A now-famous photo showing Yellowknife's Franklin Avenue Christmas tree on December 24, 1987. NWT Archives/Terry Foster fonds/N-2009-006: 0037
Photographers have been capturing Christmas scenes in the Northwest Territories for more than a century. We’ve collected some images on this page.
The NWT Archives, which holds thousands of images in its collection and makes many of them available online, has documented hundreds of Christmas photos taken across the territory.
From dog teams pulling the Christmas mail to Fort Smith in the 1920s through to Colville Lake’s Christmas parties in the 1990s, the collection spans many communities and generations. (Be aware that some images in the NWT Archives’ collection involve scenes at residential schools or day schools.)
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We’ve reproduced some of those photos on this page and mixed up the order, so you’ll hop back and forth between time periods and regions of the territory as you scroll.
Featured communities include Yellowknife, Behchokǫ̀, Tulita, Ulukhaktok, Fort Good Hope, Fort Simpson, Dettah and more.
The caption for each image is informed by the notes held by the NWT Archives for that photo.
Kenneth Turo in Colville Lake during Christmas 1968, wearing a traditional hareskin parka while holding a snowshoe rabbit. NWT Archives/Bern Will Brown fonds/N-2001-002: 03410A Tessa Macintosh photo shows Tree of Peace kindergarten students standing beside a Christmas tree in 1976. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/N-2018-010: 03998Yellowknife’s Christmas parade in 1992. NWT Archives/YK Photo fonds/N-2019-001: 2173Santa arrives in Colville Lake in 1994. NWT Archives/Bern Will Brown fonds/N-2001-002: 12497Santa arrives by helicopter at the 1979 Dettah Christmas party. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Tessa Macintosh/N-2018-010: 6683A classroom at an Aklavik residential school in late 1959. NWT Archives/Maxine Colbourne collection/N-2021-006: 0028Children from Dettah singing Christmas carols in a CBC recording studio in 1978. The NWT Archives lists the children present as Margie Betsina, Bobby Crapeau, Harry Crookedhand, Eileen Drygeese, Bertha Drygeese, Tina Liske, Marie Sangris, Peter T’setta, Eileen Baillargeon, Alec Betsina, Norman Crapeau, Bobby Drygeese, EIleen Liske, Bernie Martin, and Laurie Tobie. Sister Mary Jo conducts. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Tessa Macintosh/N-2018-010: 5892Time for a nap during Christmas 1948. NWT Archives/Mildred Young Hubbert fonds/N-2004-008: 0124Fort Good Hope’s church in 1969. NWT Archives/Rene Fumoleau fonds/N-1995-002: 0392Santa Claus gives a present to a child at the 1979 Dettah Christmas party while teachers Therese T’setta and Veronica Crapeau assist. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Tessa Macintosh/N-2018-010: 6685
George and Leo Tatsiechele at the Dettah Christmas party in 1979. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Tessa Macintosh/N-2018-010: 6674
A Colville Lake Christmas gathering in the 1980s. NWT Archives/Bern Will Brown fonds/N-2001-002: 11030Christmas dinner at the Tree of Peace in 1977. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Nancy Heron/N-2018-010: 04996
Herbie Beaulieu playing guitar at the seventh annual Christmas Daddy Show at the Elks Hall in Yellowknife. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Tessa Macintosh/N-2018-010: 04028
The Northern Construction Christmas dinner in a Quonset hut in 1956. A Christmas assembly at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in 1973. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/N-2018-010: 01601Children at a Colville Lake Christmas party in 1994. NWT Archives/Bern Will Brown fonds/N-2001-002: 12502
Jackie and Terry Murphy at their home in 1946. NWT Archives/Sam Otto fonds/N-2002-002: 0277
In December 1920, the Post Office Department authorized a special trip between Fort McMurray and Fort Smith to carry Christmas mail. The round trip covered 600 miles and was performed in 24 days. This picture shows the dog train ready to depart from Fort McMurray. NWT Archives/Wop May fonds/N-1992-213: 0004Dene Elders eating a Christmas dinner prepared by the Native Women’s Association in 1978. NWT Archives/Native Communications Society fonds – Native Press photograph collection/Nancy Heron/N-2018-010: 5869A Tulita school Christmas concert in 1965. NWT Archives/Bart Hawkins fonds/N-1996-001: 0124
Barbara Carpenter and Rosie Kuptana at a Sachs Harbour Christmas dance on December 25, 1957. NWT Archives/Robert C. Knights fonds/N-1993-002: 0104
A Fort Simpson “patients’ party” at RC St Margaret’s Hospital on Christmas Day 1956. NWT Archives/Sacred Heart Parish (Fort Simpson) fonds/N-1992-255: 0442A dog team in Fort Resolution, Christmas 1941. NWT Archives/McCallum family fonds/N-1992-150: 0007Christmas dinner at the Bear mine on Contact Lake in the mid-1930s. NWT Archives/Davis, Arthur P., 1914-/N-1991-052: 0007 Jennifer and Mary Kraus in a log cabin at Little Doctor Lake in 1979. NWT Archives/Kraus family fonds/N-1990-022: 0084Christmas Eve at the Con mine in 1937. NWT Archives/Jack Anderson fonds/N-1992-175: 0042George Mandeville performing a Christmas concert, possibly at Yellowknife’s jail, in 1971. NWT Archives/Rene Fumoleau fonds/N-1995-002: 4169A family Christmas photo in Yellowknife in the early 1950s. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 5340Lilian Kanayok and Shannon Kanayok alongside a woman identified by the NWT Archives as Sister Monique Pique in Ulukahktok in the mid-1970s. NWT Archives/Holman Photohistorical and Oral History Research Committee/N-1990-004: 0460A Christmas card from 1932. “Greetings from Anywhere North of 60.” NWT Archives/Buffum family fonds/N-1986-006: 0181A Yellowknife Grade 5 class at Christmas in 1957. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 7747A 1957 Yellowknife school Christmas dance. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 7469Lucy Ann Barnaby and Wilfred Kochon in Colville Lake at Christmas in 1964. NWT Archives/Bern Will Brown fonds/N-2001-002: 08472Ernie Glowach sits on the counter at Yellowknife’s Rex Café in the late 1940s. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 7194A boy and girl, identified by the NWT Archives as possibly being George and Nora Arden, sit in front of a Christmas tree at their Yellowknife home in 1950. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 6315A Christmas meal at St Pat’s in the 1960s. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 5793Christmas mass in Yellowknife in 1958. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 5668A scene from a Yellowknife Christmas party in 1957. NWT Archives/Henry Busse fonds/N-1979-052: 6469
