Just a few weeks ago, I celebrated Christmas for the first time. Ever.

Faith. George Michael crooned about it; black people in America somehow maintain it—even if it’s the size of a mustard seed—time and time again.

This year, for each day of Kwanzaa, The Root is highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day.

This year, for each day of Kwanzaa, The Root is highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day.

We’ve been celebrating Kwanzaa Week here at The Root, which, for The Glow Up, also meant thinking up new outfits to wear for each night of the festivities celebrating the seven principles of what many lovingly call “Black Hanukkah.”

This year, for each day of Kwanzaa, The Root is highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day.

Each year, there are new essays or snide conversations about how black people don’t celebrate Kwanzaa. But I’m here to tell you that some of us do. Some of us have been doing it for decades. Yeah, I’m that unicorn.

... On the fifth day of Kwanzaa, P-Nut gave to meeeee: Fiiive keeeente clooooths! Four calling cards, three French braids, 20-inch dubs and an African print dashikiiii!

This year, for each day of Kwanzaa, The Root is highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day.

Kwanzaa, like black America, was birthed in struggle and chaos, then bathed in blood. It was born in the freedom movement, against the backdrop of the Watts rebellion, the rise of the Black Panther Party, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the assassination of Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz).

This year, for each day of Kwanzaa, The Root is highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day.

When The Root video producer P.J. Rickards and I stepped onto the streets of Harlem (full disclosure: my beloved hood), we were both surprised at the dearth of information about Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday started more than 50 years ago.

I guess it’s customary for the president of the United States to say “Happy Kwanzaa,” but who really thought that Donald Trump would follow this tradition? Since taking office, Trump has done everything except don a white hood with eye cutouts to show his support of white nationalism, white supremacy and white power…

Many people have wondered why Kwanzaa is not a bigger holiday or why it is overshadowed by Christmas every year (and when we say “many people,” like our esteemed president, we mean four ... maybe five, tops). In response, we decided to celebrate Kwanzaa Week by pouring our considerable resources, time and money into…

This year, The Root is making the blackest holiday of them all great again!

Yes, we’re serious. When I was asked (or, um, “volunteered”) to edit our Kwanzaa Week series, I was hype!

Sure. This will be one of our shortest explainers ever.

Have you ever looked at your kids and thought their little narrow behinds could show more appreciation for the countless Jordans and Apple products you buy them for Christmas? Have you been looking for seven ways to be a better person as you usher in the new year? Then it’s about time that you considered celebrating…

Please forgive me, for I have sinned.

It’s become a tradition at my house to host a Christmas Eve party. This way we get to exchange gifts with family but we don’t have to leave the house on Christmas Day. This year, The Misses expanded it into an ugly sweater party with a ‘white elephant’ gift exchange. We had a signature drink, guests kept their shoes…