighbours? Those looking to support local this holiday season have plenty of choices.

• Hit up the Stich’n’Kitsch Handmade Market on December 12 for unique, handmade gifts • Check out Legacy Greens’ line of gift baskets.

• Shopping for a bookworm?

Words Worth Books, Carry On Comics and Lookin’ For Heroes all have a great assortment of titles.

• Need stocking stuffers? Candy Candy Candy in downtown Kitchener

has everything you could dream of, and more.

• J & J Cards and Collectibles carries a variety of board and card games that make great Secret Santa gifts.

• Have a friend that loves vintage clothes? Try White Tiger or Meow Boutique for your hipster unique friend.

• And for that special someone who just loves Waterloo Region? Gifted offers a typographic map of Kitchener or Waterloo.

Yes, we know that’s actually 10 places.

German markets

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local taps a-flowin’

Yes, two. You’ve probably heard of the Christkindl market at Kitchener City Hall, and about its donkey-procession and pretzels. But there’s more! Every three years, since 1989, Joseph Schneider Haus sets up its Christkindlsmarkt on the edge of Kitchener’s Victoria Park. Open now until December 24 the traditional 19th century German Christmas Market offers ornaments, beeswax candles, decorations and seasonal treats for sale. Down the hall from the Christkindlsmarkt, in the historic Haus, the Schneiders are also preparing for Christmas. Following 19th century Mennonite tradition they eschew the

ways to give back

So, you are a person of great privilege, wanting for nothing. Maybe you are militantly enforcing a “buy-nothing” Christmas, because does our vapid consumption really make us happy? Maybe it’s both. Either way, no need to despair. Here are five ways to give, that will make someone else’s life a bit easier.

Last year, House of Friendshipshared thousands Christmas Hamper’s with people living on a low income.

They always need help packing and delivering hampers, in addition to financial support.

Mennonite Central Committee’s Giving Catalogue makes it easy to buy a sheep for Aunt Joan ($260)or give your new boo a hand pump for a well ($110).

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Heidelburg. Bailey’s Local Foods lets you order all of the above online, and pick up your bounty uptown. Impress your friends by knowing the name of the animal you’re eating, and roasting heirloom vegetables blessed by Vandana Shiva herself. Read Erika Preece’s article on page 15 for delicious vegan and gluten recipes.

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Surrounded on all sides by teetotalling horse-and-buggy Mennonites, The Olde Heidelburg stagecoach stop became the first licensed brew pub in the Region in 1860. There are many more options today.

• Abe Erb • Innocente • Grand River • Block Three • Descendants • Waterloo Brewing

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Christmas ornaments found in the Christkindlsmarkt, choosing instead to celebrate the holidays with special treats. Drop in for warm apple cider and nibble on freshly baked cookies during the Haus’ “Visiting with the Schneiders,” from December 21 to 24. Like the Christkindl Market in Kitchener’s public square, lebkuchen is also on the menu here! “Who can resist homemade sweets?” asks JSH supervisor Antoinette Duplessis. “The candy canes alone are a whole new take on the store bought variety, and our traditional sugar plums are simply decadent.”

All make fine beers, and are moreor-less serviced by our very own Grand River Transit. According to “maxjaytar” on tripadvisor.ca, The Bent Elbow in Kitchener has the “best non-alcoholic beer in town,” if that’s your jam. Be sure to check out our #BestofWR results online before you plan your next pub-crawl.

family crises a-mediated

Families fight about politics, and religion, and historical genetic tendencies towards depression and addiction. So you aren’t all on the same page about Israel-Palestine, or the new Pope, or the state of your soul? Consider brokering peace in the Middle East, getting baptized (your mom will appreciate it) or deciding not to be depressed and alienated from yourself and those around you. If that doesn’t seem feasible, make of list of

things that trigger you and your loved ones, circulate it for revision and expansion, and bring 50 photocopies to dinner. Staple one list to each person’s lapel, and pour hot gravy on anyone who steers conversation outside of the demilitarized zone. Consider also: a “Holiday Fight Club;” faking your own death; and, being a good person for a few God-damn hours, honestly, how hard can it be?!

3

4

awkard holiday parties survived

Everyone loves making awkward small-talk with distant relatives and creepy Tom from accounting, right?

Consider these tricks to make your evening more bearable: • take a big swig of your favourite craft beer every time someone forgets your name or says something racist • lie, and tell everyone that you do have your dream-job, and that it’s awesome, and that you’re rich • never stop eating, so that you

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Just kidding, nobody wants to swim in the winter. Dig up that toque, hoser—and brace yourself, the snow is coming!

Challenge yourself to spend a week outside over the holidays and bask in all your Canadian glory.

Chicopee will be open on December 19. Give them your money and they will let you hurl your body down a hill on an inflatable tube, skis, or snowboard. Bonus points if you make it to the bottom in one piece.

