Tibb's Eve and Newfoundland Christmas Slush

Part One: What is Tibb’s Eve?

For me, and a lot of other Newfoundlanders, the 23rd of December is Tibb’s Eve. It is Christmas Eve Eve and the unofficial start of the holiday season.

For some people, Tibb’s Eve has become synonymous with a good time, full of partying and alcohol. The connection with drinking is so strong that, for some people the day is known as Tipsy (Tip’s) Eve.

In this episode we did into it a little and chat about Tibb’s Eve customs. To help me out, The Duds (Melanie O’Brien and Philip Goodridge) discuss their connection to the day and what lead them to record their holiday track ‘Before the Night (Tibb’s Eve’).

Part Two: Newfoundland Christmas Slush

I’ve celebrated 40+ Christmases in Newfoundland and, until surprisingly recently, I had no idea ‘Newfoundland Christmas slush’ — a fruity, frozen cocktail — was a thing.

It is though. For a lot of Newfoundlanders the holiday season would not be complete without this batch-made cocktail.

I reached out to food blogger/instagrammer Jeremy Whey (aka @stuffthatinyourgob) to discuss his history with Christmas slush. He shares his recipe and variations he’s tried. From there were drifted to dark/light Christmas cake, moose stew, salt cod and other Newfoundland food traditions.

You can follow Jeremy on Instagram at @stuffthatinyourgob.

Here’s his slush recipe, as shared in the episode:

Jeremy’s Newfoundland Christmas Slush

1 cup sugar

6 cups water

2 cans of frozen concentrated orange juice

2 cans of frozen concentrated lemonade

1 large can pineapple juice

1 flask of vodka

Boil the water, stir in the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and freeze. To serve, scoop slush into a glass and top with as much 7-Up or Ginger Ale as you’d like.

You can find some recipes for alternate versions of Christmas slush here.

Jeremy and I confessed that some of our Christmas baking efforts have been less-than-successful. We used the word ‘dunch.’ It occurs to me that non-NL listeners may be less familiar with that word. Here’s a link to the definition in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

And here’s the recipe I mentioned for my mother’s dark Christmas fruitcake. I’ve had great success with this one — nothing dunch about it.

Check out the blog post to see, as ‘the murderous mummer’.

Part Three: Monstrous Things

Normally ‘Monstrous Things’ features tales of Newfoundland sea monsters that have been reported in the mainstream media. This episode, is taking a different tack and veering into the realm of full-on legend — with tales of boo-baggers, boo-darbies and a strange Christmas creature called Rockyfoot.

What do they have in common?

Like Krampus and Santa Claus, they’ve all been used to encourage good behaviour in children.

Read more here: Rockyfoot: Newfoundland’s Krampus