Although Alanis Morissette just released a Christmas album, she used to struggle with the darkness of the season.
"As a kid, Christmas was fun, but it was also, you know, dark," the seven-time Grammy winning performer says in an interview with TODAY.com.
She means that both literally and figuratively.
In the Canadian province where Morissette grew up, the sun sets around 4:20 p.m. in December. "I have that seasonal affect thing, when in the dark I get really kind of melancholic," she says as she relaxes on the couch in the TODAY Show greenroom after filming. She exudes calm Earth Mother energy, even though her team is anxiously waiting outside the door to whisk her to her next appointment.
When Morissette became a mother — on Christmas Day — the holiday gained a new meaning.
Morissette’s oldest son, Ever, was born on Dec. 25, 2010. And so Christmas became a family birthday celebration ... a “double day.”
Melancholy and joy are often interlinked in Morissette’s life, and her music.
You can feel those conflicting emotions — as well as the love that overrides them both — in the songs Morissette chose for her Christmas album, including the gorgeously spare “What Child is This?”
The births of each her three children was followed by a bout of postpartum depression. Now that her youngest is 4, she says she feels like she's entering a new era, in a way.
There were “13-ish years of some version of a roller coaster, hormonally, emotionally, socially,” Morissette says, “I do feel like I’m on the other side of it, and I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.”
Finding her roots
Morissette filmed an episode of the PBS series "Finding Your Roots" to learn more about her family history. That episode is set to air in January 2024.
When she was 28 years old, Morissette learned that portions of her family were Jewish. Her grandmother had concealed that information because she feared the reemergence of anti-Semitism. "Now I understand her reticence," Morissette says.
Through the show, Morissette learned about generations of family members with deep roots in Judaism and those who didn't survive the Holocaust.
"Just so many forks in the road," she reflects.
Citing one such example, she shares a "sliding doors moment" during her grandparents' harrowing escape from Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The trip was extremely dangerous, especially because Morissette's mother, then 6, was fleeing with her parents.
Morissette's grandfather intended to take his family to Australia, but the timing was tight. When he took a moment to smoke a cigarette, the family missed its transportation to Australia and he rerouted the family to Canada.
"Because he went out for a cigarette," she says, "he missed that opportunity and they came to Canada instead."
Pausing for dramatic effect, she says with a laugh, "So I like to say that cigarettes my made my life possible."
After learning of her Jewish ancestry, Morissette has "integrated Hanukkah" into her family's holiday traditions, she says. "So now (December is) this kind of combination, a ritual, a gathering."
A family affair
"Togetherness" is Morissette's favorite aspect of any holiday, she says. And she's certainly getting a lot of that this year.
Morissette is participating in her third holiday campaign for the clothing brand The GAP. This time, the whole family is joining her.
Morissette's husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway and their almost 13-year-old Ever, 8-year-old daughter Onyx and 4-year-old son Winter participated in a GAP photoshoot that Morissette jokes was “stressful” for her.
“We’re very child-led,” Morissette says, noting that although her kids have watched her at work before, they hadn't been the ones doing the work. “It was just a matter of letting them diffuse the energy and express it but also stay contained and stay on point.”
Morissette can sense the moment any of her kids are having big emotions.
“I’m an empath. So it’s already a challenge ... if their tears well up, I’m a mess,” she says. Attempting to "process it with my sweet husband when he has the bandwidth, or talking with other moms, is lifegiving for me."
On the road again
Morissette has planned the coming year so that her family will continue to be together as much as possible.
Morissette has her "Triple Moon" tour planned for summer 2024. Special guests Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Morgan Wade will join her.
She'll also have four very special guests.
Morissette's husband and kids will get to experience tour life — but in a very family-friendly way.
"We very briefly attempted to go on the tourbus as a gang, and that was an unmitigated disaster," Morissette says with a laugh. "So we are now 'hubbing,' it's called." The family will "hunker down" in one location, she says, and "mom will jump out" to perform in relatively nearby venues.
"They'll have continuity and I'll be tired, but it's worth it to have them be around," she says. "Anything for them."