Maybe you would rather glide

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around some ice with sharp knives strapped to your feet? Outdoor skating rinks are—weather permitting—set to open mid-December, meaning you can join the crowds at Carl Zehr or Waterloo Squares, or one of many neighbourhood rinks. Also.

Laurel Creek has 4.5 kilometres of cross-country ski trails, and there are suitably dangerous tobogganing slopes at Bechtel and McLennan Parks.

Or stay inside and let the winter defeat you.

(hundred) guests a-welcomed

Whatever your reasons for celebrating—or not—this holiday, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about Christmas, and maybe also the Christmas story. You know, the one about a family from the Middle East who need refuge and shelter because of authoritarianism and political violence at home? Kitchener-Waterloo is one of six settlement sites for the 25,000 refugees our federal government plans to welcome before 2016. The Canadian Council for Refugees reminds us that “Refugees are people who are fleeing violence and are looking for security.

Looking to make your own holiday decor? Living Fresh in downtown Kitchener has a floral workshop on December 10 where you can make your own holiday centrepiece.

Head over to FUNtario Street for their Christmas Party on December 17, which includes a free screening of Elf! Looking for something more traditional? Check out performances of Yuletide Spectacular and The Nutcracker at Centre in the Square later in the month that the whole family can enjoy.

always have food in your mouth and can’t talk • take the longest route to Grandma’s, which conveniently takes you through all of the construction And don’t forget...

• classics like Home Alone and Die Hard always bring third cousins together.

swans a-swimming

They are not a threat to security.” The CCR also points out that “winter is coming and their situation will grow worse. Syrian refugees have more to be fearful of than Canadians do.

Opening our doors to refugees is one of the strongest ways possible to reject the violence and the incitement to hatred and division represented by the attacks [in Paris and Beirut].” There are many material ways to welcome these families, as we were welcomed by those who came before us.

holiday events

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hours of hygge, at least

Hygge, pronounced “hoo-ga,” is a thing from Denmark. It might be a philosophy, a concept, or a lifestyle, but it is definitely Scandinavian and therefore fashionable, and roughly translates into “cosiness.” Danish winters are long, cold, and dark, but the Danes are allegedly some of the happiest people in the world. Perhaps because they embrace hygge, meaning

12

they do all kinds of unbearably cute things like drink hot cocoa while eating home made ginger bread castles, sitting around a fire in thick woolen sweaters that somehow don’t itch.

Drinking Timmies in your Kitchener Rangers jersey while you play Dutch Blitz might not be hygge, but it’s a start.

Krampuses a-Kramping

Somehow you’re still reading, even though Christmas, and Santa Claus, is not really your jam. Fear not, an antidote is near! According to the Kitchener Krampus organizers, Krampus is, “short version, the Anti-Santa.”

Unlike jolly Ol’ Saint Nick, Krampus is “a devilish figure charged with punishing the naughty kids. In some cases, this meant a good thrashing.

In others, it meant sweeping the children away, never to be seen again.”

As Christianity grew in popularity celebrating Krampus was equated with hailing Satan, which remains mostly out of vogue. Krampus usually carries a birch switch, to punish naughty children, which accessory fashionably complements his hairy body and horns. Visit kitchenerkrampus.com for the full range of Krampus activities this December. And hide your kids.

Krampus is fair, but harsh, and probably drunk on schnapps.

Words by Elizabeth DiCesare, Jane Snyder and Jesse Bauman. Krampus illustration by Noel Severin Iverson

DECEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

SEXPLANATIONS

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST This holiday season, why not give the gift of pleasure, health and sexy times to the ones we love—and the ones we don’t, but have to buy gifts for?

For the children or teens on your list steer clear of anything considered

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“sexy times.” Instead, I recommend sexual health books. Reading is important and so is learning about your body. Plus, kids will love these books.

Visit Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region’s website to see their long, curated list of age-appropriate books.

For the adults on your list, condoms and lube are tried-and-tested stocking stuffers. Safe and fun, look for ginger-bread flavours and red and green latex to really get into the holiday spirit. If you are buying for a special someone—or someones—try a gift

card to your favourite retail sex store, and look forward to making a night of it later: dinner, drinks, sex store, and then home to try your new purchase.

Even if it’s initially uncomfortable, shopping at a sex store can be a fun and novel way to learn about sex, your self, and your partner(s). In a similar vein, play games with your lover(s)!

Games are an interesting and entertaining way to deepen understandings about each other and improve relationships along the way.

Also, you can never have too many

KITCHENER 20166 JANUARY

TRI-CON

16/17

In Support of THEMUSEUM

toys. No matter how much buzz the newest book on Oprah’s list is getting, do not forget about the good ol’ vibrator. Maybe try some anal beads, hand cuffs, or go all out with a sex swing. If you are the crafty sort, decorate a toy box. Your toys will never be more than an arm’s length away, and will have a beautiful home when they’re not playing with you.

