“I’m a bit like Peter Pan,” Chantal Massicotte says. “I don’t want to grow up. I want to keep my kid’s heart.”
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Chantal Massicotte used to work as a nurse in the intensive-care unit at Ste-Justine Hospital and she found it difficult to see kids suffering.
“I saw kids dying and I saw parents who were so demolished, they were suffering a lot,” the N.D.G resident said. “I saw bravery and courage from the little ones who gave (the courage) to their parents. Kids are stronger than parents (when it comes to) illness. It was hard. After a few years, I said: ‘I’m too sensitive to live that every day’. Because in intensive care, if they’re there at Ste-Justine Hospital it’s because they’re not doing well. When I see kids running and making a lot of noise, it makes me happy because they are in good health.”
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Massicotte has been hearing and seeing a lot of happy kids making noise in recent weeks. Right in front of her house, in fact. She lives on Chester Ave., a couple of blocks west of Cavendish, and her front yard these days is exploding with a mind-boggling array of Easter decorations, with inflatable creatures of all kinds, including no shortage of Easter bunnies.
She also does large displays outside her home for Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and she even plans to have an Alice in Wonderland theme going in the front garden this summer.
The serious decorating during holidays began at Christmas 2020, when, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities barred Santas in shopping malls. For Massicotte, it just wasn’t right the children wouldn’t get to see Santa Claus. So she did a sprawling Christmas display in her yard.
“I’m a bit like Peter Pan,” Massicotte said. “I don’t want to grow up. I want to keep my kid’s heart.”
People often ask why she does these decorative displays in her yard and she tells them: “It’s because I want to bring joy to the kids. It’s my purpose. I love to see the joy in the eyes of the kids.”
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She also has a great location for it, given there are several schools and daycares nearby. And she said it brings happiness to kids of all ages.
“There was an old lady walking by with her cane and she said: ‘Thank you so much. Because of you it gives me a reason to go out and walk and it’s good for me’.”
This is her biggest Easter exhibit ever.
“It’s so dark in our world,” Massicotte said. “It’s war, inflation. So I said: ‘This year, I want to go big’.”
She said kids call it The Bunny House and they ask their parents: “Can we go to The Bunny House?”
Massicotte admits some might think it’s a little crazy, saying, in French: “C’est ma douce folie.”
She’s worked as a nurse and as a director of a CHSLD, but said there came a moment where she decided she didn’t want to only do that.
“What I want is to be happy.”
She’s currently developing a new business and though she didn’t want to reveal details, she said a portion of the proceeds would go to good causes. She’s no longer working as a nurse, but thinks her roots in the profession probably are part of the reason she goes all out for these holidays and tries to create something fun for the neighbourhood kids.
“Maybe it’s my nursing (background),” Massicotte said. “You know the personality of a nurse is to help, to bring something to others. And it’s inside of me. What makes me happy is not to receive (gifts). I’m not comfortable to receive. I like to receive smiles from the little ones who run to me to give me a big hug.”
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