“Last year, that was a transition phase where we were just understanding what is given priority here … and learning how to get ourselves involved with Canadian culture,” said Singh.
“This year, I think we are all set. We are pumped for Christmas.”
Tweet This
Navigating a new country and its culture has expanded beyond Kaur and Singh’s private life — they also give advice to new immigrants about life in Canada on theirYouTube channel.
Story continues below advertisement
Under the name Canada Couple, the two cover topics from how to dress for Canadian winters to how to find an apartment.
“We started this [YouTube channel] because we wanted people and new immigrants to learn from our mistakes,” he said. Now that the two are feeling more settled and comfortable in Canada, they are excited to engage with holiday traditions, said Singh.
Christmas is still celebrated in India, but it depends where you live, he said. Religious celebrations like Diwali are still their top priority, but Kaur says she is enjoying the traditions that come with the Christmas season.
Harmeet Singh and Manpreet Kaur with their Christmas tree. Photo provided by Singh and Kaur.
“Last year, we did exchange gifts with our colleagues and friends,” said Kaur. “But over here, what we really like is that people try and put a personal touch to it, as they always put a card and write.
“We learned that last year, and this year, we’re trying to implement it as much as we can,” she said.
Story continues below advertisement
For the couple, the best part about the season is the energy around the holidays, which is similar to the excitement around Diwali in India, said Singh. For Kaur, she’s smitten with Christmas cookies.
“That’s really amazing because baking is not as big a deal, it’s not too common in India,” she said. “People put so much effort … I really enjoy eating those different cookies.”
Kaur says she encourages Canadians who aren’t new to the country to share traditions and customs with new immigrants to make them feel welcome and a part of the season’s celebrations.
“Tell me about the traditions, like what they do normally,” said Kaur, adding that her co-workers have made her feel involved during the holidays. “That makes me comfortable, and I’m more comfortable asking them more about what they like to do … and how do we celebrate?”
Knowing which traditions work for you
Determining which Canadian holiday traditions to take part in and which to leave behind was what Saima Jamal had to navigate when she moved to Calgary 20 years ago from Bangladesh.
She remembers her aunt, who had been living in Canada since the 1970s, had a Christmas tree, a full turkey dinner and presents — which wasn’t what she was used to being Muslim.
Story continues below advertisement
“It was a good surprise, but a huge insight into how things happen in Canada,” she said, adding that she was shocked to see her cousins wearing Christmas pyjamas and opening gifts.
“Christmas back home was very, very different. Nobody really celebrated it, we just took a cake and went to our Christian friend’s house,” she said.
Jamal has put up a tree before, but the tradition didn’t stick for her and her family. Today, she spends her time with the Calgary Immigrant Support Society, a non-profit she co-founded to help settle refugees.
Depending on the needs of the refugees, sometimes volunteers have brought Christmas trees to their homes and shown them how to decorate one, she said.
They’ve also hosted potluck and community holiday dinners for specific groups, like Syrian refugees and their children, that involve a visit from Santa and gifts, she said.
“For the first time, they experienced Christmas in Canada, it makes them feel a part of Canada … like a part of the society,” she said. “It isn’t so much obviously religious, but it’s just about being part of Canadian traditions.”
Along with hosting refugees, Jamal recently organized a dinner event, along with new immigrants who have connected with the society, to feed the homeless in Calgary. That’s a tradition that’s the most rewarding, she said.
Story continues below advertisement
1:45 Recent immigrants in Edmonton took part in their first Canadian Christmas celebration
Recent immigrants in Edmonton took part in their first Canadian Christmas celebration
“There are lots of immigrants who are looking out, just like Canadians, for opportunities to help out in the community around this time of year,” she said. “They’re much more well-settled to give back.”
Very recent immigrants are still figuring out what works for them when it comes to the holidays, said Jamal. She recommends connecting with those families, especially refugees, at this time of year.
“Even if you have nothing to give, if you just come over for a cup of coffee and spend an hour talking to them,” she said. “That is sometimes the best gift you can give to a newcomer.”
Creating your own traditions
Connecting with new friends in their community in Calgary is what helped Rashmeet Dhillon and her family feel more comfortable with winter and want to celebrate Christmas, she said.
The Dhillons moved from Punjab, India to Canada almost 10 years ago when Rashmeet was 15 years old. She recalls new friends showing her how to make snow angels and their family attending holiday concerts at her sibling’s school.
“I was lucky enough to make some great friends, and they made me feel very included and part of the celebration culture,” she said.
Story continues below advertisement
For her family’s second Christmas in Canada, she and her sister convinced her parents to get a Christmas tree. The holiday wasn’t unusual for her, as in India they took part in Diwali and Christmas celebrations, even though they are Sikhs.
“We had to start with a little one, and then two years after that, we got a bigger tree as well,” she said. “And now, every year, we make it a thing where we don’t decorate the tree by ourselves, everybody sits together.”
Now, as an adult, Dhillon has her own holiday traditions, which include inviting her friends for a potluck and wearing a Christmas cardigan to work. She is also teaching her young cousins about the festivities, especially since they love decorating their tree.
Creating a secret Santa at work is an easy way to integrate newcomers, as it’s not a religious practice and simply involves gift-giving, she said.
“It’s a nice tradition to start becoming a part of,” she said. “It’s creating that space to just come and enjoy it, to have a good time and have fun with no pressure. I think those are always good.”
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
