Paula Woods' MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY Interview

Scenes of the Crimes

What Is Paula Reading ?

A Conversation with Paula L. Woods and Felix H. Liddell about Merry Christmas, Baby: A Christmas and Kwanzaa Treasury

Q : Why create a book about African Americans' celebration of Christmas? Don't most black people celebrate Kwanzaa instead of Christmas?

Paula : Not really. Statistics show that Kwanzaa is celebrated by only a small fraction of the black community, with Christmas being celebrated by the majority (over 90%). What we're finding is that many people—spurred on sometimes by what their children are learning about Kwanzaa in school—are incorporating aspects of Kwanzaa into their Christmas celebrations and doing both. That's what happens in our home and we've learned in most others around the country as well.

Felix : But that's not reflected in any of the books we've seen, so we felt there was a need to show the roots of our holiday celebration— Christmas—and how it's evolving into Kwanzaa and other sacred celebrations of our culture.

Q : Are African American Christmas traditions different ? Don't black people celebrate the holidays like everyone else?

Paula : Yes and no. While African Americans celebrate Christmas, we bring to the holidays a tradition of commemoration that has been influenced by slavery and our lives in the South. And the newer traditions, like Kwanzaa, aren't about Christmas at all. "Merry Christmas, Baby" captures all of those elements and brings them together through stories, poetry, letters, and essays, all of which show the depth and beauty of African Americans contributions to holiday celebrations.

Q : What's the earliest celebration you could find?

Paula : There were actually two that originated before slavery. One was Johnkannaus, a troupe of gaily-costumed black men who traveled from plantation to plantation entertaining with home made instruments. Harriet Jacobs, a slave who escaped in 1842, describes them in her memoir; an excerpt is included in "Merry Christmas, Baby."

Felix : The other Christmas tradition from the past is "Christmas gif'." Adult slaves on the plantations put little presents, a piece of fruit or some candy, in their pockets and if someone (usually a child) came up to them and said "Christmas gif'" first, they'd have to give them a present. It was almost like the trick of treat tradition we celebrate at Halloween.

Q : Why focus on slavery? Shouldn't we put that horrible episode behind us?

Felix : The Christmas traditions that sprang up during slavery are what made the lives of our ancestors more meaningful; they brought happiness and a sense of community to a group of people who otherwise had very little to bind them together.

Paula : And we believe that any traditions that has the ability to bring people together should be preserved and cherished. We as Americans are too eager to jettison parts of our past without knowing what we're losing until it's gone.

Q : So your book aims to preserve those traditions?

Paula : Exactly. The text that's in "Merry Christmas, Baby" comes from all over the world, and captures Christmas and Kwanzaa celebrations in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York City, Holland South Carolina, rural Virginia, New Orleans and more. Some of the stories are funny, some are thought-provoking, some will bring a tear to your eye—just like the holidays really do.

Q : Speaking of New Orleans, there are recipes in this book too, and from some famous chefs. Why do you include them?
Paula : When have you ever thought about Christmas and not thought about food?

Felix : In our families, preparing for Christmas breakfast and Christmas dinner was part of what made the holidays special. That's why we went to some of America's top chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers to get them to recall for us the food and fun that made Christmas special in their lives.

Q : What are you favorite recipes from the book?

Paula : I love the ginger biscuit recipe and short story contributed by Danella Carter. The story is so heartwarming—and the biscuits so good—it reminds me of one of the chapters in "Like Water For Chocolate."

Felix : I really don't have one favorite. However, because I am an admirer of his style of cooking, I enjoyed Patrick Clark's recipes a lot. The pheasant with Madeira, sweet potatoes, and apples is delicious and expands the concept of traditional holiday cooking to include tasty low-fat cuisine.

Q : Paula, you also contributed a recipe along with a Christmas letter, didn't you?

Paula : You know how you always get those Christmas letters from hell, that go on and on about what little Bobby and Susie are doing? Well, we thought publishing one of those letters would be a funny addition to the book, but we didn't want to embarrass anyone by making fun of an actual letter. So I used a family I was in the midst of developing for my series of crime novels—the Justices, including Charlotte Justice, an LAPD homicide detective—and "asked" Charlotte's sister-in-law Louise to compose a letter which includes a recipe from my grandmother for monkey bread, which in my family is always a holiday favorite.

Q : The art in this book is just beautiful. It really makes the stories come alive. How did you find it?

Felix : I've been seeking out art that includes Christmas and Kwanzaa themes since our first book, "I, Too, Sing America," was published, and I can tell you that the real challenge has been to find art relating to Christmas. Although I knew it was out there, many of the works of art in this book are known only to art collectors. "Merry Christmas, Baby" provides us with an opportunity to expose these works to a broader audience. Some of my favorites are the linocuts, etchings and lithographs of Allan Rohan Crite, William McKnight Farrow and Wilmer Jennings.

Q : The book has a strong spiritual quality. Why did you make those selections?

Felix : The African American community has recently had a renaissance of sorts in a return of the baby boom generation to their spiritual roots. We felt there was a need to address this phenomenon and a Christmas anthology was the appropriate means for us to explore this spiritual dimension.

Paula : So we included prayers by W.E.B. Du Bois and Howard Thurman as well as sermons by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a contemporary Los Angeles-based minister, Rev. Michael Beckwith. We think their words and thoughts about the true meaning of the holidays lend a quality to the book that is really quite wonderful and very moving. For us that's what Christmas and Kwanzaa truly means—a spirit that enters our hearts in December, but makes its home there all year long.

Here are some additional links for MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY:

"A Holiday Letter From The Justice Family"

"Miz Luzianne's Monkey Bread Recipe"

How Kwanzaa is Celebrated

Web site last updated March 20, 2003. Web site managed and designed by VCS.
Contents of this site Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Paula L. Woods.