Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Christmas spent much of his childhood in Liverpool before moving back to Sydney in his teen years. As with many young people in the area, Christmas fished in between playing sports and other activities.

“Fishing was a big thing for us all at the time,” said Christmas. “Whether it be off the government wharf in Liverpool and fishing for mackerel or trout in streams, I was very active in fishing.”

In the early 90s, Christmas joined the Aboriginal Fishery Guardian Program, which was established to help Indigenous communities develop the technical capacity to manage their own food, social and ceremonial fisheries. As a Fishery Guardian, Christmas worked to monitor catch and fishing activities, collecting data related to the fishery, habitat and aquatic resources and helped enforce the rules for fishing as set out in communal licenses, among other duties.

“There was a need to monitor the fisheries at the local band level,” said Christmas. “A lot of it was engaging with the community and our fishers, advising our fishers of some of the regulations, advising our fishers of possible conservation issues. Letting our community know where there are fish that are healthy and thriving where we could fish and areas where the levels may not be as healthy. We were engaging with our community all the time, every day.”

Christmas says they would also collaborate with other Indigenous communities (and those communities’ own Fishery Guardians) on projects to provide training and education. They would also collaborate with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on projects such as stream restoration. Along the way as part of his training, Christmas earned a diploma from Cape Breton University in natural resources training. He has also since taken on a position with the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR) as a Unama’ki Guardian Liaison Coordinator. He currently manages the UINR Earth Keeper program, which is like the Fishery Guardian program but extended to terrestrial animals and ecology.

Christmas was first approached by the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon due to his work with the Fishery Guardian program. When an opportunity arose to become part of the Nova Scotia Advisory Committee, Christmas jumped at it.
“It’s extremely important,” said Christmas. “A lot of these streams, they need work. They need help and the fish need help with some of the issues that are going on with these rivers and streams, whether it be man-made problems or natural problems that are occurring. We need to ensure that the fish species that we have today survive and thrive for the next seven generations. That’s our vision on how we should sustain a species that we look at long term sustainability – we very commonly use the benchmark of seven generations to ensure that the work we’re doing can enable these species of fish to thrive. And some of these projects do create some employment, which is good.”

Christmas lives in Membertou, Nova Scotia with his wife Joan Denny.