Those tight on cash can write— alone or together—erotica, or download some from the Internet and bind it into a book. Homemade, inexpensive

and thoughtful!

The romantics in our midst could splurge on spa days or couple massages. Or you can try the latest and greatest: a vagacial—a facial for your vulva.

If none of the above turns you on, stick with that historically appreciated holiday staple: underwear. Whether sexy or practical, (almost everybody) wears bloomers.

Finally, last minute shoppers take heart: oral sex is always a great gift idea.

January 16/17, 2016 10AM-5PM Saturday & Sunday

Official After Party Featuring Tupperware Remix Party 7:30PM Saturday, January 16

ANIME CCOMICS GGAMING

and all geek love

Special Guests Panels & Workshops Masquerade Dealer & Artist’s Floor and MUCH MORE!

TriConKW.com

THEMUSEUM.ca

www.

THEMUSEUM · Downtown Kitchener · 10 King Street West January 16/17, 2016 · Saturday 10AM-5PM · Sunday 10AM-5PM Official After Party 7:30PM Saturday January 16, 2016 Featuring Tupperware Remix

www.

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THEMUSEUM • Downtown Kitchener • 10 King St. West

DOWNTOWN KITCHENER

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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HAIDA GWAII ON THE BIG SCREEN FILM REVIEW ELISE MARION CONTRIBUTOR

Owen Pallett with full string accompaniment at the Starlight on November 29 MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World is a breath of fresh, ocean air.

The film is alternatingly passionate, peaceful and brutally honest, sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Directed by Charles Wilkinson, this Canadian documentary looks closely at the people, land, and history of Haida Gwaii. The island, known to many by its prior colonial name, the Queen Charlotte Islands, is 160 kilometres off the coast of British Columbia. The film presents Haida Gwaii as a microcosm of how the world could be.

The Haida have lived in this archipelago for over 13,000 years. Despite colonial attempts to shrink their landbase and to culturally assimilate them, the film illustrates how they have endured and flourished on the islands, where they still outnumber non-Haida residents.

The Haida believe that the land cannot be owned.

“It’s a part of us, it’s family,” says Allan Wilson, a Haida hereditary chief.

In the film, the Haida explain how they defend their land and their ways of life from those who threaten it.

Citing a moral right to stop deforestation—on what grounds can we exploit what is not ours?—the Haida successfully blockaded logging trucks, and through their collective organizing were instrumental in the creation of Gwaii Hanaas, a National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.

Since European colonists arrived on the Pacific coast, Haida Gwaii has been home to many confrontations: the documentary shows how many different people and groups have touched the archipelago, often with little regard for the Haida.

Haida residents explain their history throughout the film, describing how fur traders ravaged the Haida people with smallpox, and how the logging industry desolated the land of its trees. Starting in the 1920s, many Haida children were sent to residential schools as far away as Alaska.

So, while the Haida have shared in historical hardships characteristic of the colonial encounter, they have also worked extraordinarily hard to maintain their culture, and while many Haida remain connected to their history, they also continue to exist alongside and interact with the rest of us.

There is a Haida saying that “everything is connected to everything.” It’s easy to forget or to remain ignorant of the historical relationships between First Nations people and European settlers on Turtle Island. Wilkinson’s film creates a connection between the past and the present, and shows a part of our history that is often forgotten, but deserves to be remembered.

3 out of 5 sitka spruce

OWEN PALLETT TALKS ART AND COMMUNITY

“LAMENTING THE LACK OF AN ART SCENE IS MISSING THE POINT,” SINGER TELLS TCE IN INTERVIEW

ERIN MCLEAN PURDON CONTRIBUTOR Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer Owen Pallett has had a busy couple of years. Blending a background in classical composition with indie music sensibilities, Pallett’s music has garnered widespread critical acclaim and commercial success including the 2006 Polaris Prize for his solo album “He Poos Clouds,” a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score, and compositional credits for the likes of Arcade Fire and Taylor Swift.

This high-profile career has not, it seems, muzzled Pallett’s choice of subject matter. His most recent album, “In Conflict,” released in 2014, intimately explored his struggles with mental-health, feelings of alienation, and queer identity.

Before achieving such celebrity, Pallett was a key feature in Torontopia, that time of cultural renaissance in Toronto during the early aughts characterized by a vibrant arts scene,

DIY spirit, and queer empowerment.

In conversation, Pallett is profound and raffish, moving effortlessly from sharing his feelings about extra-marital affairs, the merits of lifestyle music journalism, and the lost poetry of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “My Country Tis of Thy People You’re Dying.”

Pallett is an intimidating conversationalist, and the “interview” you see here has but two of our many questions. Because space. Nonetheless, Pallett’s thoughts on the intersection of community, representation, and art are worth listening to.

