Merry Christmas from historic Queensborough!
Happy Winter Solstice, dear readers! (I hope you have checked out today’s delightful Google Doodle that marks the occasion.) The shortest day of the year is a day that always makes me happy. Why? Because it only gets better from here on in. On each succeeding day between now and the Summer Solstice on June 20, we will have a little more daylight to enjoy.
People, the dead of winter is already behind us. And it hasn’t even snowed yet! At least, not in Queensborough. Not really.
Anyway, the night of the Winter Solstice seems like the perfect time to wish you all a very happy Christmas. And what better way to do that than with a kind of digital Christmas card, featuring Christmas scenes from Queensborough? (Which is, as I have noted before, kind of a perfect little Christmas village.)
Many homeowners around here do an absolutely spectacular job of lighting up and otherwise decorating their properties for Christmas. Obviously it’s most impressive at night, but since I have not yet mastered the art of taking good nighttime pictures, I can’t (this year, anyway) do those scenes justice. But here are a few images that I hope give you a sense of Christmas in Queensborough:
In addition to decorations on private homes, Queensborough has been made Christmassy thanks to the elves at the Queensborough Beautification Committee. They have added some lovely seasonal touches to public spaces in the village. Thanks, elves! Here’s a sampling:
I think we can all agree that Queensborough is about as nice a place to spend a quiet Christmas as there can possibly be, and Raymond and I are looking forward to doing just that. And hey – if you’d like to get a taste of a country Christmas in our beautiful North-of-7 part of the world, you can! Here’s a hint:
Regular readers and people who know this area will instantly recognize this historic building. It’s Hazzards Corners Church, where every Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. a lovely candlelight Christmas service of lessons and carols is held. It is a highlight of the Christmas season. Every year people from near and far fill the old pews to sing O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night and Joy to the World, and to listen to the story, timeless in its beauty and simplicity, of the birth of Jesus.
Because, as Linus says: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Meanwhile, at the Manse 
Katherine, what beautiful pictures of the Village and surrounding area. I am sure people who have never been to the Village don’t realize what they are missing. I am proud to have grown up there and still miss it, especially at this time of year..
I’m so glad the photos found their way to you of all people, Barbara! Yes, the people of Queensborough are really doing a good job of keeping our village looking as pretty as it always has. Like you, I am proud to have grown up there – and so happy to be back. Hope to see you back for a visit at the annual Pancake Breakfast at the Queensborough Community Centre, if not before!
Beautiful photos of Christmastime in Queensborough and At The Manse!
Thank you so much, Eloise! And we got snow in time for New Year’s, which made Queensborough look Christmassier (I just made that word up) still!
Katherine … I just discovered your blog tonight and have been enjoying it for over an hour probably closer to two. I’ll need to return to read more. I do not know why it took until now for it to show up in a search for “Hazzard’s Corners Ontario.” I’ve enjoyed learning more about the church at Hazzard’s Corners where my fourth great grandfather likely attended from its start. We occasionally make a research trip up that way which was the case last summer. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it the weekend the church is used, we were there the following weekend.
Long ago in the 1990s we visited the area for the first time and went driving because not much was open on Sundays back then. My Dad was driving and driving searching for a church he read about in the brochures we had picked up. So as he drove and drove we looked and looked not finding the mention BUT there’s a church on the right! We turned around to walk the cemetery. And would you believe Dad walked right to grandpa’s stone lying flat in the grass? (We had not known he was buried there since we didn’t know much about the family at that point.) After some time wandering the cemetery a car came. Dad talked to the gentlemen and then more and more cars came. Dad was told the church was used just one day a year and this was it. So Dad got to go inside where his ancestors likely worshiped. We have a fondness for this church next to the “swamp.”
Last year we were amazed by how dry it was compared to prior visits when the water was lapping at the road. And then I saw your photos from a few years ago. Wow, was that bone dry or what?
I also loved your posts on the split rail fences. We often wondered if those were the same ones possibly laid by Dad’s ancestor and his family.
I’ll be sure to come back often and learn some more.
Hello, Lisa! How exciting to hear from a genealogy researcher with a strong (though long-ago) connection to the Hazzard’s Corners area and church! I was delighted to read your comment, especially the great story about chancing upon that beautiful old church and your ancestor’s burial place, all on the very day that the annual summer service was taking place! That’s pretty much serendipity defined. What was the name of your fourth great-grandfather? I will not be surprised if there are readers who can share information about the family. I gather from your interesting blog that you are based down in the States – New England maybe? I hope you’ll let me know the next time you might be heading up here for a research (or vacation) visit – we can compare notes on the rocky (and, yes, sometimes swampy) North-of-7 countryside and the lovely old split-rail fences here in this part of the world that we are both, though so many miles apart, so connected to. A very happy new year to you!
My fourth great grandpa was Seneca Rider. He died in 1866 and only a daughter Mary who married Samuel Bush and a son who never married stayed in the area so very few there now know the name. After his death the other kids spread themselves out in the states with mine coming to Michigan. (A lot of old Hastings County folk came this way.) If I recall right I think Seneca was the second owner of Lot 18, 9th concession Madoc Twp. buying it in 1848. The land was sold after his death.
Happy New Year to you too!
Lisa, I have to say that “Seneca Rider” is a seriously great name! I will keep my eyes peeled for references to your ancestors in historical materials I may come across.