Bluewater Symphonic Band

The Bluewater Symphonic Band became the new name of the Sarnia Citizens Band. This name was chosen to reflect the expanding membership of the band, where band members came from all over Lambton County and even Michigan (not just Sarnia). Art Christmas was its director. The name change also came at a time when the Sarnia city council withdrew their $500 annual honorarium for the band playing on Remembrance Day and Canada Day. This infuriated Art Christmas enough to rename the band and then charge for the band playing on those holidays. He charged $500 each time the band played for a civic function and the city paid up.

Art Christmas was a whirlwind of musical energy in Sarnia. Besides leading the Bluewater Symphonic Band, he worked at Alexander Mackenzie High School, then Northern Collegiate, and finally at St. Clair High School in Sarnia. He also directed the Polysar Glee Club which became the Art Christmas Aggregation. The Aggregation was about musical theatre; it involved a band, singers, and actors. They put on an annual show from 1972 to 1998. Jim Belrose played trumpet in the Symphonic Band. He said that Art Christmas also started up a jazz band. These were musicians Art handpicked from the Bluewater Symphonic Band, and Jim was chosen to play 4th trumpet in that band. Jim remembers playing with the jazz band at Dow People Place in Sarnia.

Bob Nelson played in the Symphonic Band, and he remembers Art Christmas organizing a tour in England for the band and the glee club. They put together a musical theatre production for this trip, so the preparation and transportation was complicated. People, musical instruments, music, and set backdrops were all part of this.

Art Christmas was a standout in many ways, and that included dress. Frilly shirts, wildly coloured pants and shirts, and stand-out outfits were commonplace for him. He also stood out for his donations from all these enterprises. The Aggregation donated over $100 000 to community projects. Members of the band say that Art Christmas had very firm ideas. It was "his way or the highway", so people either loved him or hated him. Art Christmas was an accomplished musician. If someone in the band had difficulty playing a part, Art would come over, use their instrument, and play it seemingly effortlessly. Drums, clarinet, trumpet, he could play it. And Jim Belrose says his playing of these instruments was at a caliber above the band's.

Because of ill health, Art Christmas decided he could not keep going with the band and the Aggregation. They disbanded in the 1989-1990 season.

See https://www.artchristmas.com/music

and The Observer, November 10, 1990, p. 14A, and August 11, 1978.

With Art Christmas gone from the Bluewater Symphonic Band, this band collapsed.

Another smaller band, The Red Clay Band, formed as a jazz band under the direction of Peter Peterson, a tenor sax player. The band lasted about six years until Peter Peterson moved to London.