Caribbean Christmas Traditions

Image Courtesy of St. Kitts Nevis Carnival

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Image Courtesy of Sweet & Savory St. Kitts

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As a child most of our family traditions included going to church, singing in "Lessons and Carols", and baking holiday pastries.  Now that I'm a parent, my husband and I have made our own traditions for our family.  Our family traditions include attending church services during the holiday season, trimming the tree, listening to holiday music, baking and watching classic holiday movies.  Some of our newer traditions (mainly for the children) include the Elf on the Shelf and now the Night Before Christmas Box.  My favorite traditions are watching the classic holiday movies, listening to the holiday music and baking.  It's amazing how my husband's culture as well as mine have blended.  His family is from Carriacou, Grenada and my family is from St. Kitts & Jamaica.  I think all Caribbean folks bake during the holidays but we all bake different things.  My mom always baked her black cake and that was it.  My mother-in-law bakes coconut tarts, sweetbread and sweet buns.  So I've been fortunate to be able to enjoy all and any of these freshly baked items every holiday season!  After a few years, I am more familiar with how to bake the coconut tarts because my husband and my mother-in-law have taught me.  However, the tradition isn't the same if we are not baking together.  We have now included my daughter in our baking tradition and she loves it as well!  Tonight we will begin our baking festivities!  There is plenty coconut to grate!  My experience has been that the scraped fingers and chipped fingernails are all so worth the yumminess of the finished product of coconut tart!  My In-laws also have a tradition of serenading their neighbors with a Caribbean holiday music called Parang. They go door-to-door with small instruments and sing Parang! We are both part of such rich cultures.  If my mom and I were to visit St. Kitts during this time, we would be celebrating Carnival (SugarMas). Our hope is to be able to pass along all these traditions to our children so that our ancestors' legacies can live on during holiday time.  Whatever you do during the holiday season as your traditions, hold it close and pass it on to your children or the young people in your family so that it will not be forgotten.  Whatever traditions you choose to follow, we wish you all the best during the holiday season.  Enjoy your family and be grateful for all your blessings!

SugarMas: The Sweetest Time of Year

Right now on the island of SugaCity St. Kitts, the masses are gearing up for our sweetest time of year, Carnival!  Carnival in St. Kitts happens to occur in December around the same time as Christmas. I remember prior to marriage and babies, I used to head down to SugaCity every year for Carnival!  I have the fondest memories of spending Christmas with my aunts, dressing up and going to the King and Queen shows, Talented Teen show, and Calypso shows.  But the best was always hanging out on the road with my cousin for J'ouvert!  I get shivers just thinking about those days.  Christmas day would be spent eating dinner and opening gifts with family and then that night, I would take a nap in preparation to wake up in the wee hours of the morning for J'ouvert.  J'ouvert (pronounced Jouvay) is a large street party that begins before dawn on Boxing Day during the Carnival season and peaks after the sun rises.  It includes big trucks that have Soca and Calypso bands on them.  The music is played loudly, they parade through the streets and people follow them all around the town dancing and coloring their bodies with paint, mud, and/or oils.

Caribana 2012: Paying Homage to a dear Uncle

So this blog post is a little late but I figure better late than never.  I had the pleasure of heading up to Toronto over the summer for Caribana.  I have always had fond memories of being in Toronto with my Canadian family during this time of year.  My uncle Tommy who passed away a few years ago was always the centerpiece of our visits.  He would always prepare for us by opening his home, turning on the sounds of Calypso/Soca, flaming up the barbecue and setting up the drinks!  Somehow, the last couple of visits to Toronto haven't quite been the same.  I kept getting the feeling that something, or someone was missing.  Surely he was the missing piece to the puzzle.  So me, my husband, mom, brothers and cousins decided on a very last minute trip to Toronto over the summer.  Part of the decision to go was for Caribana, one part was just to getaway and see our Canadian family but a part that we didn't realize initially was to pay homage to Uncle Tommy!  We took time out from the quick and busy weekend to visit his grave, tell him how we felt and that we missed him dearly.  I think those moments gave us some of the closure that we needed.  So we decided to hit the town hard as if Uncle Tommy was still with us and did we ever!