TCE: In Kitchener-Waterloo, where I live, some artists and residents [including myself] lament the state of the art scene, or lack thereof. Can you speak to the qualities, people, or serendipities that made the Toronto music scene so vibrant during the Torontopia years?

OP: I think people sometimes need to be shown how to have fun. You know? Like it takes men a long time to learn how to be men and women a long time to learn how to be women.

And all the varying other versions of gender as well. But ultimately it’s [about] how to be an adult who can

have fun... You do need somebody to show you the way. You need somebody to stand up one day and say, “we’re going to start this art space” or, “we’re going to have this DJ night” or, “I’m going to paint this thing and put on a show.”

Lamenting the lack of an art scene is missing the point. Talking about arts funding is missing the point because I think that arts funding is very important but it’s not what makes art.

You know? Arts funding is what gives artists the night off [laughs]. Not what actually makes them work, you know?

If there is no art scene in Waterloo, it could happen as quickly as tomorrow, it just has to happen with somebody looking at what the community needs, whether it’s a dance night or a ballet company or an art gallery. And creating that thing and promoting it and making people come to it.

There is no automatic mechanism...

Me and everyone I know who has ever achieved any sort of success has made creative friends and made art for their friends and simply worked on that...

What’s interesting to me… was actually how it started to fall apart…

Because all you need to do to create a community is create work and invite your friends. It’s very simple.

But to destroy a community is like that adage, “punk died the first time that somebody said punk’s not dead.” In my experience the reverse is true. When people start talking about something being over, it’s over. When people start talking about the fact that there’s no art scene there will not be an art scene. And if there was an art scene, you have contributed to its diminishment. In general, what keeps a scene alive, what keeps community alive, is the feeling that things are going to get better, that next week’s party is going to get even better.

TCE: I was reading an interview where you called music journalists liars. Which okay, I think there is definitely a grain of truth in that, but as part of a paper that is trying to represent a community, could you speak to representation, if you think it’s doomed to failure from the onset?

OP: It’s not doomed to failure because I don’t think there is such thing as success. I’ve been with [my boyfriend] for 12 and a half years, [and we still] have protracted discussions where we’re simply trying to understand each other. It’s really necessary for me to feel that he is feeling what

I’m feeling or necessary for him that I feel as he’s feeling and [that’s] incredibly difficult even for a couple who are best friends.

I can’t expect that some stranger who buys my record will be able to correctly parse, you know, what elements of this or that or the next thing are correct or not.

It’s incredibly difficult to accurately write about music…If you do get into the nuts and bolt of writing [about music theory] then you run the risk of being very dry and not interesting.

And as a result music writing has become more of a documentation of the music writer’s experience while listening to the music. Music journalism is just the least fact checked [laughs] form of journalism… I would certainly extend the lying designation to general arts reporting [laughs]... But who cares? You know? Reporting is an extension of the arts and arts itself is a form of fudging the facts.

Owen Pallett played beautifully at the Starlight Social Club in Waterloo on Sunday, November 29. But don’t expect a hermitic artist like him to do the heavy lifting required to build a local art scene here—that’s work only you (and I) can do.

DECEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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UNBUILT WR: WESTIN HOTEL IN UPTOWN SQUARE

In the mid 2000s, soon after the Waterloo Town Square mall was partially demolished, the King Street frontage redeveloped, and the remaining indoor section rebranded as “The Shops,” a luxury hotel was set to rise next door at Caroline and Willis Way. First Gulf, the former owner of The Shops, wanted to bring an upscale, affluence-attracting hotel to the core, something that the local business community had long clamoured for. Past administrations at the City tried unsuccessfully to woo a hotel into the core, but First Gulf finally hooked the fish the City was hungry for: Westin. Renderings of the project were made, and local businesses owners rallied behind the project. The stage was set, actors rehearsed, and ushers ripping tickets, but one major stumbling block stood in the way of an encore performance. The phantom of this opera was a $4 million parking garage. Guests of the hotel would, of course, need a place to leave their cars while visiting the core, and First Gulf wanted the City of Waterloo to pay 90 per cent of the bill.

The City’s decision not to subsidize the project may have been an attempt to seem prudent to a taxpayer base more concerned with potholes than plush hotel projects, or they may have decided to bet on the Barrelyards project and its privately funded hotel instead. Whatever the reasons, today we have a place for business brass, particle practitioners, and young hockey heroes to lay their heads in Waterloo’s Core.

MATT SMITH WORDS AND PHOTO, ALISTAIR MACLELLAN ILLUSTRATION

LOUDER THAN THE CROWN

MISS OKTOBERFESTS ON SHARING THEIR OWN UNIQUE VOICES

MEGAN NOURSE CONTRIBUTOR It’s hard to be taken seriously in a crown. This sentiment is shared

by Lindsay Kalbfleisch and Holly Pearson, Miss Oktoberfest 2014 and 2015, respectively. Both women had strong community-minded reasons for running, and both experienced the ongoing challenge of having their voice heard above their crown.

