Newcomers During the Holidays
Fredericton, NB – With Christmas around the corner, Canadians are getting ready to decorate their homes and celebrate with their families. However, the holiday season has a different connotation for newcomers to Canada.
For newcomers who had to leave their families behind and adapt to their new lives in Canada, Christmas is a time to spend with their friends and create new holiday traditions. During the second quarter of 2021, around 3,857 newcomers came to New Brunswick. For some of them, the winter season presents many challenges and can trigger nostalgia and longing for the families back home.
Some immigrants arrived to Canada accompanied by their families when they were children. This is the case of Alex Dascalu, a newcomer living in Canada for over ten years. Although he came from Romania with his parents and spends Christmas with them, Alex enjoys going to his international friends’ annual Holiday get-together.
Alex explains that Christmas is one of his favourite times of the year. “For me Christmas is awesome, the best things are the food, the presents, the people,” he said.
Newcomers that came alone bring a piece of home to their new lives in Canada by sharing their cultures and food with their friends during the holidays. Piece by piece, newcomers form new communities with their chosen families.
This is the case of Emilia Gutierrez, who has lived in Fredericton for five years and spent her first Christmas away from home last year during the pandemic.
“I was very lucky, to be able to spend Christmas with my second family, which I am very lucky to have found. But Christmas wasn’t the same without my family and that brought me a lot of nostalgia,” Emilia said.
With COVID-19 restrictions lifted this year, her family will be able to come to Fredericton for the holidays. To prepare for their arrival, Emilia is going all out and decorating her home to welcome her family to the Canadian winter.
“This year is going to be really different because my mom, my dad and my sister are arriving on the 12th of December. So, it’s going to be all of us cramped in my two-bedroom apartment here in Fredericton, in my tiny kitchen cooking Christmas dinner and hosting some of my friends who are also staying behind,” she said.
Emilia explains that she still worries about the COVID-19 cases rising in the province. As of today, there are 760 active cases in New Brunswick. On December 3rd, the provincial government announced the Winter Action Plan to deal with the rising cases. Although the province is on alert level 1 right now, Emilia fears that with the new cases the province will go to level 3 and her family will not be able to come to Fredericton.
“With the covid cases rising and the new variant, Omicron, I am scared that my family won’t be able to enter Canada and that Christmas this year will be cancelled again. After not seeing them for two years, I feel like I am so close to seeing them but with all the uncertainty, anything can change in the blink of an eye,” she said.
On the other hand, for newcomer children like Wicha Nasradine who recently arrived in the province, the winter holidays have a different meaning as they don’t celebrate Christmas. For them, the holidays are a break from school where they can play with their friends and enjoy the winter season.
“It is my first time seeing snow here in Canada. I feel is good but also is too much cold,” Wicha said.
As Canadians prepare for Christmas, newcomers from around the world bring a different perspective to the holiday season.