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The charismatic TV star talks the things that sustain her in December and why she doesn't make New Year's resolutions.
This piece has been adapted from a much lengthier interview. To read the full chat and see more of Melissa, Ryan and Marquesa's lovely home, pick up Issue 693/694 of HELLO! Canada, on newsstands now!
Melissa Grelo is getting her makeup touched up in a spare
bedroom when she hears a knock on the door. It’s her daughter, five-year-old
Marquesa, coming in to check on Mom.
“I’ll give you five seconds!” she adorably declares to the room,
before kindly compromising, “Ok, I’ll give you 10.”
She’s anxious to get on with the photo shoot so she can get
back to playing with the decorative reindeer she has claimed as her newest toy.
Laughing at her daughter’s take-charge tendencies – which,
Melissa admits, she likely passed down – the star jokes, “Ladies and gentlemen,
there she is: mini me Mel!”
After spending just a few hours with her, it’s clear that
Melissa – co-host on CTV’s daytime talk show
The Social – was made for
motherhood. Her stunning Toronto home, which she designed alongside her contractor
husband,
Ryan Gaggi, 38, is full of love and laughter. Together, the two of
them make the perfect parenting team.
“I’m much more on the academic cerebral side,” Melissa, 42,
tells us. “Marquesa and I read a lot together, I teach her spelling, we speak
French together. While Ryan is so good at letting loose, having fun and not
being serious all the time. So we really are complementary that way.”
It’s hard to believe, though, after seeing them together,
that it wasn’t love at first sight for the TV host and her husband of now 11
years.
“There was zero chemistry. Zilch,” Melissa says, as she
tells the story of their first meeting – an unsuccessful set-up at a bar in
Toronto.
Photo: © Constant Van Ruymbeke, HELLO! Canada
It wasn’t until they ran into each other a year-and-a-half
later – at a different Toronto club – that sparks began to fly.
“I was in a different headspace this time,” she continues,
explaining that she had just gotten out of a serious relationship the first
time they met.
“We started talking, and I was just smitten… we’ve been inseparable
ever since.”
A WONDERFUL LIFE
Luckly, things for Melissa re just as bright and cheery at
work as they are at home, and for that, she is grateful.
“I’m able to do all the things I love to do there,” says she
star, who has been on
The Social since its start in 2013. She’s also a
recurring co-host on CTV’s
Your Morning. “I’ve never woken up once and
not wanted to get to work, which is a very big deal for anyone in life. I feel lucky…
it’s the dream job.”
Here, inviting
HELLO! Canada into her home for the
holidays, Melissa shares the not-so-glamorous Christmas traditions she’s been carrying
out ever since her childhood days at her parents’ horse farm in rural Ontario.
HELLO! Canada: It really is the most wonderful time of the
year. Tell us, what’s your favourite thing about the holiday season?
Melissa Grelo: It just feels like everyone is running around
so much now. I think we’re trying to cram a lot into life… and I’m guilty of
it, too, no doubt, trying to juggle six balls at the same time. So in the age
of hustle-bustle, I feel like the holidays are the one time when you can
actually, without an excuse, just be like, “I’m offline. I’m stopping. I’m
going to eat. I’m going to sit around in my elastic-waist pyjamas. I’m going to
just do nothing… and that’s OK.”
Photo: © Constant Van Ruymbeke, HELLO! Canada
Walk us through Christmas Day with your family. What does it
look like?
I’ve been doing the same thing for Christmas since I was
born, and it all revolves around my family’s horse farm in Caledon. My mother,
who is an amazing cook, makes us a Christmas Eve feast like you’ve never seen –
it takes her days to put together. Nothing means more to her than feeding her
family and being with family. Christmas Eve goes pretty late, we do midnight
mass after dinner and actually open all of our gifts that night. It’s for a practical
reason, though, because on Christmas Day, my sister, my father and I have our
own tradition: We take care of all the horses [so the employees can have the
day off]. It’s not your classic Christmas morning. [Laughs] We’re in the barn
with a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork – it’s really glamorous! Then, once I’ve
taken a shower and de-horsed myself, as I call it, the next phase of
celebrations picks up, which is heading off into the city. My aunt’s birthday
is Christmas Day, and my other aunt’s birthday is Boxing Day, so Christmas Day
turns into a joint birthday party with a huge Filipino feast. It’s just an
absolutely beautiful time for the family to be together. Then we all roll home
after midnight and sleep in on Boxing Day.
Photo: © Constant Van Ruymbeke, HELLO! Canada
How has Christmas changed for you since becoming a mom?
It changed significantly. What really changed for me was getting
back into the magic of Christmas. Being into horses [as kids], my sister and I
were never like, “Oh, my gosh, Santa is here!” We always questioned physics,
like, “Reindeer are very closely related to horses. We know horses can’t fly.
We know they’re really heavy. If they stood on our roof, it would be
problematic.” [Laughs] We were always kind of suspicious and skeptical. But boy,
oh boy, having a daughter now, it’s like you better buy into it 100 per cent,
and you better make it magical. So that’s been a real shift. But I don’t know
how long I can keep it going. Marquesa is a smart, smart girl. She asks a lot
of questions and she’s already wondering how on earth Santa gets to every child
in the world. I’m just like, “Babe, it’s magic!”
Everyone has that one thing they associate with the holidays
– whether it’s a movie, a recipe. What’s that thing for you?
My mother actually roasts chestnuts. My dad’s Portuguese, and
chestnuts are huge for the Portuguese people. It’s an acquired taste. As a kid,
the first couple of times I had them, I was like, “Umm, OK…” But then I started
associating them with the holidays. It’s the only time of year we do it. Now it’s
a taste of the holidays for me.
As we get ready to celebrate 2020, do you have any
resolutions?
I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I do
use the end of the year to reflect on the year before… and think about where I would
like to go and what I would like to do or experience next. I really like the
idea of optimism that the New Year brings. I love the idea of a fresh start.