Oh, Tannenbaum in Edmonton, by Inge Vermeulen

A German immigrant family spends their first Edmonton Christmas in 1952. The hard times were improved by a fifty-cent Christmas Tree, homemade presents, a parcel from Germany, and the special efforts of good friends and family.

Inge Vermeulen is from Stuttgart, Germany. She immigrated in 1952. Her husband’s name is Henry and they have two girls.


We came from Germany (1952). My husband, who had lived through two wars didn’t want his children to have to face another war and we were looking for a country that was safe.


We tried several countries.


Edmonton was the only place that answered. He had to work as an intern again (had been a doctor for 18 years already.)


Came by ship with 2 little girls and then by train from Halifax.


Vast country with funny little wooden houses in the middle of bush.


The first thing I asked when we arrived here (Edmonton) was where were the mountains?


Immigration. Very quick. Free food. Room to ourselves. Incredible. No one knew us but it was still a kind of welcome.


Drove up Jasper Ave – just removing street car tracks for the busses.


101 St: we were so tired, the altitude here was so different.


Funny stores with furs. Looked gastly.


Between May 1st and September 15th we moved 10 times. Because I had to work. I worked as a maid. I don’t eat Cornflakes any more! Grim times.


Christmas story. No money for presents. Not used to customs. Visited by many friends.


Family. Henry had 4 children by his first wife.


Henry was able to start his practice after he wrote his exams.


I had high school English. Our oldest daughter spoke a little.


Between May the 1st when we arrived and September the 15th we moved ten times. I had to go to work because Henry, as an intern, he made $40 a month and room and board, and that was not quite enough to feed us. And I worked as a maid and I made $175 which was just enough for room and board for the little girls and my rent for a furnished room and a little bit of food. I don’t eat Cornflakes any more because I think during those first few months I lived on Cornflakes because that was the cheapest stuff. And then it always turned out that people could not look after two little children – one and a half and two and a half is a very difficult age. So these were such grim times that I really don’t want to talk about them.


The Christmas story was kind of special. We knew that Christmas would be difficult. We knew we would be homesick. We would feel very strange because we had found out some of the Christmas customs in Canada that were quite, quite different from the German ones. So we anticipated it would be difficult. To have no money for Christmas doesn’t make things easier. We had no money to buy presents. But Henry had made friends with the carpenter at the University Hospital and they discovered a barrel for him which nobody used any more and he painted it red and the carpenters helped him to put a floor in it and wallpaper and that was to be a doll house for the girls. We didn’t have any money to buy dolls and I made some with string and Popsicle sticks and things like that. Anyway we had Christmas parcel from Germany to be opened on Christmas Eve – this is when Christmas takes place in Germany – on Christmas Eve. There is no Santa Claus. There is nothing “Ho, Ho, Ho” about it! It’s a family thing. That Christmas Eve you light the Christmas tree for the first time and you exchange the gifts. Now lighting the Christmas tree: we were used to a Christmas tree with real candles and we were told “No, that couldn’t be done here.” And we could see that this would be very dangerous, so we bought a Christmas tree on the afternoon of the 24th. We got it really, really cheap for 50 cents because nobody else wanted it. It was a terrible, terrible tree! We had one of those strings of lights – 12 – and if one candle burned out the whole thing went dead. They don’t make them like this any more. So it was pretty dark. But Henry got his guitar out and he played a little bit of Christmas music and the little girls played in the new doll house and then all of a sudden somebody knocked at the door really loud and we thought this was strange. Christmas Eve! You don’t go around visiting on Christmas Eve! This is family. So we went to the door and there were friends of ours! Dr. Donald and his wife and his three daughters and they had come to wish us Merry Christmas! And they had parcels and they had two doll carriages for the little girls and they came in and they had brought food. And no sooner were they in again, there were people at the door, and there was a man who had sold Henry the life insurance and he had come with his family and then the carpenter from the University Hospital had come and doctor friends had come from the hospital and neighbours. One doctor brought a parcel with 2 dolls for the girls. His mother had bought the dolls and she had made all the clothes for them. It was absolutely overwhelming. It went on for a long time. The living room was full with people. We sat on the floor. And we laughed and talked. And the little girls were loaded down with presents. They would throw parcels in the air because they didn’t know how to open Christmas presents. After everybody had left, Henry and I, we were sitting together, and we knew that this was the happiest Christmas we had ever had. It was in a strange country. People had gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and liked. And I think it was that night in Edmonton that we became Canadians by heart.