Christmas in the Caribbean By Willie MacIntosh

Denise Noe’s note: This was published several years ago in The Caribbean Express, a magazine that is no longer publishing. I did much of the research for Mr. MacIntosh’s article and have his permission to put Christmas in the Caribbean up on my blog.

As a group, African Americans are a deeply spiritual people. We include individuals of all religious faiths but the majority of us are Christians. To Christians of most denominations (the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in which blacks are well-represented, are one of the better known exceptions), Christmas, the day set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, is a beloved holy day.

Although we are not, as a group, prejudiced against snow because of its color, some of us would prefer to avoid the freezing temperatures of a “White Christmas.” Thus, if we think of traveling, our thoughts sensibly turn to the Caribbean with its famously temperate climate.

Like African Americans, the people of the West Indies also tend to be deeply religious. While the Caribbean countries are famously well integrated both ethnically and religiously, the majority of West Indians are descendants of the African Diaspora and the majority are also Christians. Thus, Christmas is a time of the greatest joy and most enthusiastic celebration in Caribbean countries and is an especially enjoyable time for the African American traveler to visit the West Indies. Christmas is a joyous time throughout the Caribbean; however, each nation celebrates the holiday in keeping with its own unique history and customs.

According to Rose Grant, President of the Belizean Association of Georgia, better known as BELAGA, Christmas in her homeland is celebrated in a manner that exemplifies its people’s friendliness, hospitality and overall sense of community. “The celebration starts after a church service that takes place on midnight of Christmas Eve and lasts until Christmas night. People go from home to home in their neighborhoods playing a variety of musical instruments and sharing a variety of goodies like black cake and our own eggnog that is different from what you have in the US. Somebody knocks on a door and the person opening it will say ‘Com een da mi mick ah,’ a Creole greeting welcoming the celebrants into their neighbor’s home.”

When Ms. Grant was young, people frequently went into the homes of perfect strangers to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. However, Belize is not immune to the rising crime rate of so many modern societies so Belizeans have become a bit more careful and tend to do less celebrating with people they are not acquainted with these days.

This door-to-door revelry takes slightly distinct forms in different parts of Belize. In Belize City, it is called a Bram and the musical instruments most commonly played are the grater (primarily a tool to grate coconuts), and the mouth organ or harmonica. In the southern part of the country, known as Dangriga, the celebration is called a Jancuna and the celebrants are usually masked and do a lot of drumming.

As might be expected given the nature of Christmas celebration in Belize, Christmastime is the season to pay special attention to the appearance of one’s house. After all, everyone’s got company coming — LOTS of company! Belizeans put up new drapes, put fresh linoleum on their floors, varnish their chairs and generally make their homes squeaky-clean. If anyone is going to buy new furniture, they do it before Christmas.

Christmas is also the time when the people of Trinidad and Tobago expend energy and finances to spruce up their homes and for the same reason. People singing Christmas songs in such uniquely Caribbean musical forms as Parang, Parang soca and calypso go door to door bringing Christmas cheer. Families and friends gather in each other’s houses to share the joy of this special season. They can expect hearty meals of ham or turkey accompanied by delicacies like black rum cake, sweetbread and fruitcake and washed down with beverages like sorrel, ginger beer and ponche de crème.

Trinidadians and Tobagonians have Christmas trees and decorate them extravagantly. The small children believe in a Santa Claus similar to the one so beloved by American youngsters and anticipate receiving gifts from him on December 25.

The deeply Roman Catholic country of the Dominican Republic gives a great deal of importance to celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. Most people start the celebration with a midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Most families have hearty and scrumptious Christmas dinners and the streets of the Dominican Republic fill with merry carolers. However, the children of the Dominican Republic must wait until January 6 to get their presents because that is the date upon which tradition holds that the Three Wise Men from the East gave their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus.

In the American territory of Puerto Rico, most of the little kids look forward, not to Santa Claus on a sleigh, but to a visit by the Three Kings, Balthasar, Melchoir and Gaspar. January 6 is Three Kings’ Day in Puerto Rico. Thus, on the evening of January 5, many Puerto Rican youngsters fill boxes with grass and cups with water, then hospitably leave them out for the hungry, thirsty camels of the gift-bearing Kings. Other Puerto Rican youngsters do expect a Santa but don’t picture him coming in on a sleigh, probably because December in the Caribbean is such a balmy, sunny time. Rather the youngsters believe that Santa flies through the air like a bird so they leave out boxes in courtyards or on roofs knowing that, at least if they’ve been nice more than they’ve been naughty, he will fill them with little treasures. In La Fortaleza of Old San Juan, the governor ceremonially hands out presents to children.

