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We never ran out of junk food, seasonal music or enthusiasm.
The birth of a Christmas tradition started when my kids could both still comfortably fit in the back seat: We’d load up on licorice, chips, chocolate bars and pop, grab a handful of Christmas CDs — everything from Maddy Prior’s traditional Carnival Band to the Pogues to Bing Crosby — and take to the nighttime streets of Ottawa in search of the best and brightest Christmas lights.
Taffy Lane in Orléans always lived up to its reputation as the gaudiest, most concentrated White Hole of Christmas in the region, and Lowertown could always be counted on for displays that spilled over the hedgerows and fences of their tiny lawns. We mocked the tacky snowflakes projected onto the Parliament Buildings, and pointed and gaped in awe at the NCC lights downtown, especially those colour combinations we most favoured, such as the blues and greens of Confederation Park.
The kids are grown now and live in other cities, but they’ll soon be back for the holidays and eager for some junk food, a warm car, Vince Guaraldi on the iPod, and yet another drive along Marier Avenue.
Here are some of the familiar places we’ll go:
Taffy Lane, in Orléans.
Taffy Lane
When it comes to Christmas lights, there is probably no block better in all of Ottawa than Taffy Lane in Orléans, a White Hole of Christmas, where, at least for December, no dark matter escapes.
A densely decorated house on Marier Avenue.
Vanier
There are always lots of great light displays in Vanier, though none — anywhere in the city, in fact — as heavily laden as the above house on Marier Avenue, which is decorated not only with Christmas ornaments, but Halloween ones, Muppets, McDonald’s toys and all manner of gewgaws. It is perhaps the Christmas version of the 1970s TV sitcom Sanford and Son.
Green lights outside a house on Rideau Terrace.
Always impressive on Christmas-light tours are storeys-high evergreens decorated to their tops. This one is on Acacia Avenue in Rockcliffe Park.
Rockcliffe
The above house on Acacia Avenue alone makes a trip to Rockcliffe Park worth the time. How did they get the lights that high?
A nicely understated display of lights on St. Andrew Street in Lowertown.
A slightly less understated Lowertown house on Guigues Avenue, all dolled up for the holidays.
Lowertown
When you come across a few houses in a row decorated here, the results, with generally smaller lots each with proportionally more house, can really fill the eye with colour. The area’s historic roots to the Catholic church, meanwhile, often produce quieter, respectful displays.
Confederation Park
Downtown
Whoever plans the lighting at various area parks deserves an extra mandarin in his stocking. Some of the colour combinations are quite stunning, such as these two trees, one in blue, the other in green, in Confederation Park.
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, on Echo Drive.
Old Ottawa South
The building housing the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, on Echo Drive, did an outstanding job decorating a particularly tall evergreen.
查看原文...
The birth of a Christmas tradition started when my kids could both still comfortably fit in the back seat: We’d load up on licorice, chips, chocolate bars and pop, grab a handful of Christmas CDs — everything from Maddy Prior’s traditional Carnival Band to the Pogues to Bing Crosby — and take to the nighttime streets of Ottawa in search of the best and brightest Christmas lights.
Taffy Lane in Orléans always lived up to its reputation as the gaudiest, most concentrated White Hole of Christmas in the region, and Lowertown could always be counted on for displays that spilled over the hedgerows and fences of their tiny lawns. We mocked the tacky snowflakes projected onto the Parliament Buildings, and pointed and gaped in awe at the NCC lights downtown, especially those colour combinations we most favoured, such as the blues and greens of Confederation Park.
The kids are grown now and live in other cities, but they’ll soon be back for the holidays and eager for some junk food, a warm car, Vince Guaraldi on the iPod, and yet another drive along Marier Avenue.
Here are some of the familiar places we’ll go:
Taffy Lane, in Orléans.
Taffy Lane
When it comes to Christmas lights, there is probably no block better in all of Ottawa than Taffy Lane in Orléans, a White Hole of Christmas, where, at least for December, no dark matter escapes.
A densely decorated house on Marier Avenue.
Vanier
There are always lots of great light displays in Vanier, though none — anywhere in the city, in fact — as heavily laden as the above house on Marier Avenue, which is decorated not only with Christmas ornaments, but Halloween ones, Muppets, McDonald’s toys and all manner of gewgaws. It is perhaps the Christmas version of the 1970s TV sitcom Sanford and Son.
Green lights outside a house on Rideau Terrace.
Always impressive on Christmas-light tours are storeys-high evergreens decorated to their tops. This one is on Acacia Avenue in Rockcliffe Park.
Rockcliffe
The above house on Acacia Avenue alone makes a trip to Rockcliffe Park worth the time. How did they get the lights that high?
A nicely understated display of lights on St. Andrew Street in Lowertown.
A slightly less understated Lowertown house on Guigues Avenue, all dolled up for the holidays.
Lowertown
When you come across a few houses in a row decorated here, the results, with generally smaller lots each with proportionally more house, can really fill the eye with colour. The area’s historic roots to the Catholic church, meanwhile, often produce quieter, respectful displays.
Confederation Park
Downtown
Whoever plans the lighting at various area parks deserves an extra mandarin in his stocking. Some of the colour combinations are quite stunning, such as these two trees, one in blue, the other in green, in Confederation Park.
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, on Echo Drive.
Old Ottawa South
The building housing the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, on Echo Drive, did an outstanding job decorating a particularly tall evergreen.
查看原文...
