The “little snowman” takes another trip

By Darrell Ziegler

A Christmas tradition that started between young boys sees a Huron-Kinloss man send and receive the same card 36-times.

Mike Ward of Point Clark says the story started simple enough, but neither friend knew that in 1970, a life-long tradition was about to begin. “I just thought it would be fun to mail a Christmas card to my friend Tim.”

Ward and Tim Ruhl lived in Waterloo’s Lakeshore Village, less than a block away.

“There was really no need to mail it. I could look out my window and see his house. I just thought Tim would get a kick out of getting a Christmas card in the mail rather then just handing it to him. I think Tim would have been about five then, I was a little older.”

“At that time, I was pretty young. I did my neatest printing job and my mom mailed it. I didn’t really know what to say, so all I wrote was From Mike, in big red letters,” he laughs.

“Tim must have felt the same way because the following year, he mailed it back to me. From Tim, 1971, it said in his mother’s hand writing.”

The card itself is typical of the times, a smiling snowman holding Christmas bells, simply saying, “Merry Christmas.”

It didn’t need to say much. To the old friends, it’s what’s inside that makes the card so special. With very few words it tells a story of its own, with memories from the pair’s childhood written between each line.

“It’s easy to see how old we were without even looking at the years. In the beginning, it was either our mother’s writing, or our first attempts at printing. Next, we were learning how to write. Our hand writing was a little sloppy back then,” laughs Ward. “Now that we’re older, we’re back to printing again.”

Ward says that the Ruhl family moved to Burlington some years later, but they kept up their Christmas tradition despite the distance between them. “Each year, whoever got it the year before sent it back to the other.”

“We still saw each other from time to time while growing up. Our parents had neighbouring cottages in Dunnville for a while.”

Distance and schedules are still not enough to stop the two from continuing what they had started so many years ago. “Even though we have moved around a lot over the years, we always managed to somehow find each other,” he says. “Tim lives in Oakville now and his parents live in Hanover.”

It was Ward’s turn to receive the card last year. “I couldn’t wait to check the mail and to see the old snowman again. I knew it was my year to get it, I was looking forward to it too.”

Ward says he isn’t about to stop a tradition that started so long ago, nor is his old buddy Tim. “That little snowman will be sitting on Tim’s mantel this year, and mine again the year after. It doesn’t matter how old we get. It’s just something we like to do.”

“It really puts a smile on my face and seems to bring out the Christmas cheer. It’s been about ten years since I have seen Tim, but I know he feels the same way.”

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