Origin of "Men's Christmas Dinner" in the Canadian Military

[Badbug]

I just went to a DND website looking for this information for my father and came up with nothing.
He is interested in finding out when it was started and why. Incidently he is interested in the Army tradition not the Navy or Air Force as he is retired from the Canadian Army.

[Ice_Wolf]

From this page:

In today’s world calling it a Mens’ Christmas Dinner is an anomaly as well as improper. A more correct terminology would be to call the event “The Junior Ranks Christmas Dinner”. Traditionally, during the festive season, military units provided a Christmas dinner to their troops and their camp-following families to boost morale. This annual event has been a continuous tradition of 12 Service Battalion since 1977. Previously some of the battalion’s predecessor units held similar gatherings.