Old Photographs of Christmas Trees and Lights in Vancouver (Gallery)

When a tornado hit Ontario this summer, a video uploaded to TikTok showed the devastation on a house with the Christmas lights still up. A commenter snidely cracked, even the tornado couldn’t take the lights down. Besides the obvious crime of leaving the lights up, there are also strident thoughts about the optimal time to turn them on. After Remembrance Day? On December 1? When to turn them off? To avoid the drama, we can always drive or walk around and look at other people’s lights.

There are also annual attractions like the VanDusen Botanical Garden’s Winter Festival of Lights featuring over one million bulbs.

Despite a tree shortage, the age-old debate of real or artificial trees is still heated. Find a place in your home to store one all year, or trudge into a woodlot and fall your own tree and contend with dead pine needles scattered all over the floor. Fun fact, I’ve never owned a Christmas tree, but I still inspect my mom’s tree every year to make sure all the ornaments I’ve ever made are still hanging on the branches.

All kidding aside, it is nice to have at least a touch of holiday cheer, as vintage pictures from the Vancouver Archives show, whether it’s a wreath in a fish shop or a tree propped in front of a work campsite.

To check out the Vancouver Archives and their incredible gallery of old photographs and documents, visit their website HERE.