The Bookless Club: What is your wish for the world at this special time of year?

What do grateful nations give as Christmas presents? They give Christmas trees. Big, huge, splendiferous Christmas trees. It’s a grand gesture but, sadly, one where the story is often not as well remembered as it should be.

For many years now, Trafalgar Square boasts a massive Norway spruce. It’s been an annual gift from Norway every year since 1947. The city of Oslo sends this tree every year in gratitude for crucial British support during the Second World War. Not only did Britain support the Norwegian government-in-exile, they fought alongside them, providing air and naval power, as well as helping resistance efforts against German occupation. To say Norway was grateful is an understatement.

The whole procedure around the Trafalgar tree is imbued with pomp, from the ceremonial felling of a carefully selected 20-metre tree deemed to be that year’s “queen of the forest”, through to the tree’s transport by freighter up the Thames, where the tree is unloaded and transported through the city to the historic square in early December. The decorations are quite spare, in keeping with traditional Norwegian style — simple vertical lines of energy-efficient white lights, and at the top, a star. The Trafalgar tree is taken down on Jan. 6 and then chipped into mulch.

Sadly, it seems that the history associated with this tree has also been mulched as so few people today know why it makes its annual appearance.

A little-known aspect of this story is that Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, had a hand in this tradition. The story goes that two trees had arrived in London from Norway. One was intended for the exiled Norwegian king, Haakon VII, but the other tree ended up erected in Trafalgar Square following what, I imagine, was a boozy dinner of naval intelligence officers at the Savoy Hotel, Commander Fleming among them.

London isn’t the only place that receives an annual Christmas tree from Norway. Newcastle-upon-Tyne gets a tree from Bergen, Sunderland receives a tree from Stavanger each year, and a small town in Shetland displays a Norwegian gift tree outside the Lerwick Town Hall each year.

Canada has been no slouch in the area of symbolic gestures of gratitude at Christmas. The iconic Christmas tree at Boston Common is an annual gift from Nova Scotia to the city of Boston in remembrance of that city’s grand response to a disaster in Halifax.

The story is a grim one. It was 8:45 a.m. on Dec. 6, 1917. A French cargo ship, the SS Mont-Blanc, loaded with munitions, was carrying her cargo from New York City via Halifax to France when she collided with another ship in Halifax harbour, the Norwegian ship, the SS Imo. The collision resulted in a fire. The fire detonated the munitions. The resulting blast is considered the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic age. Just how big was this blast? In the aftermath, the 1,140 pound (517 kg) anchor of the SS Mont-Blanc was found inland, about two and a half miles (approx. four kilometres) from the harbour. The event is recorded in the history books as the Halifax Explosion. The explosion claimed about 2,000 lives, injured 9,000, and left hundreds, not only homeless, but blind due to shards of flying glass. So many people were blinded that the Canadian National Institute for the Blind was created to provide ongoing assistance to the afflicted.

This is where Boston comes in. They were swift to respond. As soon as they had word of the disaster, Boston dispatched a train loaded with everything from food, water and medical personnel and supplies. The train arrived in Halifax just two days following the explosion.

The following year, Nova Scotia sent its first Christmas tree to Boston as a symbol of thanks for its critical help. In the years that followed, a tradition was born, albeit a wobbly one for a while due to a second global conflict. But in 1971, the tradition became formalized. These days, Nova Scotia’s gift tree arrives in Boston often escorted by RCMP officers and is erected and lit with great ceremony.

So, when you see one of those gigantic, emblazoned beauties, recognize that what you are seeing isn’t just civic adornment but, sometimes, something deeply symbolic. Something that truly expresses the ideals of the season, across every faith and creed. If ever there was evidence that light follows darkness, these trees are monuments to that great and enduring hope.

Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

This week’s question for readers:

Question: What is your wish for the world at this special time of year?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

Last week’s question for readers:

Question: Does tourtière feature in your holiday meals?

• What a pleasant surprise to see your column about tourtière in The Sun this morning. I was reading the paper and waiting for my daughter to come over to continue our decades-long tradition of making tourtière together. I get to spend a day with just one daughter at a time doing something we really look forward to. They get tourtière to take home, and I get the pleasure of spending most of a day with them. My mother might be a bit disappointed that I am not using her tourtière recipe, but would be pleased that tourtière is keeping the family close.

Peter Hiebert

• Growing up in Quebec, pork-based tourtière was our family’s Christmas Eve dinner. I no longer eat meat, but have found an exceptional vegetarian recipe that we have been using for many years, and nobody has a clue it’s not meat.

Gail Gingera

• Over 30 years ago, I asked my French-Canadian friend, Michel, what he missed most about Christmas in Quebec. He answered, with great longing and nostalgia, that it was the tourtière on Christmas Eve. I immediately decided to bake one for him. Coincidentally, my Canadian Living magazine arrived in the mail that very day (this was pre-internet) with a tourtière recipe on the cover.

I baked a pie to share with him, and a tradition was formed. I have made it every year since, which means one less decision to make around Christmas. We typically round out the meal with some fresh green beans and a salad of reds and greens.

Susan Alcock

• I was introduced to tourtière 45 years ago when my ex-mother-in-law made it for New Year’s dinner one year. I remember thinking it was the oddest combination — who marries cinnamon with ground meat? — but the end result was delicious. It didn’t hurt that it was made with the most beautiful flaky pastry. I have made it a few times, although not for many years. Now I’m inspired, and just in time for the holidays.

Tracy Cole

• My aunt who lived in Montreal until retiring to Chilliwack made tourtière for Christmas Eve. When she passed, I took over the tradition. My children now do the same if they cannot be with us at Christmas. My aunt’s recipe had a mixture of pork, beef and turkey, plus mixed in the filling is mashed potatoes. And we never forget the gravy.

Gordon Chatry