If your idea of bliss is careening down a long slope covered in snow, strike Stratford from your list of ideal hometowns.

Stratford is relatively flat. As this topographic map below shows, most of the community is around 364 to 366 metres above sea level, with the only dips following the gentle slopes toward the Avon River that runs through the city. Those river banks are at around 345 metres.

But this is Canada, and there’s something about first snowfalls here where we are culturally programmed to shout with glee, “Get out the toboggans!”

Within Stratford’s city limits, there are two spots regularly proving, where there’s a will, there’s a way, when it comes to sliding down even the smallest of hills for a day of winter fun.

Most popular is “Central Hill” – this is at the back of what’s now called Stratford Intermediate School, formerly Stratford Central Secondary School. From the base of the school, there’s a slope that heads to the school’s playing fields along the river, with one large, stubborn tree in the middle: from all the use, the ground has worn down so it seems most of its roots are visible.

We stopped by there on a walk in January 2026. In my day job, I’m the Vice President of Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention. We recommend that, for tobogganing, helmets be worn (ski or hockey), and that you avoid going head-first down a hill.

No-one at Central Hill that day was a devotee of Parachute. No helmets. Lots of head-first dives down the hill on an assortment of wild-coloured boards and trays and plastic sheets.

My father-in-law, who was born in Stratford in 1933, recalls sliding on that same hill, with the trick always to make sure you didn’t build up too much speed and end up over the river’s edge.

A couple decades ago, two young nieces were part of Christmas celebrations here and they’d always want to go to “the hill” with their flimsy “crazy carpet” sliders. The adult men decided to join in the fun too, one year. (Let the record show the adult woman thought they were bonkers.) The girls’ father ended up hitting a bump and went flying in a heart-stopping way. There were bruises but, fortunately, no broken bones.

“Central Hill” is such a part of local Stratford lexicon that it’s even featured on a popular T shirt showcasing Stratford landmarks in a word cloud.

The other slope is so gentle it could never be called a hill. There’s a wee slope behind the Stratford Festival Theatre: it’s a great place to take small children as there’s a big tapering-off space after the slope over playing fields, which means no danger of careening into the distant roadway or river beyond. Check out this 2022 photo feature from the Stratford Beacon Herald.

No-one will ever visit Stratford to hit the slopes. That’s OK. But kids who grew up here will always have Central Hill sliding embedded in their memory banks.