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End of Second World War brought Christmas spirit to New Westminster

For many years we have sought out great stories to use as part of our Christmas and New Year’s presentations and projects. We have been fortunate to find some wonderful examples.
Archie and Dale Miller
Our Past with Archie and Dale Miller

For many years we have sought out great stories to use as part of our Christmas and New Year’s presentations and projects.

We have been fortunate to find some wonderful examples. Most newspapers tended to focus on the final periods of war years and how the holiday season – the first after a particular conflict – was approached and embraced.

The British Columbiannewspaper editorial on Christmas Eve, 1945, included the following: “It’s the first peacetime Christmas after six years of war and if it is not all that fancy painted, at least it is infinitely better than any of its recent predecessors. To many thousands of Canadians, to millions of others, the dominant feature of this Christmas is absence of the fear that overshadowed their homes, fear of the knowledge that their men and women in the services overseas were in danger. For six years that spectre sat at the festive board, was in the back of the mind amid the gaiety of Yuletide. It has gone for those to whom it was only a fear; for others it has been translated into a personal tragedy for which the passage of time is the only solace.

“Although there is still great trouble abroad on this old earth, the carnage has ceased. For that reason, it is permissible to cast aside for a time concern over the miseries of mankind; it is now not incongruous to wish one another a Merry Christmas; it is above all possible to hope for the arrival some day of that state of peace on earth to men of goodwill.”

The Army and Navy Department Store featured the following in this issue: “As we contemplate the blessing of the first peacetime Christmas in many years, let us remember the men who fought – and those who died – to defend our freedom. May we lay hold of the task of keeping this peace with a strong grasp and never lose that hold.

“Families are together again. Ye olde tyme happiness fills the home amid the gaiety of holly berries and the glow of Christmas candles – let us be merry and content, and in so doing, help to perpetuate the age-old sentiment of the universe: Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.”

This was Christmas 1945, just after the end of the Second World War.