It all started with a conversation with my friend Marion while we were standing in line for the premiere of “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” last October.
I was thinking about the fact that this Christmas would be our very first Christmas without Michael Jackson, it would also be exactly 6 months to the day he died, and I felt it would be the worst Christmas of my life.
Christmas is traditionally a family event, but my family doesn’t really celebrate it. But I love Christmas so every year, I spend it with the family of one of my friends. However, this year, I wanted to do something different, something that would keep me busy enough to avoid thinking about sad things. My friend told me that in 2008, she volunteered at a Christmas Eve dinner for the elderly and lonely people. I asked her if she would do it again this year, and this is how our project was born.
I told my friends on Facebook about our idea, and three other friends were interested in joining us. Most of us were Michael Jackson fans, and we felt this was something he would be happy to see us doing. But little did we know how much we would be able to pay tribute to Michael thanks to this!
The organization responsible for the Christmas Eve dinner is called “Demain Mieux qu’Hier” (“Tomorrow Better than Yesterday”) and is located near Paris. They receive more than 100 guests, and about 40 young volunteers help serve meals and put on a show every year. Our mission was to serve the meals and to sit down and chat with the guests during the dinner.
But a couple of days before the dinner, we learned that they needed some dancers for their show, which was supposed to be a parody of “America/Britain’s Got Talent”, and knowing that Marion was a Michael Jackson fan, they wanted us to dance on a MJ song!
The thing is, I really can’t dance! I can barely do “Beat It” and the moonwalk, and that’s about it. But they needed something longer, like “Thriller”, which we had never tried dancing! Of course, we all watched the legendary short film a million times, but executing the moves is another story. This is how me and Marion and another friend found ourselves rehearsing “Thriller” in front of the TV set in Marion’s living room, knowing we would only have a few hours to learn the whole dance routine before the Christmas dinner. To make things even more complicated, we decided at the last minute to not just dance “Thriller”, but to make it a medley and to add a little bit of “I Want You Back”, “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Beat It”. Which means we didn’t just have to learn the dance, we also had to create a mix of all the songs for the music.
Marion & Zack before the show
As a result, we arrived late for the dinner, but we were still able to help serve the desserts, and two of my friends – who absolutely didn’t want to go on stage and dance in front of everybody – agreed to dress up as Santa Claus with some other volunteers, to go on stage and do a little dance while opening Champagne bottles! I wish I could show you photos and videos of this, but obviously, they don’t want me to post them here, haha!
Anyway, after clearing out the tables, the show started and then came our time to dance! We did our best and it was far from perfect, even though my two other friends were great dancers, but we had a lot of fun doing it, and judging by the reactions during our performance and all the compliments we heard after, I think everyone had as much fun watching us, which was the most important. Here are some photos from our performance.
I felt really proud to pay tribute to Michael on that day. It wasn’t just the fact that we danced on his songs, but to me, working hard all day long to try and learn all these dance moves Michael and his choreographers created and perfected almost 30 years ago was also a way to pay tribute to his work as a dancer.
And most importantly, giving our time and energy so that other people could enjoy a great Christmas Eve dinner was the best way for us to pay tribute to Michael’s heart. Michael loved Christmas but couldn’t help thinking about all those who are lonely or don’t have the possibility to celebrate Christmas. He talked about this in a video message he made in 2002:
We didn’t know what to expect of this Christmas Eve, we feared it would be a sad Christmas this year, but we all came to realize it was in fact one of the best Christmases of our lifes. We had so much fun and we felt guided by Michael’s spirit. What I like most is that it all started with one person in 2008, then this year we were five, and after seeing the pictures, some of my friends told me they wanted to join us next year if we do it again.
And maybe after reading this blog post, even more people will want to do something similar next year. If you’re in a situation where you usually don’t know what to do on Christmas or if you just want to make this holiday more meaningful, just search for an organization that makes Christmas Eve dinners for lonely or underpriviledged people where you live, and ask your friends to join you for the next Christmas. This could be the beginning a new Christmas tradition around the world!
Special thanks to Marion a.k.a. “Duchesse”, Nico a.k.a. “Woodi”, John, and Zack a.k.a. “His Airness”. :)