Montreal’s Bino family celebrating 50 years of annual Christmas party

The Bino family has a holly jolly good time every holiday season, and this year, they’re celebrating 50 years of their annual Bino family Christmas party.

The tradition began half a century ago with the first party in 1974, and ever since, they have gathered on Christmas Day.

More than 75 Binos will gather on Dec. 25 at a reception hall in Montreal.

“It feels great because it’s very rare to find a family that sticks around for 50 years, 50 times, and we never miss,” said Osvaldo Bino.

Cousins Osvaldo and Pardo Bino, originally from Casacalenda, Campobasso, Italy, had the idea of a huge family Christmas party at a reception hall and proposed it to their parents.

Four brothers from Montreal, including Osvaldo and Pardo’s father, were very close and brought their idea to life with the help of their sons. The party was a gift, so the family could celebrate together. In return, they wanted them to carry on the tradition.

“One day, Osvaldo and I were having a pizza in a restaurant, and we came up with the idea to put the family together, all of our family,” said Pardo Bino.

“I was with my mother, you know, and I just asked her, I said, ‘What would you like to think, you know, if we do something like that, you know, a family party?’ I said, ‘Let’s try only one year. If it comes, okay, it’s okay. If it doesn’t come, we quit there and that’s it.’ And that thing is more than okay because, you know, today, 50 years, it’s a great thing. And talking with him too, I said, ‘Imagine, during 50 years, doing that, and we didn’t do nothing. We didn’t do—we just went to see, to find the restaurant or a hall or anything like that, you know. And everybody collaborates every year, and this year is exactly the same thing,” adds Osvaldo Bino.

“We’re very proud of me and my cousin here because now the kids are getting involved and they’re pushing us out. They say, okay, old folks, go home, we’ll do it. And it’s fine, it’s good. It’s interesting because these young people could have said, hey, I got my own family, my own friends. No, they want to be there and they want to get implicated with the party. So for us, it’s a plus,” said Pardo Bino.

This year, the Bino family is looking forward to spending another year together.

“We all love each other and we are all very grateful that we have this event and this opportunity to get together and celebrate not only with my immediate family, my kids and my husband but also with my parents and my cousins and everyone else. So we really have this fortunate and very, very fortunate, very grateful that we can do that together,” said Carmela Bino.

The tradition is significant to the family.

“It means a lot because a lot of family, even though we’re not saying families are a problem, but some families do have problems. So this day, you leave your problem at home, everybody joins everybody else, everybody knows that we’re there and want to see their cousins, especially the young people, that they do not know who’s my cousin. This cousin is from this family, this cousin is from the other family, so that’s a plus. It’s a very interesting thing that’s happening to this Bino day that the kids want to get involved. And for us, me and my cousin Osvaldo that we did it for so many years, I think it’s a plus. And we bless them and we say, go ahead, we’re ready to retire,” said Pardo Bino.

For Carmela Bino, it is a very special time of year.

“It’s a tradition that we look forward to every year. Since we were small, we’ve had Santa Claus. We all get together. We know all our cousins. We go there and we just have a great time. We get to see all our aunts, uncles, and celebrate a special day. And we all know that that day is our day. So even once we got married, for my husband, I was like, no, that day is a Bino day. It’s, you know, we celebrate Christmas altogether. And we’ve been doing that ever since,” she said.

Having participated in the tradition when she was younger, she is happy to have her children take part in it now.

“It was something that we couldn’t wait for. Once the kids were born, it’s like, oh my god, we’re going to go, and they’re going to have Santa Claus. Everybody was bringing all their gifts, and we had piles of gifts. They got to sit on Santa’s lap, there was music, and they were running around. So they got to experience the same joy that we experienced when we were kids. And it was fun for us to be able to make memories with our family. It’s fun for them to have the same opportunity as we did.”

The family has special activities planned to celebrate five decades of fun. Osvaldo Bino will also play the accordion.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everybody. We’ve prepared lots of games and lots of memorabilia. We’ve done a slideshow for everyone so that we can commemorate the 50 years we’ve had. We’ve gone through pictures and we can’t wait to go through the gift exchange. We’re asking everybody to bring something so we’re trying to animate it and have fun. Which we do every year, but this year we’re making it extra special given the fact that it’s 50 years. So we actually have a little committee together and we’re all organizing and doing our part. So we’re really looking forward to getting together and celebrating Christmas. It’s 50 years. It’s very special,” Carmela Bino explained.