Miss Oktoberfest is a tradition engrained in Kitchener-Waterloo’s annual Oktoberfest celebrations.

Originally a more traditional beauty pageant attracting women from across North America, the role is slowly but surely evolving into something else, and these two women are working hard to make that happen.

“You have to shout way louder about your intelligence and your passion and all those things when that thing is sparkling on your head because that’s all anyone sees,” Kalbfleisch said, referring to the infamous Miss O crown.

She’s grateful for it; in just over a year, the crown gave her access to a range of unique opportunities, including getting her, and now Pearson, on stages and behind microphones.

Kalbfleisch made over 200 appearances as Miss O, and says the role is two-fold: during and post-festival.

“You look the part and you are pretty scripted. You have a message during the festival and the message is to encourage the community to attend family and cultural events and to make sure that everyone is ‘festing’ safely,” she said.

During the intense schedule of the festival, Miss O is often asked to speak, and her words must be on-message.

“That’s fine and great, but that’s not what I want the role to be for the rest of the time,” Kalbfleisch said.

According to Pearson, “it’s hard because a lot of people in the community view it as a pageant. I think it’s unfortunate because Oktoberfest Inc. and the committees that work so much on [the festival] all year are really trying to put it into a different perspective, a new perspective and make it an ambassador program.”

Still early in her reign, Pearson has big plans to carry forward Kalbfleisch’s work modernizing Miss O. “It gives you a lot of opportunity to have a voice in the community and to carry a story with you,” Pearson said. Her main goal is to connect with young girls and serve as confident female role model.

Pearson and Kalbfleisch both agree that, in the Miss O crown, young girls idolize them, and they want to make sure that they are being idolized for the right reasons.

For Kalbfleisch, staying true to herself was one of her biggest goals and challenges.

“I knew that to be Miss Oktoberfest,

I felt, that I had to look the part and walk the talk and do that whole graceful girl thing, which is fine but it was hard for me to find my sense of self within that because that’s not the way I dress… grace doesn’t come naturally to me,” she says with a laugh.

There were moments when she felt she was pretending, and Kalbfleisch described how staying true to herself sometimes meant challenging the status-quo.

“You could feel the tension a little bit because when the smiling girl in the crown starts to push the box open a little bit, everyone gets a little ‘how far is she going to push this’ but I did some pretty unique-to-me things,” she said.

Kalbfleisch attended the OK2BME gay-straight alliance conference as an out Miss O. In the end she said she was always supported.

Kalbfleisch ended her time as Miss O at the annual crowning gala with a critical reflection on her year. Her advice to the next Miss O was simple: “As you step into the Miss O role, promise yourselves you will fight to be seen as more than pretty.”

Miss Oktoberfest is no longer a beauty pageant. Women like Pearson and Kalbfleisch want to make a positive impact in their community, and the crown and sash let them do that.

But in order for the role to really grow, all of K-W has to get on board and look past the crown.

Holly Pearson and Lindsay Kalbfleisch. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

DECEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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PURE & LOCAL

JENNIFER FREITAS COLUMNIST The seasonal—and sometimes stressful—gift-giving time of year is upon us. But relax! This time of year is about spreading love and joy, not dollars and cents—don’t let any commercials lead you to believe otherwise.

Nevertheless, exchanging a gift with a friend, family or lover is one of the most joyful things to do, so embrace the season and put some thought in to it.

Running an eco-focused, local small business means that I am very attentive to my shopping choices. At the end of the day, it really makes a difference (to our planet, local individuals and our local economy) to shop small and support local. Below is a gift guide for all the personalities in your life, whether you’re looking to give someone a little rustic luxury, an introduction to no-nonsense grooming or the perfect party primp and preen!

For the Artistic Soul: This region is abundant with artists. Look for a beautiful piece of pottery at the Clay and Glass Gallery, and don’t forget Paint by Munzy for that perfect print. Is your artistic soul is a cinephile? Movie passes from the Princess or Apollo Cinema are always appreciated.

The Green Beauty: Know someone who constantly raves about natural beauty products? Look for locally-made Cocoon Apothecary skin-care starter sets, or check out Freedom Flow Tea for healing beverages.

The Sophisticated Foodie: Amazing food does not have to be expensive.

Treating your co-worker to a lunch at Teremok is a great, thoughtful experience. Plus, they will be grateful for the introduction to a hidden gem. Feeling like you want to splurge? A romantic dinner at Public will please even the most discerning palate.

The Happy Homebody: I adore all the goodies at Dana Short Gourmet, and would be in heaven if a friend brought me over some of their frozen scones. I’d put on some tea and we could cozy up and catch up on some good times. Flowers are always a treat, too: Charmed and Living Fresh create stunning arrangements.

The Hip Hipster: Get your bearded friend some beard oil from The Truth Beauty Company. So hip that they already have some? Well, then a copper mug from Exclusive Elements is the perfect vehicle for their hipster cocktail.

