Canada's insider blog

It probably shouldn’t be surprising that way up north in Santa’s backyard, Christmas is celebrated with astonishing gusto. Church halls and community centres in Nunavut’s 27 far-flung hamlets are noisy with a full week of traditional Inuit games from blanket tosses and head-to-head tug-of-war to the tricky Inuit high kick and the southern favourite of bingo. There’s square dancing, fiddling, song from gospel to throat singing and “country food“ feasts with a smorgasbord of caribou, seal, musk ox, walrus and Arctic char.

In the territory’s capital, the City of Iqaluit organizes a Christmas parade on Dec.  10, and a calendar of events from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1. “The town explodes with light,” says Colleen Dupuis of Nunavut Tourism as neighbours vie to win the “best decorated house” prize during the annual Qaumakuluit Decorating Contest. In this darkest time of year when this town of 6,000 sees only six hours of daylight, illuminated reindeer prance across front yards and even the Legislative Assembly is a-glitter.

On New Year’s Eve, Iqaluit’s annual Midnight Snowmobile Parade sets off with hundreds of machines zooming onto frozen Frobisher Bay, many carrying flares or lanterns as they form lines, circles and patterns in a spectacular outdoor ballet that locals gather to watch from hilltops in town. Then the dark Arctic night is set alight with a fireworks display launched from the sea ice.