About 4 years ago, I was checking out where my ancestors were from in Vienna, and I noticed one thing: Austrians sure know how to do Christmas. There are Weihnachtsmärkte on practically every sidewalk, and each park seemed to be filled with booths selling Christmas trinkets and giving children meat-on-a-stick (clearly a festive gesture). Here in Montreal, we've come pretty close with Noël dans le parc, a festive square of pine trees, candy canes, warm cider, a fireplace replete with marshmallows, and (probably my favourite part of it) music in a box.

Inside the parc square at the corner of St-Joseph and St-Laurent, the festival organizers have ingeniously constructed two small single-purpose cabins; fully equipped to house musicians, these cabins (aka glorified boxes) make it so that outdoor concerts can happen at -10 degrees Celsius. A bit more solid than the plastic bubbles I happened upon earlier this week...

Tricot Machine is playing tonight. You might remember them from such hilarious videos as this one:

Make sure to check out the line-up at the Programmation page. There's something for everyone. In the meantime, it might be getting cold enough outside to justify breaking out the long johns and sidling up to the Noël dans le parc bar - because as cozy as it might be inside the musicians' cabins, there's nothing but a fire for those listening.

Sending you all our very best from Midnight Poutine: Happy holidays!

Picture from the Noël dans le parc website, which informs us that there are 5 days, 12 hours, 29 minutes and some-odd seconds until Christmas.