The Parents: Personally, buying stuff for my folks is always the hardest.

Try giving them something they can use, like concert tickets or a gift card to a restaurant (see page 15 of this issue for listings). K-W is thriving with delicious dining options these days– the hardest part might be choosing.

Perhaps there’s someone on your list who is simply impossible? Nothing is more thoughtful than home-made.

Check out the DIY gift-giving ideas in this issue.

At the end of the day, gift-giving isn’t about how much you spend, but the thought that went into it. If the gift is given with beautiful intentions, then love is exchanged. Despite all the commercialism this time of year, the most important thing is letting your loved ones know you care!

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELLIE ANGLIN

‘ARTIN AROUND WITH ELLIE ANGLIN TCE TALKS ABOUT CELEBRATING AND CREATING COMMUNITY THROUGH ZINE MAKING CARA VANDERMEY CONTRIBUTOR Ellie Anglin is a Waterloo-based collage artist, writer, zine maker, blogger and sculptor. She is also, in a way, a community historian and (visual art) record keeper. Through the collection of her own work, and the works of others, Anglin has compiled a large deposit of zines and paper media art about Kitchener-Waterloo and beyond.

Anglin started making zines in 2004, when she and a group of students attending a creative writing course at UW would get together to talk about writing at Jane Bond.

“We started having our meetings here and it turned into somewhat of a drinking club [laughs] that was sort of

the beginning of this becoming a place of creative stuff and inspiration [for me],” she said.

And why zines?

“In contrast to most magazines (especially women’s magazines), which are all about consumption, zines are about production. Zines allow you to put a part of you out into the world in a tiny physical form that can be held, touched, collected, traded, displayed, passed along and read in the bathroom,” Anglin said. “The culture surrounding zines, which historically has punk, feminist, queer and counter-culture roots, helps you connect with other weirdos!”

Since those early meetings at Jane Bond, Anglin has produced 15 different, independent zines. Most of those pieces were one-offs, but a few, like Scared of My Mate, ran multiple editions and were filled with art and writing from the community at large.

More recently, Anglin received a Toronto Arts Council Grant to create

Tender Buttons, an extremely touching and beautiful solo piece of words and images–find a copy and treasure it forever. Anglin also used her grant monies to put together a community zine called The Golden Bat, which reads like a tribute to Kitchener-Waterloo.

“The Golden Bat was a zine that was totally collaborative. I crowd sourced it so basically people in the community paid to have it printed. It’s all people from Kitchener-Waterloo, who have either lived here or are here now, and all the content is about K-W. That was a while ago but I’m still pretty pumped about it!” said Anglin.

More recently, Anglin and her sister Emmy created the zine Walmart Calico. “She wrote a poem about gender and I illustrated it,” said Anglin.

Right now, Anglin is working on a new project at Open Sesame, which is a new gallery right beside Kitchener City Hall. “[Open Sesame is] so rad, it’s basically zines and print media art. I’m

going to be doing a K-W zine library there and I’m hoping that I can make it a mobile one, like on a little kart that I can bring around [as well as] a chill out space… so people can come and relax and read,” Anglin said.

There’s something really charming about the idea of a library (of any kind) being wheeled around on a cart, and important, too, as zines should be accessible, but are not often shared on the internet. As Anglin put it, “its good to have [a library where] everyone knows they can go to... I’ve had this bin full of zines that is ever expanding in my apartment for 10 years that needs to be seen. I know lot of us do.”

Keep an eye out for the Zine Library opening soon at Open Sesame in Downtown Kitchener as well as Anglin’s other project The Waterloser, on Instagram and Tumblr.

Disclosure: Cara was one of the artists who contributed to Scared of My Mate.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOME BODY

SEEKING PLATONIC AFFECTION? FOR THE RIGHT PRICE, CUDDLERY AIMS TO PLEASE

MEGAN NOURSE CONTRIBUTOR “Warm Hugs” signals the end of each of Marylen Reid’s emails. Reid is the founder of Cuddlery, Canada’s first platonic cuddling service. Already operating in nine cities across Canada, the Cuddlery’s newest market is Kitchener-Waterloo.

Reid is currently hiring local “cuddlers.” Candidates are interviewed over Skype during which she looks for caring and non-judgemental behaviour. Selected candidates are shown training videos on how to cuddle as well as self-defence, and when

possible, Reid cuddles with them to test their skills.

“It’s interesting to know that a lot of people think they’re good cuddlers, but its harder than people imagine,” Reid said.

Reid moved to Canada from Slovenia five years ago to study law. Stress and a new environment led her to seek out physical connection, which is often reserved for intimate relationships in Canadian culture.

“Nowadays sex is more available than affection,” Reid said. Before starting the Cuddlery, she sought platonic, non-sexual cuddling on sites like Craigslist and Kijiji, but a few bad experiences made her stop.

