Unicorn-pig hats not made here

When I was in school I was taught how import trade was to early cities and city states. What they couldn't make themselves, they could obtain through trade. For instance, China prospered by trading jade, spices and silk.

I thought about this while prowling London stores after Christmas. Today China prospers thanks to strong global sales of unicorn-pig hats. Unicorn-pig hats?!

When I was a boy London produced a long list of stuff that underpinned our way of life. We made everything from massive electrical transformers to fashionable wool sweaters. We were capable of so much. The range of what we produced was staggering. Today, the range of what we don't produce is equally staggering. Transformers? China. Sweaters? China. Today, we cannot even make our own unicorn-pig hats.

But before I could post this, my one granddaughter assured me that this is actually a unicorn hat despite its piglike nose.

She tells me it's not nice to point out that its nose is rounder, flatter and more snoutlike than most. It's unkind, she says.

To underline her point she has called up a true unicorn-pig on Pinterest.

Christmas candles: a fading tradition

When I was a boy my grandparents' used to set out a display of Christmas candles on their dining room table. I heard rumours of lit candles being placed carefully among the branches of the annual Christmas tree by some families but I never encountered the dangerous practice myself. Although my immediate family didn't light candles at Christmas, nevertheless, I came to consider brightly burning candles a Christmas tradition.

When my wife and I visited a friend over the holidays, she had a Christmas candle display arranged on a table in her living room. It was beautiful, traditional and slightly dangerous. The candles do not just add a visual delight to a room. The candles are scented. As the candles burn, fragrances, such as cinnamon, are released into the room.

I hadn't encountered a Christmas candle display like our friend's in years. I was left wondering how many people are still continuing to follow the old tradition.

Heritage home in London (Ont.) area

This is the heritage home just outside London with the face-nailed hardwood flooring that I discussed yesterday. The century home has been well maintained. Where possible it is original and where necessary it has been upgraded: bathrooms and kitchen.

Yet, this home has not had its walls removed to create an open-concept living space. The kitchen is modern but small; the dining room is useful but closed in on all four sides. It's intimate. And the entry has a small foyer with a number of exits plus a staircase leading to the bedrooms on the second floor.

Homes like this are not inexpensive in southwestern Ontario. In Toronto a home such as this would be valued at more than a million dollars (Canadian). Outside Toronto, in a place such as the London area, the price may drop by as much as half. But a price of as much as $900,000 would not raise eyebrows in the right location.

This heritage hardwood floor is face nailed.

This face nailed hardwood floor is in a home outside London, Ontario. The hardwood flooring looked good, considering its age, but on closer examination it was obvious this floor had been face nailed.

No one face nails an entire hardwood floor today. I was left to wonder just how common this practice was in the past. The home in which this floor is to found is more than a century old. The owner assured me that more homes in the area had similar floors.

Clearly there is a heavy price to be paid in esthetics. But that said, and accepted, the floor is amazingly squeak free. I imagine if one heard a squeak, pull the nail or nail in the area, and replace all with longer ones. Squeak gone.

Was this a southwestern Ontario aberration or was this done in many localities a hundred years ago?

Not exactly the white Christmas of story and song

It was a white Christmas in London, Ontario. But it was not the white thanks to snow but on account of heavy fog. It was a white and green and all-too-warm Christmas. The grandkids are looking forward to skiing come January and I'm getting concerned.

Christmas was a once a time to receive a London-made toy

Christmas morning once meant getting a few toys, games or puzzles from Somerville Industries and made right here in London, Ontario. Not so today. My granddaughters toys all game from mostly from China with one coming from Korea and another from Germany. Canadian made toys are a rarity.

I cannot understand why the simple, injection-molded plastic pan flutes given two of my granddaughters could not be made in London as stuff like this was in the past. But they aren't.

Oh well, enough of this. It's time to change tack and wish all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Some believe saying merry Christmas is politically incorrect today. Try telling that to my Muslim neighbours. The ones with the Christmas tree. They say the season is fun. They enjoy it. The mother and daughter especially enjoy the tradition of baking sweets for the holiday. And I assure you that their baklava is a sweet. There can be no argument.

In London, malls are not the shopping destinations they once were.

Every year my wife and I take two of our granddaughters Christmas shopping. We tour the stores in White Oaks mall and when done the kids and I stop for mini Cinnabon. It is an evil delight. Grandma doesn't partake and that just underlines how bad having an icing-topped Cinnabon must be.

White Oaks was possibly the first mall in London. Built by a local family on a major thoroughfare leading from the core to the four-lane highway serving the city, the mall was a great success.Over the intervening years it has faced a lot of competition and, although it has been hit hard, it is still arguably the most popular mall in town.

That said, the stores were not packed. The wide corridors were not bustling. The line-up for a Cinnabon wasn't long. With the biggest anchor stores now gone, the mall, appears to be marking time, holding its own.

I see the images of malls found in other cities and posted by members of this group and I'm jealous. Our remaining malls are nowhere near as grand. In fact, grand seems to be the kiss-of-death for a London mall.

Our downtown once boasted a true high-end mall. It cost something in the neighbourhood of $135 million to build back in the 1990s. Today that mall has lost almost everything it once sported at its opening, including its original name.