“The True Nature” of Christmas: Cultivating Traditions

Don't touch my traditions! 

For Jean-Philippe Dion, Christmas happens with his parents. With the pandemic, this tradition took the edge for two years, when it seemed more important to him than ever, because, since the fall of 2020, he and his spouse have become the foster family of a preteen.  

I wanted this child to experience Christmas the way I had experienced it when I was young, where all that is important is to get the little family together, to eat well, to wake up the next morning and spend the day in pajamas. But with the pandemic, it was very difficult. So there, I have the impression that our first Christmas everyone together, it will be this one.

Jean-Philippe Dion

“I want this Christmas to be the return of Christmases before,” he says. And that's kind of the idea behind True nature: at the chalet for Christmas, which can be taken as an advent calendar to rediscover the traditions that are dear to us and, why not , create new ones.

Because we discover some that are especially endearing. Let us think of that of Naadei Lyonnais – one of the guests alongside Garou and Marie-Claude Barrette, of the special Christmas program which will be broadcast on December 19 on TVA – whose grandmother has a recipe for holiday donuts that she passes on to the women in her family as they reach maturity. You guessed it: the recipe is in the book!

What happens when we deviate from tradition? The crisis, the apoplexy, the end of the world! “We can't change traditions!” laughs Jean-Philippe Dion, who thinks back with self-derision to the year when his parents swapped the natural tree for an artificial tree. “When I arrived for Christmas and saw the tree up, it was like my mom had disowned me! My sister and I sat our parents down to tell them that it didn't make sense, that we didn't accept it.”

You can't change the traditions you already have, but you can create new ones. Like flipping through a holiday book while sipping your comical coffee!