Also on Three Kings’ Day, Puerto Rican adult celebrants garb themselves as kings and go in groups of three from home to home bringing presents, usually fruits. This home to home visiting lasts until January 8. January 12 is known as Bethlehem Day and children have a marvelous and colorful procession through the streets on that day. Youngsters dressed as Wise Men, shepherds, and angels ride on ponies holding gifts.

The residents of US Virgin Islands celebrate Christmas much as Americans do. Boniface Thomas is from the Virgin Islands and is a past President of the Virgin Islands Association of Atlanta. “We do give Christmas a Caribbean spin,” he says. “There’s always a lot of visiting. Foods served are rum cakes, fruitcakes – which aren’t like the fruitcakes here that so many hate! – and black cakes. We drink guava berry and sorrel.” Christmas carolers are out in the evenings and so are “scratch bands,” so-called because they emphasize banjos, saxophones and drums in playing Christmas music.

St. Croix has its own special Christmas tradition. “The Christmas Festival there is a lot like Carnival,” Mr. Thomas relates. “They have a festival area with food and drink booths, the stilt walkers that we call moko jumbies, and reggae, calypso and steelbands.”

Jamaica celebrates Christmas both religiously and secularly with church services and parties much as is done in the United States. If Jamaicans cannot find pine trees, gifts are placed under a willow tree. Small children believe in a jolly Santa Claus from the north pole with reindeer and a sleigh but, since there are traditionally very few homes with chimneys in Jamaica, their Santa Claus shrinks in size to come through the keyhole of a house’s front door!

In small towns, the John Canoe dancers can often be seen in the streets on Christmas Day. Jamaican Consul in Atlanta Vin Martin says, “They are dressed up in multi-colored outfits as devils, angels and various characters. They go through the streets dancing, singing, and playing instruments.”

Anywhere in the world, there will always be people who receive gifts that they find inappropriate. Thus, December 26 sees flocks of folks in stores returning gifts. “We call it Boxing Day,” Mr. Martin says, “because it’s the day boxes of gifts are returned to stores.”

The celebration of Christmas in Barbados is, according to Noel Smith, the President of the Barbados American Cultural Alliance of Georgia, “not much different from that in the United States.” He is planning to go home to Barbados for this Christmas and says that the season is one in which many overseas Bajans head home. Carolers usually go out Christmas Eve to homes, hotels and shopping malls where they sing many of the same songs that are sung here at this time of year, like Hark, the Herald Angels Sing! “Most of our people are Anglicans,” Mr. Smith elaborates, “And they get up very early on Christmas to go to a church service at 5:00AM so that they will have the rest of the day to be with their families for get-togethers. We have big Christmas dinners of ham or chicken; we’re not much into turkey.”

Bajan youngsters look forward to presents under a Christmas tree of fir, pine or artificial material brought by a jolly, white-bearded figure garbed in red whom they call Father Christmas rather than Santa Claus. Their Father Christmas lacks the sleigh and reindeer of Mr. Claus and is also a slimmer fellow. “Someone playing Father Christmas would dress like Santa Claus here but they would not put a pillow on the stomach to make themselves look fatter,” Mr. Smith explains.

A Haitian Christmas begins with carolers on the streets a few days before Christmas. They sing in both French and Creole. As is true in the US, Christmas trees are hung with bright ornaments and gifts are placed around them and opened on Christmas. Haitian children hope for a visit from jolly Papa Noel. The day of Christmas is one of family get-togethers, hearty meals, and exuberant celebration.

So there you have it, folks. A Christmas of a different flavor in each Caribbean country and a delightfully memorable experience for the African American traveler in any nation he or she is lucky enough to visit at this time of the year. After all, it is a chance to get out of the cold while still being with those who are both brothers and sisters in Christ and brothers and sisters of the African Diaspora. As one African American woman says, “”Being around your people and listening to their beautiful accents and [seeing their] beautiful hues, believe me, you would enjoy Christmas in the Caribbean. Your people are your people no matter where you were born.”