The Drysdale family has been supplying Toronto families and businesses with Christmas trees since 1950. In fact, for the last fifteen years, the huge, decorated tree at Toronto's TD Centre has come from the Drysdale Farm, near the town of Ballantrae in York Region.

"Cutting your own Christmas tree is environmentally friendly", says Doug Drysdale, who heads the family business. "Young, vigorous growing trees are nature's most efficient oxygen producers. Just one acre of trees provides oxygen for 18 people and an ideal environment for wild turkeys, deer, rabbit and fox. Tree plantations also recharge our precious water table."

The Drysdale's 400-acre farm is open to visitors every December weekend. If you want to cut your own tree, saws are available and the farm will bale your tree for easy transport. Horse and tractor-drawn wagon rides are offered and refreshments are served.

The York Durham Heritage Railway runs a Santa train every holiday season. Several communities organize festivals of light. Historic Unionville, Kleinburg and Schomberg host annual Main Street Christmas celebrations. Schomberg's proud agricultural heritage is reflected in its day-long celebration, which ends with a Farmer's Light Parade featuring Santa riding a huge, brightly lit combine.

Local hotels tie into the region's festivities by offering special holiday packages for families and couples.

 Every year, the Lake Simcoe Winds Sport Festival is held in early March (weather dependent) on Lake Simcoe's south shore. This festival attracts daredevils from all over the world seeking the best winds to kite ski, kite-snowboard or uniboard. Weird devices such as skimbats, ram air kites, and ice buggies streak across the ice at breakneck speed.

According to www.canadianwindrider.com, a web site for windsport buffs, if you measure the sailable terrain of Lake Simcoe, it is about 20 times larger than the skiable terrain at Whistler, British Columbia.

Lake Simcoe is part of the Trent Severn Waterway which connects Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. It is southern Ontario's largest body of water, excluding the Great Lakes.

An icy story idea related to Lake Simcoe is its international reputation for ice fishing. The World Ice Fishing Championships were held off the lake's southern shore in 2003. International participants still rave about it according to ESPN Fishing Editor, Ken Schultz, who wrote about Lake Simcoe ice fishing as a lead into a story on the Canadian Ice Fishing Championships, which took  place here in winter 2007.  For more information on ice-fishing and other winter activities in York Region, see provide link.

22% of the population in York Region is of Chinese or Asian descent. This makes the region one of the best places to ring in the Chinese New Year. In 2008, the Year of the Pig celebrations begin in February. Three local malls in the Markham area have planned big celebrations that will culminate with a New Year's Eve countdown.

One of the many Chinese customs during New Year's celebrations is the New Year's banquet. These large feasts are hosted by families and restauranteurs. Rice, which is traditionally a main dish in Chinese culture, often takes a back seat to meat and seafood. In fact, banquet patrons will often leave the rice to the end of a banquet feast and then only pick at it rather than gobble it up. This is out of respect for the banquet host. For it is his or her prosperity over the past year that has allowed for the banquet to take place and for seafood and meat to become the main dishes. Other Chinese traditions include the giving and receiving of red 'envelopes' or red 'packets' filled with money. These are considered to be good luck. If you are a married couple, you traditionally give a red envelope to single family members and friends who come to your door during Chinese New Year. Businesses hand red envelopes out to patrons and patrons often give red envelopes to service industry employees. At each mall celebration, more traditions are observed. Local Kung Fu clubs perform lion and dragon dances to wish the malls and their patrons good luck and prosperity for the coming year. Costumed performers sing and dance to traditional Chinese music and a well-respected member of the Asian community makes predictions for the coming year. 

 

For more information on these and other York Region Winter adventures, contact us.