Masquerade bands, performing and playing their special brand of  music,  are a common sight on the streets of towns and villages in the Caribbean at Christmastime . However, the masquerade band is not seen as often as before, and efforts have been made from time to time to revive the tradition.
The term masquerade comes from masque (mask). Masqueraders wear masks  which are supposed to have some particular meaning or to achieve some particular effect.
The main performers in a masquerade band are the dancers and musicians. In addition to the face masks, the dancers almost always wear elaborate costumes . The costumed characters often seen are the Cow Head or Wild Cow (with prominent horns), the Horse Head, Policeman, the man on stilts, the Devil and various representations of women.  Fabric, mesh, tinsel, mirrors and other items were used in getting up their colorful costumes.

The dancers interact with the crowds of onlookers. The Cow or Mule (who are really performers dressed to represent these animals) would rush among the crowds, and the crowd would scatter in mock fear, then come back again for some more fun. Small children may be genuinely terrified, but their fear is regarded as part of the game.

The dancers, whose attraction was their fancy steps, would go up to individuals prance around and do something special, trying to please everyone.
The musicians, generally also costumed, pressed many different kinds of instruments into service, but drums and  fifes (flutes) were  dominant.  They play kettle drums, gumbay drums, bamboo flutes, metal flutes, banjos, guitars, graters, triangles, bottle-and-spoon and other music- and noise-makers as they  roam the community entertaining the high folk and the low. Modern instruments are used increasingly. The saxophone and clarinet are favorites in some locations.

During the performance one or more of the members of  the band would approach those being entertained in order to collect money, sometimes food, sometimes liquor.

The spectators generally gave them encouragement. In Guyana, it is common to hear the lookers on shouting  “Blow, man, blow.”

Boxing Day

Throughout the English-speaking Caribbean, Boxing Day, the day after Christmas Day is celebrated. It is treated as an extension of the Christmas holidays.

Christmas in Antigua and Barbuda
(a few notes).

It is traditional for Antiguans to eat pork on Christmas Day - baked or stewed or corned. On the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, pepperpot is a big favorite.
On Christmas Eve, everybody seems to be on Market Street doing Christmas shopping up to the last minute.
Antiguans and Barbudans have for a long time felt quite comfortable with the White Christmas images on their Christmas cards. They even went a stage further. In the past, people would fetch white sand from the beaches and cover their yards with it at Christmastime in order to simulate snow. The practice is not common now.

See contribution from Patricia Flax

Christmas in the Bahamas

Apart from the activities everybody in the Caribbean gets involved in at Christmastime, in the Bahamas, it’s Junkanoo! Junkanoo! Junkanoo! A carnival featuring parading bands in colorful costumes, singing, dancing, and decorations everywhere.
See also Christmas in the Bahamas – a poem by Phyllis Gibson

 

Christmas in Barbados

Christmas Plum Pudding
Christmas Day in Barbados is a day for feasting. Among the favorites of the day are jug-jug, green peas and rice, baked ham, roast turkey with its stuffing with gravy, roast pork with crackling and gravy, fish, pepperpot, jug jug, yam pie, candied sweet potatoes, plantain, conkies... and a lot more. There would also be Christmas cake, cassava pone, and other desserts. Often, the last item is plum pudding or Christmas pudding.

Plum pudding is made of currants, raisins, sultanas and other dried fruit – but no plums, as we use the term today. The pudding is steamed for three or more hours in a large saucepan with boiling water. It is then turned out into a heated serving dish, and warm brandy or rum is poured over it and set alight. The plum pudding is then served, often accompanied by butter rum sauce.

An Oxford dictionary definition of plum is “A dried grape or raisin as used for puddings, cakes, etc.” Dried plums (prunes) had been widely used throughout the Middle Ages, but later cooks began to use raisins. The name “plum pudding” just never changed.

Christmas Recipes. Includes Plum Pudding
Why the name Plum Pudding?

Christmas in Belize

A few notes:
Belizeans are entertained by John Canoe bands with their costumed drummers, chanters and dancers.
The Christmas trees decorating homes come mainly from the Mountain Pine Ridge in Belize.
A holiday favorite in Belize is a rum-and-eggnog concoction called "rum popo".
The annual Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count, a bird census performed throughout the Americas, brings a number of birders to Belize at this time of year.

Christmas in Grenada

 On Carriacou, a dependency of Grenada, a parang festival is held during the Christmas season. The Carriacou Parang Festival, first held in 1977, is held each year on the weekend before Christmas Day. Unlike  the Parang Festival in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, where the parang songs are sung in Spanish, at this festival songs are sung in English.  

The instruments used by parang bands include the bass drum, iron, guitar, quarto, violin, maracas (shack - shack), mandolin, saxophone, tambourine. Songs use calypso-like themes.

