The citizenship
What I would offer as a gift would be citizenship to all those immigrants who already contribute to Quebec society by working for several years in all spheres of our society. All these people who repeat request after request and whose employers are proud to see them evolve in their company. Often we want to send them back to their country despite the fact that they are well integrated and appreciated by everyone at work.
Marlene Simard
My lover next to me
The best gift would be to have my lover with me when she died last November. We had been together for 44 years.
Mireille Seguin, Anjou
health for my sister
I would like to give my sister Josée a beautiful wrapped box that would contain health to the rim. By opening it, it would burst out luminous and put the disease to flight for a long, long time.
Benoit Cormier
A donation
My gift, I have already given – and I would like to invite people who can to do the same. Some time ago, almost all of us received $400 from the provincial government… a little election gift. Personally, I would have preferred that these sums go to the people who need it the most: people in a precarious socio-economic situation in particular. Either ! I donated this amount to an organization that supports these people. For me it was Dans la rue, for others it is surely another cause. I therefore invite people who do not need this money to do like me. Giving to the people who need it most is also the spirit of the Holidays!
Genevieve Grenier, Lorraine
consume less
My Christmas present for all of us is to stop overspending until our credit cards are full. Let’s stop feeding this consumer society that is killing us and killing the planet little by little. Let’s stop playing the game of marketing campaigns that try to convince us that happiness is in consumption and instead find the true meaning of Christmas. We should measure success in life by the quality of our ideas and ideals, not by the pile of material possessions. Merry Christmas to everyone.
Guy Viau, Gatineau
Bring life back
I would give life back to the Ukrainian girl hit by a motorist so that her family can find meaning in this long journey to escape the war. I would also give all motorists heightened vigilance… a kind of extreme radar in the brain and eyes.
Melanie Vachon-Perrotte, Montreal
Health
To my darling of the past 53 years, I would offer a health guarantee so that she can continue for a long time to make my journey of aging so beautiful, and fill that of our two children and five grandchildren with all her great wisdom and her rich pedagogy.
Yvan Jerome, Laval
A Christmas of yesteryear
My wish would be a Christmas of yesteryear, with the mononclesthem auntscousins, our big family.
My family was getting ready on December 24 to go celebrate at Grandma Simard’s. Mom got us ready the day before, curled our hair with rags (which made very beautiful sausages), took out our chic clothes, often made by our mother who was a seamstress. Finally we left, all excited to see the Christmas tree and all the gifts around the tree in the living room closed by glass doors…
Around the stove, aunts cooked pies and meat pies, prepared salads, yum yum mocha desserts, potato candies, fruit cakes… it smelled so good in the large kitchen, which could accommodate our entire beautiful family! The tables were set up, ready for supper. The men first (yes! it was like that), then the women, and lastly, the children. Everyone ate quickly, we couldn’t wait to receive our gifts.
I don’t remember the number of presents, but everyone had theirs hidden under the Christmas tree. The older ones went to midnight mass and we waited for them to come back so that the distribution could begin. It was magical…
Sitting in a circle on the ground, we waited with our eyes wide open for Santa Claus to say our name. Everyone left with a gift around 4 am. Unable to sleep, my sisters and I took our coloring books (we had all been given coloring books).
That was my Christmas! The families are less numerous, the tradition has been somewhat lost, it’s sad. Merry Christmas.
Susan Verreault