Gift Ideas from Bianca Andreescu, her Parents, and their Now-Famous Dog, Coco

For our 2019 ‘Friends and Family’ issue, we asked eight families—from multigenerational clans to collaborators who lean on each other like kin—to share what they’re giving and asking for this holiday season. Contributing editor Karin Nelson sat down with each group to paint a picture of their relationships and what they’re getting up to this year.

As a child, Bianca Andreescu could never sit still. So her parents, Nicu and Maria, threw her into sports. In Ontario, Canada, where she was born, she swam and skated. In Romania, where her family is from, and where they temporarily returned when Bianca was 7, she picked up gymnastics and ballet. Tennis was the last sport she tried, and it stuck. “I was best at it,” explains Bianca, who went on to beat Serena Williams at the US Open this year, becoming the first player born in the 2000s—she is 19—to win a Grand Slam tournament. And she wasn’t the only Andreescu to emerge a star from the match: With her dark mane, head-to-toe designer wardrobe, and preternaturally calm demeanor, Maria became an instant sensation on social media, as did the family lapdog, Coco, whom they take almost everywhere. “My mom told me she didn’t stand up and clap when I was playing because it would have bothered Coco,” Bianca says. A proponent of meditation, Maria, a chief compliance officer for a Canadian investment firm, introduced the practice to her only child when she was 12, and Bianca credits it with much of her success. She also attributes her love of fashion to her mom. “I used to be such a tomboy, but now I want to dress up like her and do my makeup,” says Bianca, who has just learned from Maria the art of a smoky eye. This Christmas, the close-knit family will be in Hawaii, where Bianca is playing at an exhibition tournament. Then she is heading to Australia, most likely without her parents. “Before I enjoyed having them with me, but now I like to be by myself,” she says. Needless to say, Coco is still invited.