Reid says that often people seek out sex and intimacy when they are really just looking for physical contact, which is what her business aims to

provide.

“There is not one type of client, it ranges a lot, from a person who’s never had a significant other, busy people with no time to date, and grieving people,” Reid said.

Stigma is a big problem in the professional cuddling business. Reid says some of her clients are ashamed of using her service, and further, that Canadian culture perpetuates the belief that paying for affection is for losers.

Psychological studies have shown that physical connection can improve an individual’s mood and quality of life.

Reid says seeing a cuddler is like going to a specialist.

The profiles of cuddlers on the Cuddlery’s website are mostly women.

Reid says that most of her clients are men seeking female cuddlers, which she speculates is because it is more

difficult for women to seek non-sexual touch. Fears of safety are also a factor.

Safety of the professional cuddlers and clients is ensured by video taping every session. The videos are erased days later to ensure client privacy.

“If people would drop stigma and misconceptions, there will be a lot more happiness in the world and I think the Cuddlery can help with that,” Reid said. Arousal sometimes occurs during cuddle sessions, but Reid is firm that her business is completely non-sexual.

Reid does not know when exactly Cuddlery services will be available in Kitchener-Waterloo, it all depends on the number of applicants who meet the profile of a good cuddler.

People looking to launch a career in platonic affection can apply at cuddlery.ca.

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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DO IT YOURSELF GIFT IDEAS GET CREATIVE, IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS, AND SAVE MONEY JESSICA PETT CONTRIBUTOR

PERSONALIZED PILLOWS All you need is an old pillow and some fabric paint. I made my own pillowcases using tweed and fabric glue. Alternatively, buy a plain pillow and follow my lead. Using a stencil I found online, I cut out the letters and image. Then, I dabbed paint onto the pillow and let dry for another hour. Once dry, I had a festive and stylish decorative pillow, perfect to give!

Finish your feast with pear and pomegranate crumble. ERIKA PREECE PHOTO

HOLIDAY RECIPES

NO MATTER YOUR DIET SENSITIVITIES OR CHOICES, HERE ARE THREE DELICIOUS AND SIMPLE RECIPES TO GUIDE YOUR HOLIDAY EATING. READ ON FOR TRIED, TASTED AND TRUE VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE FEASTS FROM TCE

DECORATIVE CANDLES This one is for the procrastinating DIY-er. Yeah, we’ve all done it, but your holiday party is in 25 minutes, so hop to it! Grab a wider candle, some ribbon (I used tweed) and whatever else you would like to add to your candle. Wrap the ribbon around the candle, tie a nice bow and you’re set: an acceptably beautiful gift for that last minute party.

MARKER MUGS ERIKA PREECE CONTRIBUTOR

APPETIZER: ROASTED CAULIFLOWER Cauliflower is an excellent meat substitute for vegetarians due to its heartiness and ability to carry flavours. This recipe has lovely warm curry spices that work well for a winter meal.

3 tbsp olive oil 1 ½ tsp each of cumin, turmeric, coriander seed and curry spice 1 medium cauliflower head salt and pepper grated lime zest grated ginger

Preheat oven to 450 F. Create sauce by mixing together oil and curry spices.

Chop cauliflower into large florets and mix in with the sauce. Spread florets onto baking pan and roast until crispy, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with lime zest and ginger.

MAIN COURSE: ACORN SQUASH STUFFED WITH A QUINOA PILAF This is a truly filling main. Citrus notes cut through the richness of the acorn squash, and the quinoa, chickpeas, and pumpkin seeds all pack a protein punch.

Your guests will forget all about the turkey.

1 acorn squash ½ cup of quinoa 1 ¼ cup of water 1 lemon, juiced* ½ tsp each of sumac, cinnamon, fresh rosemary and fresh parsley * 1 tbsp olive oil * ½ cup pumpkin seeds* ½ cup chickpeas* ¼ cup dried cranberries* ½ tbsp lemon zest*

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut squash in half, scoop seeds out, and bake for 35-40 min. While squash bakes, cook quinoa in water. To make quinoa dressing, mix together all asterisked ingredients. Once out of the oven, fill squash with dressed quinoa and bake for 10 more minutes.

DESSERT: PEAR AND POMEGRANATE CRUMBLE Pomegranate seeds add sparkle to this seasonal dessert, making it perfect for entertaining. Top the crumble with some coconut milk ice cream and you have the perfect finish to your vegan, gluten-free holiday meal.

4 pears, sliced 1 pomegranate 1 orange, juiced 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg ½ cup white sugar 1 cup oats ½ cup coconut oil ½ cup brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg ¼ cup crumbled walnuts 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix together pears, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange juice, white sugar.

Spread wet mixture onto a baking pan.

Mix together oats, coconut oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, crumbled walnuts, grated fresh ginger. Spread dry mixture on top of the fruit and bake for 50 minutes.

