Canadian Studies Announcements 

In This Issue:

Holiday Wrap-Up 

 Boston’s Christmas tree: A symbol of Canadian-American friendship

 Anthony Bourdain in Quebec: Food as cultural storytelling

 Holiday recipe: Ragoût de boulettes

 Season’s Greetings from Canadian Studies! 

As the year draws to a close and winter break begins, we extend our warmest holiday wishes to our Canadian Studies community on both sides of the border. We hope this season brings moments of rest, good conversation, and wonderful memories shared with family and friends.

This time of year also invites reflection: on traditions, on connections, and on the histories that continue to shape the Canada-US relationship. Below are a few stories that remind us of how culture and exchange are often most visible during the holidays!

As we look ahead to the new year, we are grateful for your continued engagement and support. We are excited to carry these conversations forward through upcoming events, speakers, and shared inquiry into Canada’s cultures and histories.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a bright start to the year ahead. 

CANADIAN CULTURES

Boston’s Christmas Tree: A Symbol of Canadian-American Friendship

One of the most charming aspects of holiday traditions is how they serve to unite people, even those divided by borders or politics. For over fifty years, the people of Nova Scotia have sent a tree to Boston to serve as the city’s official Christmas tree. The tree is a gesture of thanks for the aid sent by Boston after the 1917 Halifax Explosion, which destroyed much of the city. The first tree was donated by a Nova Scotia farmer in 1971, to commemorate the 100-plus years of friendship between the two cities. The 2025 tree is a 45-foot tall white spruce from Lunenburg County, outside Halifax, where the 1971 tree also came from.

While visiting Nova Scotia last month to take part in the tree-cutting ceremony, Boston mayor Michelle Wu reasserted the strong ties between the people of Boston and Canada during a joint meeting with Halifax mayor Andy Fillmore. She stressed that despite the ongoing political tensions, the friendships forged between Bostonians and the people of Canada “can’t be shaken by a temporary political situation.”

More than just a festive display, the Boston tree is a living symbol of cross-border solidarity, one that quietly reaffirms how the impact of local actions can persist more than a century later. The tree stands as a reminder that diplomacy is not only practiced in policy, but also through interpersonal relations and shared history. Image from Boston.gov.

Anthony Bourdain in Quebec: Food as Cultural Storytelling

The late chef and writer Anthony Bourdain was beloved for his down-to-earth, human-centric travelogues that revealed the richness of the human experience through the cuisines of the places he visited. He approached each meal not as a tourist, but as a listener – and his visit to Québec twelve years ago was no different.

During his winter visit to Quebec on Parts Unknown (available on platforms such as Hulu and HBO), Bourdain shared meals from Montreal’s finest kitchens to the remote countryside. Joined by chefs David Macmillan and Frédéric Morin (owners of Montreal staple Joe Beef), he witnessed how the French tradition of excellence in food combined with a Québécois hardiness and hospitality for a unique culinary experience. Bourdain enjoyed foie gras with truffles in an ice fishing shack; travelled across snowy fields by train; ate stewed beaver for the very first time; shared a post-hockey meal with friends; and experienced a maple overload at chef Martin Picard’s sugar shack.

Bourdain also explored how food reflects language, class, and identity in Francophone Canada. He discussed the then-recent “Pastagate” incident, a controversy over French language laws sparked by Quebec government agents threatening a Montreal Italian restaurant for using words like “pasta” instead of their French equivalents. But in the end, Bourdain’s work offers a compelling reminder that cuisine can serve as an entry point into larger conversations about belonging, history, and cultural survival, especially during a season so closely tied to communal eating.

Holiday Recipe: Ragoût de Boulettes

During Canada’s cold winter months, nothing could be more satisfying than a hearty meat stew. In Quebec and other parts of Francophone Canada, that dish is commonly the ragoût de boulettes, a rich meatball stew that’s popular around the holidays. Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg give the dish a hint of a classic Christmas flavor profile, while luxurious pork meatballs ensure that the diner is satisfied and ready for winter hibernation!

The stew’s origin is debated. According to researcher Jean-François Foucault, it is believed to have originated from the ragoût de pattes, a stew made from pig’s feet. Because even cheaper cuts of meat were a luxury for the poor, the stew was typically made to celebrate important occasions, such as weddings, baptisms, or New Year’s Day (hence, it was also called ragoût du Jour de l’An in older cookbooks). The first known recipe was published in 1840 in La Cuisinière canadienne. In the book, the recipe is immediately preceded by another for pork meatballs, so Foucault speculates that enterprising cooks experimented with adding the meatballs to the stew. Today, while ragoût de pattes and ragoût de boulettes are formally two separate dishes, the boundaries between the two are blurred and it has become a common practice to combine them.

Variations of this disk can be found throughout Francophone families in Canada. Canadian Living offers a meatball-only recipe from the family of André Beauchamp in Ottawa, while Montreal-based celebrity chef Ricardo Larrivée offers a combination recipe including ham hocks. Image from RicardoCuisine.com.

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