Meet four other Christmas heroes who miss family celebrations so others can enjoy the holiday,
Hazel Ki always wanted to be a superhero.
“I grew up watching Incredibles and Fantastic Four and X-Men and I wanted to have superpowers,” she says.
The 20-year-old Ryerson University student hasn’t (yet) figured out how to run at light speed or become invisible at will, but her superhuman ambitions have still played a major role in her life.
“Obviously I don’t have superpowers, but that led me to go into media work and that led me to work at the movie theatre instead of a part-time job somewhere else,” she said.
Ki has been a “cast member” and team leader at Cineplex movie theatres for four years while going to school and balancing a handful of other part-time jobs. She’s one of the behind-the-scenes heroes who made themselves available to work Christmas Day this year so that families can uphold a beloved holiday tradition: going to the cinema.
“I would say it’s even better working Christmas Day than a regular day. It’s more lively; people are happier,” Ki says. “Obviously you kind of dread it because you’re like, ‘Oh I’m not with my family — that sucks,’ but if you find out that your friends are also working the same shifts with you, it’s kind of fun.”
Cineplex communications director Sarah Van Lange says the holidays are one of the chain’s busiest times of the year.
“For the team at Cineplex, the best thing about working over the holiday season is welcoming our guests and becoming part of their traditions,” she says.
While many employees give up their own family time, Van Lange notes that some say Christmas is the best time to work.
“There’s a joy associated with making people happy,” she says. “And people are happier at Christmas because they’re with their family.”
One memorable Christmas Eve, Ki was working at the Scotiabank theatre at Richmond and John Sts. along with a friend and co-worker from Korea, who didn’t have any family in Toronto.
“And his birthday was Christmas Eve!” Ki says. “So we both worked Christmas Eve and then we decided to go out afterwards for a Cineplex family dinner . . . We kind of did a thing with all the outcasts.”
Even though neither friend was with their family, the evening was “heartwarming,” Ki says.
And families going to the movie theatre is something Ki appreciates, since it’s a tradition in her family as well. “A thing we’ll do very often together is dinner and a movie,” she says. “We often go to movies together, so I can kind of relate, this is a family that’s coming to a movie.
“If someone else is smiling, I smile,” she says.