Christmas in Guyana

Introduction
Christmas in Guyana has always been an almost magical time. Most of the features of Christmas are shared with the rest of the Caribbean.

Food and Drink
Food has always been one of the central features. Preparation started well before the day itself. Among the main items were black cake, ginger beer, imported apples, imported grapes, garlic pork, pepperpot, pickled onions, and ham. There was also a variety of sweets. Drinks included ginger beer, sorrel, mauby, sweet potato fly (a fly is a fermented drink), other kinds of fly, falernum, shandy, rum and wines, depending on the household.

In the old days, the “black cake” (a dense, dark fruit cake), was baked about two months before Christmas Day so that the portions to be sent to relatives in America, Canada, England and elsewhere could be mailed at least a month in advance. Cake from “home” was important to those abroad. To make sure that the cake would last, rum was an important part of  the mix. For about three or four months before baking time, the fruit was ground and then placed in glass jars and soaked in rum for curing. Rum was added again after the cake was baked to keep it preserved for many months.
One of the chores involved in the preparation of the black cake was “washing the butter.” In the old days, salted butter was a major ingredient. It was put in a large container and water was added. Washing the butter was using a large spoon to beat the butter against the water, by way of a stirring action, until the butter lost most of its salt content to the water. For the young persons (most likely the boys) who were called upon to “wash” the butter, the task seemed never-ending.
Not everybody had an oven. Many people prepared their bread and cake and took them in baking pans to someone who had a large oven to have them baked for a fee.

For some Guyanese, part of the long-term Christmas preparation was curing their hams. The process was started many months in advance. Others imported their hams.

Caroling
About a week before Christmas Day, groups of singers, mainly from churches, would go out in the evening singing carols in public places. The grand finale came on Christmas Eve. When the wee hours of the day itself arrived, they sang all the more lustily. One of the old favorites was “Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn.” Caroling was enjoyed by many young people.

Inside the House
Christmas offered the opportunity for renewal within the home – the equivalent of spring-cleaning, and even more. A few weeks before Christmas, the real preparation started. One of the activities was the “breaking up of the house.” Old curtains were taken down. The walls would be readied for painting. The oilskin or linoleum was removed. Decisions were made about furniture. The really old ones would be slated for tossing out, others would be refinished with polish or varnish. These might be turned down and later scraped, sandpapered then finished. Just before Christmas Day, they would proudly wear their new luster, the new curtains would be hung, new cushions would be in place, perhaps new mattresses would lie on the beds, together with new sheets and new pillows. The house was completely redecorated. The Christmas tree was up. The yard was clean as a whistle.

Masquerade
Christmas was the season of the masquerade bands. They emerged in all their glory. The dancers and drummers were all colorfully dressed up in their costumes. The masks, which gave the masquerade its name, were very evident. With the sound of the beating drums and of the flute and other instruments, the various performers played their part. One of them was Cow. Cow, the wood-and-fabric structure in theshape of a cow, had an opening for a man to place it around him. Cow had horns which were often the real horns from a dead cow. Long-lady (nicknamed Boom Boom Sally or Mother Sally) is a figure in a flowing skirt on tall stilts and with the face of a woman. Long-lady sometimes had exaggerated anatomical features. In reality, men were generally inside those costumes. Long-man is the male version. The dancers took turns in performing, but sometimes performed together, often mingling with the crowd.

The masquerade band would move along the streets and roadways in its territory. The performers would stop in front of a house, playing and dancing as the lead dancer went into a yard and up the front stairs, dancing for the entertainment of the household. After some dance-steps, he would hold out his hat for money. The head of the household would give the money, and rum perhaps, and the lead dancer would bow as it is being given, say thanks, then dance away to join the band which would then move on. As they moved on, people on the street would throw coins (and they had better be coins of respectable value) in front of them. The lead dancer would pick them up, dancing all the while. The more money is thrown the more vigorous and stylish the dance gets.

A popular chant heard from time to time is:

 Many members of the band drank as they went along. Eventually, they would be too drunk or too tired to go on.
The masquerade in each Caribbean territory would have its own peculiar flavor.

Steel Band in the Street
In the 50s "tramping" behind the steel band of choice was popular at Christmastime. The popular bands at the time included The Invaders, Tripoli and QuoVadis. The practice gradually faded away.

Santa Claus (Father Christmas)
In the old days, children were led to believe that all the gifts which appeared on Christmas morning were brought by Father Christmas. Most children wanted to stay awake on the night of Christmas Eve because of all that was going on, and also because they wanted to see when Father Christmas came. However, they were practically forced to go to bed so that Father Christmas could be allowed to peacefully come through the keyhole, or however, and do his work – or, they were told, he might never come. Going to bed did not necessarily mean going to sleep, however. Children generally pretended to go to sleep, but in fact tried to peep into what was going on, until sleep finally overtook them. Increasingly, however, parents let their children know that they themselves provided the gifts.

