It goes without saying that 2025 has been a hell of a year for Blackfolk. So, how are we approaching the holiday season? Some say they’re doing absolutely nothing, in protest of the madness. Others say they’re doing all the things… also in protest of the madness.
What madness, you ask? The list is long and sobering:
- Removing tools to challenge discriminatory housing, lending, employment, and education practices.
- Firing and furloughing massive amounts of government workers, resulting in over 300,000 Black women professionals losing their jobs.
- Dismantling federal DEI programs.
- Criminalizing the teaching of Black history.
- Cutting public housing and renter protections.
- Ending SNAP benefits.
- Detaining and deporting immigrants and citizens alike with masked ICE agents and no due process.
- Deploying militarized troops into U.S. cities as though they were foreign battlefields.
- Engaging in overt racial gerrymandering that multiplies the power of white votes while erasing Black and Brown political strength.
- Ending women’s bodily autonomy.
- Undermining democracy and the rule of law.
- Killing nearly 100 people in international waters without trial.
- Waging tariff wars that have raised the price of everything.
And that’s just a snippet of the Trump- and Abbott-led policies that have battered Black life in 2025.
Yet in response to this Project 2025 reality, Black Houstonians are finding creative, restorative, cultural, and deeply spiritual ways to celebrate the holidays.
Traditional celebrations
For some, returning to tradition is the protest.
“During this Thanksgiving season, my family will gather in my home where we will cook, grill, and bake far more food than we could ever eat,” said Rev. Dr. Angela Ravin-Anderson, director of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church’s Social Justice Ministry. “In a time marked by political upheaval and uncertainty, these moments of togetherness matter more than ever. Our family traditions ground us, center us, and remind us of what is truly most important: loving one another.”
Similarly, Angie Stubbs says her family is holding tight to connection.
“We are spending the holidays focused on family as always,” shared Stubbs. “We’re spending Thanksgiving with my side of the family and part of Christmas with my husband’s side. On the day before Thanksgiving, we’re volunteering at the Houston Food Bank so we can be of service to those who have needs during this season.”
In years past, the Stubbs family often celebrated the holidays abroad, but 2025 is different.
“This year, we really want to rest and just spend time together. The year has been mentally taxing, and prioritizing peace, rest, and quiet is paramount,” Stubbs added. “We are buying fewer products this year, but supporting small or minority-owned businesses and businesses that value my community.
“There are some stores that absolutely won’t see my dollars because the positions they have taken publicly on issues have been contrary to what we believe.”
Cultural focus
For others, the holidays remain a time to honor ancestors and affirm culture, not a mythologized Pilgrim narrative.
“Like most Black families, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving for the traditional reasons,” said Adrianne Walker. “We use this time to reflect on how grateful we are and to honor our ancestors. This year, my sister and I have decided to bake together via FaceTime. We’ll be making our gran’s rolls and our mother’s cheesecake, both now ancestors.”
Walker said the nation’s political climate after the November 2024 Presidential Election directly impacted her family’s approach to the holidays last year.
“There was such a strong feeling of doom and gloom. Anxiety was high, everyone was tense and the world seemed to have gone crazy,” recalled Walker. “We decided to start the Christmas season a little early. We put up and decorated our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. I thought it would be a great opportunity for us all to decorate together while everyone was home for Thanksgiving.”
“Like most Black families, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving for the traditional reasons. We use this time to reflect on how grateful we are and to honor our ancestors.”
Adrianne Walker
Her family plans to take that same approach this holiday season.
“We need to come together and celebrate the good whenever we can. We start decorating our home much earlier and much more than we have in previous years. The holiday season just makes you feel good. We need more holiday joy for as long as we can,” she added.
Some families are navigating even more layered histories.
Dr. Ruth Allen Ollison, pastor of Beulah Land Community Church, is rethinking Thanksgiving in light of her grandchildren’s Wampanoag heritage. The Wampanoags are the Indigenous Americans who first encountered the Europeans, who eventually colonized the Americas.
“How do we honor their part of the family, the Wampanoags, and also celebrate Thanksgiving? Somewhere in that history, the people they showed how to live turned around and stole their land,” said Ollison.
Still, she is clear.
“As Black people, we have other issues. But we’re thankful to God. We’re not thankful about the things going on in the country. We’re not thankful about people trying to cut us out of the country. We’re not going anywhere. We’re thankful to God that we are strong, amazing, wonderful people, cut from amazing cloth.”
New approaches
Some are trying something completely different.
“We are doing something we’ve never done before,” said truck driver and minister David Marshall. “We leased an Airbnb for the entire immediate family because we have a large family, and we’re all coming together under one roof.”
His wife, Susan Marshall, says politics didn’t drive the shift, but by a desire to be fully together.
“Usually, during the holidays, the kids come by in sets because we don’t have a large home,” said Susan. “This time I said, let’s do something where we all can be there together. It’s not about gift-giving. Being together… that’s our Christmas.”
The Marshalls also lead their church’s Christmas Toy Drive and participate in Houston’s Kwanzaa traditions.
For others, “all the things” is the way forward.
“We’re leaning more toward all the things, but in a communal way,” said Dara and David Landry, owners of CLASS Bookstore. “This is a season to circle the wagons… to be with your family by blood or by creation.”
The Landrys will spend Thanksgiving with Dara’s family in East Texas, and then return to Houston for Christmas and beyond.
“We can’t wait to be with our people for Kwanzaa. We’re better when we’re together,” Dara added.
Some are doing much less.
“I will be resting,” said activist Aisha Shahid. “I’m only going to one family house, no stress. Vision board and planning for next year.”
Houston goes big
Despite tens of thousands of pledges to participate in the Black Friday Mass Blackout—and many voices vowing to dramatically scale back 2025’s festivities—many Black Houstonians are choosing resistance via fervent celebration.
Please let us know how you and your loved ones are spending the holidays. And share your holiday pics at news@defendernetwork.com (put HOLIDAY PICS in the info line).
Suggestions to make the most of the 2025 holiday season
- Prioritize rest and mental wellness by scheduling downtime.
- Shop intentionally: support Black-owned, local, or values-aligned businesses.
- Create or strengthen cultural rituals, such as ancestor tables, storytelling, and recipe sharing.
- Volunteer with community organizations serving vulnerable families.
- Organize small-budget or no-budget gatherings focused on connection, not consumption.
- Participate in Kwanzaa or other cultural celebrations to reaffirm community unity.
- Set boundaries to avoid holiday stress and political exhaustion.
- Use the holiday break to vision-plan for 2026 with family or a trusted community.