Grab some Sharpies and a ceramic dollar store coffee mug, and let your ceramic imagination run wild. Once you’re done, let your creation sit for a couple days, and then bake in the oven at 350 degrees for one hour. Throw a bag of their favourite coffee inside and you’ve got a great homemade gift for the coffee lover in your life. Your boo will love it, and love you forever.

DECEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

WEAR OUT THERE

BUILDING RESILIENCE

CHRISTINA PROCTOR COLUMNIST

CATHY MACLELLAN COLUMNIST

You can feel it in the air, in the streets, and in the shops. December has arrived and much of Waterloo Region is alive with seasonal activity: treats to bake, gifts to purchase, and parties to attend. With limited time and a social calendar filling quickly, planning an outfit that shifts seamlessly between activities can be challenging. But, you need not lose your holiday luster. Here are five ways to keep shining this month.

Add some sparkle with a shimmery top, skirt or accessory. Shift your look from work to play by adding some glam to your daily wardrobe. The holidays call for sparkle and shine, but keep in mind the dress code at your workplace. Choose one focal piece, and neutralize the look with black, grey, or beige.

Use jewelry to dress up basic outfits.

Whether you wear them regularly or only on special occasions, festive necklaces were designed to make a statement. Wear them with any garment, with any neckline, and you’re sure to be noticed. For a wonderful selection of gorgeous jewels, check out Dystynct Boutique in Belmont Village.

Jewel it up in jewel tones. Black may be your go-to uniform throughout the year, but the holidays call for striking colour combinations in fresh hues.

Choose jewel tones to add instant drama and strong visual appeal to your looks. Grab a pair of heels or clutch in these sophisticated shades or make a stronger statement with a jacket, blazer, or top.

Play with gold and silver eye shadow. Whether you glow in gold, or sparkle in silver, shimmery shadows were made to be used at this time of year. Let your eyes be the focal point, and use a swipe of shadow, a bit of bronzer, and a touch of gloss for a glam workday. For ease of transition, swipe a medium tone on your lid for day, and add a darker tone in the crease for evening. Add extra mascara and eyeliner, and you will be good to go for any after-work event. Remember, less is always more with makeup.

Choose one feature to highlight.

Don’t be afraid to rock a parka.

When the challenge of dressing fashionably seems to conflict with staying warm, choose comfort over style. But, lucky for us, a fitted parka or wool coat goes just as well with a party dress as it does with a pair of jeans. Don’t fight the elements, just work your wardrobe around them. Keep your snow boots and a pair of heels in the car, so you’re prepared for any and all opportunities.

Pushing your car out of the ditch in Manolos is neither fun nor glamorous.

All those December dinners, drinks, get-togethers, and galas can be draining. So plan ahead, and incorporate these tips to shift your look from day to night.

My husband and I have been together for 31 Christmases. For many Christmases our traditions centred on the needs and interests of our children. When our family was young, we spent eight years on the other side of the country. Far from our families, we were under no extended familial obligations or constraints, and so we experimented with foods, activities and who we spent time with.

Being able to choose how we celebrate the season, has, in my experience, been key to enjoying it. Following tradition for tradition’s sake is often a part of the holiday season, and can feel outside of our control. But traditions have to be balanced with doing what you really want to do. As parents, we want to give our grown up children the same freedom to discover how they want to celebrate or engage with the season, and so we have dropped a lot of activities over the years. However, some of our traditions have remained; five in particular have proven resilient in our home.

Outdoor lights, red and green: Each fall, I attach a special set of Christmas lights to my eaves troughs. I have had this set of lights for over 20 years and while they are not energy saving LED bulbs, I will use them until I can’t find replacements—at least I’m recycling and reusing, right?

A real tree: Why wouldn’t someone who loves nature and trees want to bring one into the house? Our tree is not “pretty,” but I like to see and smell the real thing, which displays family memories and reminders of Christmas.

Many feasts: We love baking, cooking and preparing delicious meals all year long. The holiday season gives us an opportunity to really indulge. Between twenty and forty people connected to my family gather for a few hours every Christmas to eat, drink, argue, and be together.

We are not a particularly close family, but as my nuclear family grows, our Christmas feasts are an acknowledgement that we belong to one another, and that this is good.

Intense board games: These are boisterous affairs, that don’t always lead to peace and goodwill, but that’s OK, because the goal is interaction, not world domination—not usually.

A spiritual focus: While not everyone in our household subscribes to a faith, my husband and I are Christian, and this has informed and influenced our approach to Christmas. We try, with varying degrees of success, to resist the commercialization of this time of year, sharing Advent readings about hope, joy, patience and peace.

Traditions need not be a burden. Figure out what you want, figure out what you can actually do, figure out what you can afford, and have a great time!

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RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. WRAP US AROUND YOUR GIFTS. IT’S LIKE A HUG.