Kitchen parties aren’t the only holiday tradition for Atlantic Canadian musicians

Music is a big part of Maritime holiday tradition. In a region blessed with so many players and storytellers, instruments come out around the kitchen table on Christmas eve and often don’t get put away until the new year.

An east coast kitchen party inspires holiday cheer, but the musicians who bring the party find inspiration in holiday traditions of their own.

“When I think about Christmas, I think about friends coming home,” said singer-songwriter Elyse Aeryn. She said she looks forward hosting and attending parties with friends she only gets to see around the holidays.

“I love everyone being together,” Aeryn said. “That is my favourite part of Christmas.

Cape Breton musician Ashley MacIssac has a different kind of holiday tradition.

“I shut the doors, usually I don’t let anybody in, and I watch Scrooge all day,” MacIsaac said. “The rest of the year I try to give things to people all the time, and I don’t want to be forced to do it on one day, so Christmas Day is a day for me.”

MacIssac ends his solitude on a happier note by watching Frank Capra’s classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“And then I start a whole new year getting ready for Christmas again,” MacIsaac said.

Con O’Brien of the Irish Descendants comes from Newfoundland, outside the Maritimes, but like many Atlantic Canadians he returns to his spiritual roots at Christmas time.

“I will sing in the choir at home in the church in Bay Bulls for Midnight Mass and Christmas eve,” O’Brien said. “For me that was always you know, in the past as a child, that was a memorable moment.

“I’m Nigerian, so we eat a lot of good food,” said Harmz, another east coast artist. He said he doesn’t see his brothers in South Africa, his sister or parents very often so the holidays give them the chance to be under the same roof.

“The fact we all in a space just catching up and talking, that’s what I love about Christmas.