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Jaicy Elliot starred in Hallmark’s “My Southern Family Christmas,” which premiered on Thanksgiving night. While live tweeting during the film, she revealed to fans a secret that was hinted at throughout the movie, including at the very end. Also during a live-tweeting session, Emily Moss Wilson, who directed the movie, revealed just how accurate those Southern Santa traditions shown in the film really were.
Elliot Shared the Secret Ingredient in the Family Recipe
One of the topics brought up several times during “My Southern Family Christmas” was a secret ingredient in a family meat pie recipe. Elliot played the role of Campbell, who visited the town as a reporter and kept her real identity — the daughter of the man chosen to be the town’s new Pere Noel — a secret. Her father Everett, played by Bruce Campbell, brought up the recipe several times, and said he couldn’t tell her the secret ingredient because it could only be revealed to family. Of course, once he learned that she was his daughter, he revealed the recipe in the very last scene.
On Twitter, Elliot asked fans if they could guess what the secret ingredient was.
One fan asked if the secret ingredient was “love,” and Eliot said that answer was correct.
So the secret ingredient that they hinted about throughout the movie was (simply and profoundly) “love.”
“Love! I’m crying. What a touching movie,” one person replied.
In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, Elliot was asked which movies she can watch over and over. She said her top one is “The Holiday” with Kate Winslet. She also loves “Being John Malkovich” with Cameron Diaz and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
The Cajun Traditions in the Movie Were Real
Director Emily Moss Wilson revealed to fans that all the traditions shown during the movie were real.
“For anyone wondering… all of these cajuns traditions are real… Pere Noel, lighting bonfires on the levees to guide him on Christmas, and the little town of Sorrento :)” she wrote.
Layfayette Travel reported that in south Louisiana, they celebrate Papa Noel instead of Santa. Papa Noel originated in the 1700s when French immigrants were settling in New Orleans and brought many traditions from France along with them. Santa Claus is called Pere Noel in France, and became known as Papa Noel in Louisiana. Papa Noel leaves toys on Christmas Eve, and some communities light bonfires to help him find his way to everyone’s homes — just like it was portrayed in the movie.
In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, Elliot revealed that she has something in common with the roots of her new movie. She has a French background herself! She grew up in Grenoble in the French Alps, and French was actually her first language.
“But it was installed very early on in our lives that we had to learn how to speak English and French,” she added.
One of the first jobs she had when moving to the United States was working as night help for elderly sick people.
“I would go and stay with them, and make food and clean the house, and just make sure that they were set up to go to bed,” she said. “I would be there until 11 or 12. It was not an easy job, but it was a very gratifying job, because it felt like I was truly helping people and making them a little happier and a little more comfortable, as much as I could.”
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