Singer-songwriter Jenn Grant recalls favourite Christmas gift

We asked you to share your #CBCGreatest Gifts with us. Today, singer-songwriter Jenn Grant tells us about a heartfelt Christmas gift from her brother.

Maybe it should come as no surprise that one of Nova Scotia's most beloved musicians is the sister of a beloved Toronto cinematographer.

When Jenn Grant was 19, though, all she knew was that her little brother Daniel had a talent for making up stories.

Her most memorable Christmas was spent watching him work away on a secret project that she knew she wouldn't see until Christmas morning. The two siblings had an agreement.

"We would each write down a bunch of random names, like objects or people that we knew," says Grant.

"We each drew three names out of this basket and then we each wrote each other a story based on the three words."

That Christmas, about a year after their dog had died, her 17-year-old brother's story "was just so beautiful," Grant recalled. 

"It was about our dog. He drew these really beautiful drawings, and it was just this really whimsical fairy tale and it was really sweetly written," she said.

"That was my favourite Christmas gift."

Homemade gift exchange

The story was handwritten, about eight pages long, and read like a children's book. As far as Grant can recall, it showed their dog finding a flute and playing his way into dog heaven.

"It was, like, award-winning," she said, laughing.

"I think mine was pretty stupid."

For Grant's family, who moved to Halifax from P.E.I. when she was 10 years old, Christmas was usually spent in front of the fire making crafts or art projects. The homemade book exchange only lasted for two or three years, but Grant remembers watching her brother bent over his project, focused.

Now in his early 30s, Daniel has worked on dozens of film projects shown in festivals around the world and has been nominated for a Gemini Award, while his sister has racked up her own awards as a singer.

"We didn't want to buy into commercialism, we wanted to do something thoughtful that we would remember and we are both artists," she said.

"He's very thoughtful, thorough, a creative type of person. So I wasn't super surprised that it was nice."

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