Eating Free Cookies at Mr. Christie's Winter Carnival

I just got home from my first trip to Quebec City’s annual Winter Carnival. Actually, it’s called Mr. Christie’s Winter Carnival, so naturally my first question was, “Who the heck is Mr. Christie?” It turns out that’s the name of the Kraft Foods company that sponsors the yearly family event, and fittingly, at the major site of outdoor activities like sledding and snow rafting, there’s a hospitality tent full of free cookies from chocolate chip to shortbread, and for the diet conscious, even 100-calorie snack packs.

The star of Winter Carnival is Bonhomme, a giant snowman with a colorful sash who is something of a cross between Frosty and Santa Claus, and judging by his ample size, he eats a lot of Mr. Christie’s cookies. The small children adore Bonhomme, who rules the city for the 17 days of Carnival. Legend has it that he sleeps in the Ice Palace and wanders the city by day, so you never know where he might turn up.

He did, however, kick off the festivities at the big bash on Place D’Youville on Saturday night and the hundreds of people there, from toddlers to great-grandfathers, knew all the words of the Bonhomme theme song. www.carnaval.qc.ca