HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-12-21, Page 17THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017. PAGE 17.
Cardiffs feed the community first at Christmas
Ho, ho, ho - Hard!
Matt Cardiff, the president of the Brussels Agricultural
Society, is seen here curling with his beloved Brussels
Curling Club while donning some seasonal attire. He isn't
actually Santa Claus, he only plays him on the ice. (Photo
submitted)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Christmas for the Cardiff family
often comes after many other
families in Brussels and the
surrounding area have celebrated
theirs, complete with meals from
Cardiff Catering.
Jeff and Cathy Cardiff, along with
their son Matt, often spend the
weeks leading up to Christmas
feeding families and friends
throughout Brussels at their family
celebrations or at community
holiday gatherings. This schedule is
so unwavering that, often, only a
week before Christmas the family
begins to focus on itself and its
festivities for the holidays.
"Our focus is usually definitely on
work before Christmas and then the
kids get into a panic," Jeff said.
However, despite panicked family
members and a tight timeline, there
has never been a problem pulling
Christmas off without a hitch at the
Cardiff house with all of its annual
traditions.
This year, Jeff and Cathy's
daughter Emily is destined to be
back in Huron County for Christmas
(she is a nurse in British Columbia
and isn't always back for Dec. 25)
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which is something to which the
family is very much looking
forward.
That hasn't always been the case
due to the nature of Emily's job, so
there have been times that the family
has celebrated at other times
throughout December to assure that
the entire family would all be
together.
"This year Emily will be back a
week before Christmas, so we're
really pleased with that," Jeff said.
One thing that family has always
done together over the holidays,
which kicks things off in late
November, is decorate the Brussels
Agricultural Society's float for the
Brussels Santa Claus parade.
With the Cardiffs being
synonymous with the society for
decades through several generations,
the family has always been at the
centre of decorating the float for the
annual village event. Jeff said the
float has often included items from
the Cardiff home farm as decoration,
putting a little bit of home on display
for the rest of the village for the
holidays.
Traditionally, however, the family
has a rather regimented schedule
when it comes to the days
surrounding Christmas.
For years, the Cardiffs have shared
Christmas Eve with their long-time
friends, the Schimanskis. That
tradition will come to an end this
year, however, as Frank and Jennie
Schimanski have sold their funeral
home and have now moved to
Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island.
For nearly 20 years, the families
would alternate hosting dinner on
Christmas Eve. One year it would be
the Cardiffs and the next year it
would be the Schimanskis and after
dinner they would then alternate
services for Christmas Eve between
Brussels United Church and
Melville Presbyterian Church
depending on the year.
On Christmas Day, Matt said that
for years the family was obliged to
do chores before any Christmas
presents entered into the equation.
When the Cardiffs had pigs on their
home farm, Jeff and Cathy would
head out into the barns and do chores
for hours while Matt and Emily had
to wait in their beds, not able to
come down the stairs, until the
chores were done.
Matt remembers it being as long as
three hours some years, which felt
like torture.
Once down the stairs, however, all
was right with the world and
presents were opened, although Jeff
said that they were never a present -
heavy family. The holidays around
the Cardiff home were always more
about getting together with family
than they were about giving dozens
of gifts to one another.
Matt said it seems like right after
the gifts were unwrapped and he and
his sister were playing with them,
there was brunch with eggs benedict
and then it was onto making
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Christmas dinner, which was always
at Jeff's mother Betty's house (and
her husband Murray who passed
away recently).
It was a relatively small gathering,
Jeff said, with about 12 or 13 family
members over to Betty's for dinner.
Those numbers pale in
comparison, Jeff said, to
Christmases when he was a young
boy with his family. Often between
40 and 45 people would be at a
family member's house, which he
said could get a little chaotic.
Cathy then always hosts her side
of the family at her and Jeff's home
farm on Dec. 27. Over the holidays,
Cathy will often make her Christmas
pudding, a recipe that has been
handed down by her Grandma Peel.
Cathy said the pudding comes from
a church cookbook of her
grandmother's, but that Cathy hadn't
attempted making it herself until her
grandmother had passed away.
Another tradition that has
followed the Cardiff family through
the years is cutting their own
Christmas tree every year from the
farm. Some years, Jeff said, the tree
has been better than others.
Matt says there have been some
"Charlie Brown" tree years, where
the tree has certainly looked better
out in the field than in the house.
And while the family's Christmas
tree hasn't always been the most full
tree on the lot over the years, Matt
said it has often been very tall. It's
gotten to the point, he said, that he
often can't trim the top even with a
ladder, so he has to use the family's
tractor in conjunction with a bucket
to reach the top of the tree.
Merry Christmas
From Our Family To Yours
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This Christmas season, we'd like to join you and yours
in a prayer for harmony, understanding and peace.
As we give thanks to the Lord, we'd also like to
acknowledge all the people who have given to us their
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Brussels 519-887-9309