A new story is born every time this year

By Daisy Hunt

hunt0241@algonquincollege.com

On Christmas Eve, 1981, a baby was born two weeks early. His parents had yet to settle on a name for their new son. A nurse suggested Nicholas.

“The nurses handed me to my mom in a Christmas stocking,” said Nicholas Lapierre, an Algonquin service representative who works at the Registrar’s Office.

Though Lapierre obviously can’t recall his “most memorable” holiday moment, many Algonquin students and staff look back at their past holidays with fond memories of ugly sweaters, snow plough rides to the hospital, and fake Santas.

“My whole family works in the hospitality business, and last year we all worked on Christmas Eve. We ate Christmas dinner together at 8 a.m. on Christmas morning,” said second-year dental hygiene student Tara Bladon.

While Bladon’s unconventional Christmas dinner left her with a quirky Christmas story to tell, first-year interactive multimedia development student and employee at the New Technology Store, Dan Morton has quite the holiday story of his own.

“When I was two and three years old I had a disorder that would basically shut down my body and make me unable to function at random times.” Morton continued to explain that he would lose consciousness during these periods and would have to be taken to a hospital.

“At Christmas-time that year we were snowed in to our house in Halifax, and I lost consciousness. My grandparents scoured the streets for the snow plough so that I could be taken to the hospital. They found the snow plough man and I got ploughed to the hospital in time.”

While Morton’s Christmas moment took him and his family from fear to relief, first-year child and youth worker student Brianna Maguire’s most memorable holiday moment took her from sadness to delight.

“When I was five I woke up and there were no presents under the tree. My parents looked at me and said ‘Santa must be running late this year.’ My brother, sister and I were just heart-broken,” said Maguire. “But then a rusty old station wagon came pulling into my driveway and out popped Santa with all our presents. He told us his sleigh broke down so he had to drive. Of course it was just my parent’s friend, but we totally believed him and it was the best Christmas ever.”

Some students look back and laugh at their most memorable holiday moments.

“Last year during the holidays me and a few buddies went to a thrift store and bought wool ‘Christmas sweaters.’ We went out to the bars wearing them, and we got some pretty funny looks from people,” said second-year business administration student and bartender at the Ob, Kent Johnston.

Another student who can have a good laugh at the holidays is first-year police foundations student Stephen Berry.

“About ten years ago at my grandparent’s house, we were sitting in the living room opening presents and my grandma went to pick up a present to give to my sister. She fell backwards, knocking the tree on top of her. Seeing my grandma's legs sticking out from under the tree had the entire family laughing before we helped her up,” said Berry. “That was definitely a memorable moment.”