Winter In Toronto

This is our second winter in Toronto, and it looks like we might actually get to enjoy a white Christmas. Last year it really did not snow at all. Any snow that came down melted the next day. The weather Network keeps threatening snow, but it rarely comes. I get “SPECIAL WEATHER ALERTS” warning residents to stay home due to VERY hazardous conditions, and nothing happens - no snow to speak of. But this year it snowed two days before Christmas and it might actually hang around long enough to make Christmas a nice festive white. So with both children here in Toronto with us, we decided to go out for a nice walking tour in the snow.

First stop was at Allan Gardens Conservatory for a photo opportunity with their Poinsettia Display. I have written previously about this really spectacular site which is just two blocks from the condo and it is especially nice at Christmas with their poinsettias looking so festive.

Allan Gardens 

Next stop was a coffee shop that Regis wanted to try from a little Toronto Coffee Shop passport book she got from a friend, but we discovered that this particular shop only had two inside seats so the coffee was taken to go and as we walked through the falling snow in downtown Toronto, the nice hot coffee kept everyone warm. As I stood outside the coffee shop waiting for everyone’s orders to be filled, I watched a woman in tan leather pants and tall stiletto shoes trying to navigate through the slushy, slippery sidewalks - she perhaps thought her pointy heels were going to provide a bit of winter traction? 

We stopped for the required photo with the Toronto sign behind the popular skating rink at Nathan Philips Square and then toured the Financial District, stopping into the various bank building to see the fancy Christmas decorations in the foyer of the buildings, each bank trying to outdo their rivals. 

Nathan Philips Square

By then, the snow had stopped and we decided to follow the underground network of the PATH through to the Eaton Centre and the giant animated Christmas Tree. Then out onto Dundas Square (I believe it has been renamed but everyone still knows it as “Dundas Square”) and onto a little bar behind Yonge St. for drinks and snacks. 

All in all, the gently falling snow and the pleasant temperatures provided a nice day to wander the winter wonderland of the big city. The falling snow actually hid the tallest of the city’s skyscrapers and seeing the totally unprepared pedestrians provided ongoing entertainment; they were either totally overdressed bundled in full length hooded puffy parkas or completely ignoring the snow,  dressed in shorts, high heels, blue suede shoes, fuzzy slippers, or other inappropriate attire. Welcome to winter in Toronto!

Eatons Centre Christmas Tree

Skating at Collage park

Yonge Street 

The Wizard in Toronto

Friends suggested we go to see a pantomime of “The Wizard of Oz” here in Toronto at the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre on Yonge St, just down from Dundas Square. It was a pleasant evening out for dinner and a play, we got to try a new pub and the play was very entertaining, a pantomime of “The wizard Of Oz”, where Dorothy was deposited in downtown Toronto from the farm in Guelph. I learned that rather than being a play where the characters express meaning through mime or gestures which is that a Pantomime was in ancient Roman theatres, the English reimagined it as a musical comedy with slapstick and topical jokes and based on fairy tales or nursery rhymes produced for families around Christmas time. This production of “The Wizard of Oz” certainly fit the English definition, with the setting in downtown Toronto , the Emerald Palace being the CN “power”, and Mayor Chou as the wizard. The music and singing were excellent, and the production was full of jokes and slapstick, but what was most interesting was the amazing theatre where it was presented. 

We have walked by the Elgin & Winter Garden theatre many times as we explored Toronto, and thought it was just one of the many old theatres around the city, but actually going into the building for a play showed just what an amazing place this was. Originally built in 1913, it is the last remaining example where two theatres were built in a stacked arrangement with one on top of the other.  Both theatres were originally intended for vaudeville productions. During this era many stars such as Joan Crawford & Clark Gable, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy were featured there. 

The two theatres were vastly different, the Elgin was a traditional gold and marble decorated venue, but the Winter Garden upstairs was decorated to make you feel you were outside in a garden with the ceiling decorated with leaves and lit with lanterns and the columns fashioned to look like trees. This was the theatre we saw the Wizard of Oz in and it really does make you feel you are sitting under big trees in a garden. 

The Elgin theatre was converted to a movie theatre in 1928 and the Winter Garden theatre was closed and remained shuttered for 60 years. By the 70’s, the Elgin was mostly showing low budget B films or mild pornography, but the theatre was purchased by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1981 and a full restoration was started in 1987. This involved using hundreds of pounds of raw bread dough to clean the long unused Winter Garden’s elaborate watercolour decorations. The theatres reopened in 1989 and are now one of the finest theatre venues in Canada. 

So, if you ever get a chance to see a play in this beautiful theatre complex you will be amazed at the beautiful venue.