When it comes to Christmas stories, we are all familiar with the classics- A Christmas Story; The Night Before Christmas; A Christmas Carol, just to name a few. Most tend to be white centric but there are instances where we can find Christmas stories through the African American lens. This book, A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories *, gives us a view of Christmas from the everyday Black person’s point of view. This collection of poems and short stories, gives us a look at life for an African American from 1880 to 1952. Originally printed in African American journals, periodicals, and newspapers, it shows how Christmas stories are very much part of the literary tradition of Black people after the Civil War.
You will find stories and poems from such literary greats as W.E.B. Du Bois, Augustus M. Hodges, Alice Moore Dunbar, and Langston Hughes. The other featured writers have been “rediscovered” so to speak.
As I sit and read this book for the second year during Christmas, it fills me with hope. The joy and love that these Black people experienced during a time of major oppression (we’re still oppressed but not like back then) is refreshing to read. However, it still shares the heartbreak of the time with racism, poverty, and racial identity. This book was lost to time but was reprinted in 2018.
Here are the things I hope you take away from this book:
You can experience bad times, rough times and still find joy, love, and humor. You can still celebrate while dealing with the other heaviness in your life. Sometimes we feel guilty about being happy when there is so much shit in the world. However, our ancestors found time to be in the moment and enjoy delights. They would want us to do the same but know that we have work to do to change not only our life’s but others as well because there is always hope.
Reading and writing connects us in a way that few other things can (besides food). To truly understand another way of life, we need to read and experience it through their eyes.
Christmas is for all of us. Not necessarily the religious part but the themes of Christmas. Sometimes it can seem like it’s only meant for some but joy is more than presents. Joy is being able to see where you were and how you overcame to get to where you are. Christmas allows for greater reflection than any other time of the year.
Christmas is sad and lonely. And you know what, that’s okay. We don’t have to be happy for the holidays. We can hate them, not because of what we can’t provide for others in the form of material things, but because processing feelings that seem to be compounded during this time of year is hard. If you can’t do that, that’s okay. Set boundaries and stick to them. They will help you, always.
I hope y’all take the time to dig into this collection of works. Share it with everyone you can because we all deserve to understand each other a little more than yesterday and celebrate the holidays with the understanding that we are different but the same. If you would like to purchase for yourself or gift to someone else, click the link above.
*I’m a Bookshop affiliate and may receive compensation.