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 sparebedroom when she hears a knock on the door. It’s her daughter, five-year-oldMarquesa, 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 getback 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 thatMelissa – co-host on CTV’s daytime talk show The Social – was made formotherhood. Her stunning Toronto home, which she designed alongside her contractorhusband, Ryan Gaggi, 38, is full of love and laughter. Together, the two ofthem 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 speakFrench together. While Ryan is so good at letting loose, having fun and notbeing 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 11years.
“There was zero chemistry. Zilch,” Melissa says, as shetells the story of their first meeting – an unsuccessful set-up at a bar inToronto.
Photo: © Constant Van Ruymbeke, HELLO! Canada
It wasn’t until they ran into each other a year-and-a-halflater – 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 firsttime they met.
“We started talking, and I was just smitten… we’ve been inseparableever since.”
A WONDERFUL LIFE
Luckly, things for Melissa re just as bright and cheery atwork 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 shestar, who has been on The Social since its start in 2013. She’s also arecurring co-host on CTV’s Your Morning. “I’ve never woken up once andnot 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 theholidays, Melissa shares the not-so-glamorous Christmas traditions she’s been carryingout ever since her childhood days at her parents’ horse farm in rural Ontario.
HELLO! Canada: It really is the most wonderful time of theyear. Tell us, what’s your favourite thing about the holiday season?
Melissa Grelo: It just feels like everyone is running aroundso much now. I think we’re trying to cram a lot into life… and I’m guilty ofit, too, no doubt, trying to juggle six balls at the same time. So in the ageof hustle-bustle, I feel like the holidays are the one time when you canactually, without an excuse, just be like, “I’m offline. I’m stopping. I’mgoing to eat. I’m going to sit around in my elastic-waist pyjamas. I’m going tojust do nothing… and that’s OK.”
Photo: © Constant Van Ruymbeke, HELLO! Canada
Walk us through Christmas Day with your family. What does itlook like?
I’ve been doing the same thing for Christmas since I wasborn, 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 herfamily and being with family. Christmas Eve goes pretty late, we do midnightmass after dinner and actually open all of our gifts that night. It’s for a practicalreason, though, because on Christmas Day, my sister, my father and I have ourown tradition: We take care of all the horses [so the employees can have theday off]. It’s not your classic Christmas morning. [Laughs] We’re in the barnwith a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork – it’s really glamorous! Then, once I’vetaken a shower and de-horsed myself, as I call it, the next phase ofcelebrations picks up, which is heading off into the city. My aunt’s birthdayis Christmas Day, and my other aunt’s birthday is Boxing Day, so Christmas Dayturns into a joint birthday party with a huge Filipino feast. It’s just anabsolutely beautiful time for the family to be together. Then we all roll homeafter 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 gettingback into the magic of Christmas. Being into horses [as kids], my sister and Iwere 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 beproblematic.” [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 knowhow long I can keep it going. Marquesa is a smart, smart girl. She asks a lotof questions and she’s already wondering how on earth Santa gets to every childin 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, andchestnuts 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 startedassociating them with the holidays. It’s the only time of year we do it. Now it’sa taste of the holidays for me.
As we get ready to celebrate 2020, do you have anyresolutions?
I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I douse the end of the year to reflect on the year before… and think about where I wouldlike to go and what I would like to do or experience next. I really like theidea of optimism that the New Year brings. I love the idea of a fresh start.