Le Band à Boivin's charity Christmas song

'Le Noël de Marcel et Denise' ('Marcel et Denise's Christmas') by Québec City's Le Band à Boivin just dropped, raising money for a local charity that helps children succeed at school. The song talks about Marcel and Denise, two realistic characters who help the poor because they know what it's like to be poor.

Le Band à Boivin also knows how to party, as shown by 'On a joué un tour au Père Noël' ('We Played a Trick on Santa') from 2020. It's got banjo, violins, bright voices, sound effects, and it features a few more artists such as Bonhomme Setter, Claude Bernatchez and Guillaume Dumas.

Fun fact: 'Bonhomme Setter' (aka 'Bonhomme Sept Heures') is the French-Canadian bogeyman who scares children who don't behave. Some say it's a deformation of 'bone setter', the healer who would come by and set bones, others say it could be related to telling kids that seven o' clock ('sept heures', pronounced similarly to 'setter') was bedtime.

And nobody really played a trick on Santa. They just wanted to catch a glimpse of him while hiding behind the Christmas tree, camera in hand. The idea that Santa still came with presents during the health crisis was definitely reassuring in 2020. But today, in 2024, poverty is still there. Helping people on the street when it's freezing cold outside is the real deal, as 'Le Noël de Marcel et Denise' tells us