Sweet Potato Pie & Black Cake for Santa

What are your family food traditions during Christmas or the holiday season? If Santa visited your home what would you serve him?

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In 2020, my sister asked me and my husband to each read a Christmas story for our nephew’s preschool class.  At first I had no idea what book to choose.  After some thought, I decided to look for books on stories of food eaten by people of African descent. 

During my research, I discovered that I had never given much thought to what Santa ate.  I also discovered the answer to why I began to tear-up while reading children’s books from a Black perspective. 

Breaking Tradition

In the US, children typically serve Santa cookies and milk during Christmas.  However, I found two books that tell a different story from an African American and Afro-Caribbean perspective.  

The first book, Sweet Potato Pie for Santa and I, is a story about a little African American girl named Journey, who decides to give Santa a dessert that her family typically eats for Christmas—the classic sweet potato pie. 

The second story, A Piece of Black Cake for Santa, is about a group of children of Afro-Caribbean descent, living in Canada, who decide to serve black cake, the traditional Christmas fruit cake eaten in many Caribbean countries.  Instead of milk, they decided to give Santa sorrel, a classic Christmas drink in the Caribbean.

Questioning and Altering Tradition

A major takeaway from both stories is that we don’t have to be narrowly confined to all aspects of tradition.  Both stories teach children that it’s okay to question, change, or alter traditions to represent their authentic experiences.  Moreover, questioning is an essential step of creativity, self-discovery, and discovery about the world. 

Recipes of Your Own

In addition to the beautiful story, Sweet Potato Pie for Santa and I includes a recipe. Recipes are one of the most common ways that tradition is maintained and passed on from generation to generation.  Thus, like a cookbook, the character invites readers to put thought into practice and carry on the tradition. 

Recipes also offer opportunities to question, alter, and change tradition to suit one’s taste and/or health goals.  For example, you may be open to trying pie recipes that have less sugar or butter, if your goal is to be more health conscious during the holidays. 

Within Group Diversity

A major takeaway from A Piece of Black Cake for Santa is an acknowledgment of the diversity of cuisines that exists among people of African and Caribbean descent.  While black cake is a dessert that draws the Caribbean countries together, the characters in the book each thought of different foods to share with Santa such as pastelle from Trinidad and jug-jug from Barbados. 

Reading both books together also led me to consider the differences and commonalities between African American and Afro-Caribbean culture.  For example, each culture has a sweet potato dessert.  In the Caribbean we have sweet potato pone or sweet potato pudding.  Unlike sweet potato pie, there is no crust for sweet potato pone.  In addition, sweet potato pone is typically made with red skin sweet potatoes, which are more commonly available in the Caribbean.  Sweet potato pies are often made with the orange skin sweet potatoes in the US. 

Black Celebration Foods and Health 

While not stated in these books, they both contain an underlying health message. First, celebration foods are different from the foods eaten everyday.  Eating sweet potatoes during the year as a simple oven-roasted meal can be inexpensive, healthy, and fulfilling.

In addition, black cake, like many cakes, tends to be higher in calories. It’s good that we only eat black cake once or twice a year. This is in part because the cost of the ingredients, especially fruit and rum. Making black cake can also be quite labor intensive.

Second, in A Piece of Black Cake for Santa, the author includes sorrel instead of milk.  It is well documented that people of African descent tend to be lactose intolerant. Sorrel is a traditional drink that is made from the flowers of the roselle or hibiscus plant. Sorrel is also packed with vitamin C and has its roots in Africa.  

While sorrel is consumed during Christmas, it can be enjoyed anytime of year.  Yolanda T. Marshall, author of A Piece of Black Cake for Santa, wrote another children’s book called Sweet Sorrel Stand, which breaks Caribbean tradition.  Instead of only making and drinking sorrel during Christmas, the children in the book convinced their mom to make it during the summer.  

Reading For My Nephew’s Class

My sister’s invitation to read a book for my nephew’s pre-school class took me on a journey towards self-discovery.  I found books written about Christmas that celebrated the traditions of foods eaten by people of African descent in the US and the Caribbean.  

I also got a chance to give my nephew and his classmates the gift of a story over zoom.  At the beginning of the story I asked the children what they plan to feed Santa and they all said, “cookies!”  At the end of the story, I asked again and a little girl said, “cheese doodles!”  I got one child to think outside the box! 

A Tear for My Inner Child

The simple act of reading a Christmas book for my nephew’s class brought up many emotions for me.  The emotions mainly consisted of excitement and pure joy.  However, there was some sadness.  

During the research and book selection process, a tiny tear fell from my left eye.  I was really surprised!  The discovery of the two books and several more led me to connect to my inner child.  

Mindfulness, Food, and Emotions

Using some of the techniques in mindfulness, I took a deep breath in the moment of sadness.  Instead of suppressing or dismissing the sadness, I decided to allow the emotions to come up.  Like a gentle mother I asked myself, “What’s going on?  Tell me what makes you sad?”

As I leaned into the sadness I discovered that I was receiving a gift.  The existence of these two books and others written by Black people from Black perspectives felt like opening up a present.  I was seeing aspects of my culture and childhood on a page.  

The child within is grateful.  I am grateful that the authors took the time to write the books that I never knew I needed as a child and as an adult.  Over the years, I’ve yearned to see more representation of my lived experiences through food. 

Santa is Us

In reflecting on the entire experience, I see now that Santa represents more than a story of a man dressed in red giving gifts.  Whatever we feed Santa we feed ourselves and our children both symbolically through our words and literally through our food.  

It is my wish that this blog was a blessing and gift to you.