If you’re in central Newfoundland there’s no difficulty finding children enjoying the winter — we had about 40cm on Thursday.

I can tap into the nostalgia without too much difficulty. I remember how much fun I had as a kid sledding, building snow forts and throwing snowballs. It’s not the same anymore. To misquote Joni Mitchell, I’ve seen snow from both sides now and there are so many things I could have done but snow got in the way.

Sigh.

It’s sort of the underlying sentiment of  A Children’s Winter, too. Written by Dermot O’Reilly and originally recorded by Ryan’s Fancy, the song paints a beautiful image of children having fun in the snow and reminds of the continuity in life — the ‘games once played by you and me’ are still the stuff of happy winter afternoons. It’s not strictly a Christmas song I suppose, but I’ve come to think of it as such. It shows up on many Christmas compilations including the 2012 Ennis Sisters release It’s Christmas. Check out their rendition above.

Newfoundland Christmas Music

Stay tuned for more great Newfoundland Christmas music.

I'm a big fan of traditional Christmas music, I love to hear a modern rendition of a 300 year old carol but, occasionally, a brand new song comes to my attention and dominates my Christmas listening.

Newfoundland's musicians have been holding their own in both regards. I’ll be sharing a song a day from now until Christmas in a NFLD Music Advent Calendar.

Follow along on Instagram stories and get playlists here.