 The  big stores (such as Fogarty’s) meantime began to provide Santa Clauses. In exchange for some payment by the parent, a child was able to go to the store Santa Claus, who would give him at least a hug and a gift.

Gifts for the Children
Gift buying has always been a wrenching business. Parents spent hours at the stores on Water Street, Camp Street and Regent Street in Georgetown. Further back in time, the shopping Mecca was  Collier’s Penny Store at what came to be called Collier’s Corner, located at Camp and South Streets. In New Amsterdam, Berbice, the shopping center was Pitt Street. Guyana Stores on Water Street was also popular.
Among the toys bought for girls were dolls, cradles, doll houses, telephones, sewing kits, kitchen equipment, ironing boards, irons and skipping ropes. Boys got guns, cars, fire trucks, motor cycles, cowboy outfits, cricket or football gear, tool boxes with tools, guitars and mouth organs. Both sexes got new clothes, games such as snakes-and-ladders and lotto and monopoly, with tin whistles, horns (called blow-blows), and balloons thrown in.

Media
Radio and the newspapers reflected the Christmas mood and activities. The Chronicle Christmas Annual was a special year-end publication which tried to feature the best in art, theater, writing etc.
The radio stations played Christmas music, at first from the first day of December but, in later years, from November 16. On Christmas Day itself the stations at one time played serious religious music until about noon, then lightened up and played popular Christmas music of the likes of “Jingle Bells” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” 

Christmas Day
Some people went to church on Christmas morning. Others would have gone on Christmas Eve. Gifts, previously hidden, were then opened, generally with squeals of delight from the children. There was feasting on the Christmas goodies. A lot of visits were exchanged. Overseas telephone calls were made. Radios or recorded music was played loudly.

What Makes Christmas Unforgettable
A combination of things make Christmas unforgettable. The house was nearly new again. Among the new things were the Christmas gifts. The smells of new cloth, of  wood polish and varnish, of fresh paint was still in the air. They mingled with the smells from the kitchen, the dining table and the pantry: pepper pot, garlic pork, you name it.  The sounds in the air were laughter, music, horns, whistles, bells, popping toy guns, crying dolls.

Boxing Day
The day after Christmas was also a holiday – an extension of Christmas Day. It was a day of  continued feasting and fun. Even the very religious seemed to relax on that day. At one time, cinemas showed only cowboy films on Boxing Day.

Christmas in Haiti

Traditionally, a few days before Christmas, Haitians would cut pine branches to serve as Christmas trees or  they would go to the market and get freshly cut trees brought from the mountains. They would then decorate them with bright ornaments. At the base of the Christmas tree they would add a fairly large nativity scene which could occupy a large part of  the living room. They depicted a cave manger, with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the wise men, and sculptured stable animals complete with hay.
On Christmas Eve, the children would place their shoes, nicely cleaned up and filled with straw, on the porch or under the Christmas tree. Papa Noel (Santa Claus) was expected to remove the straw and put his presents in and around the shoes. Christmas Day was a day of  a lot of eating and drinking and singing and playing with the toys brought by Papa Noel. The children might also play with fireworks which they mostly made themselves from chemicals bought in the store. They consisted of little “bombs” which they set off as noisemakers.  All houses in the neighborhood were open with all lights on until about three o'clock in the morning. Some people went to midnight mass. Others would go out in the neighborhood in groups, caroling. Parents generally gave their children complete freedom on this night and generally did not know or enquire where they went. The older children were in charge. Children of practically all ages were allowed to drink anisette on Christmas Eve. Anisette is a mild alcoholic beverage prepared by soaking "anise" leaves in rum and sweetening it with sugar.
Those who went to midnight mass would go back home to enjoy the meals of the "reveillon." The word "reveillon" is French for a Christmas or New Year's Eve supper and comes from the verb meaning 'to wake up." The occasion was however more a breakfast than a supper. It began very early in the morning and often lasted nearly till dawn. 

Christmas in Jamaica

Christmas Market
The Christmas Market or Grand Market has been a glittering, and probably unique, tradition in Jamaica. It provided great holiday entertainment for children and parents alike.
In the past especially it had the flavor of a community fair beginning on Christmas Eve and culminating on Christmas Day. The event featured the sale of toys, craft and gift items, food, street dancing, and music.

Old-time Christmas Market began coming together a few days before Christmas but was fully established by late Christmas Eve. Downtown Kingstown had the largest Christmas Market, but there were others in other parts of the island. One of the famous Christmas Markets was the Victoria Craft Market at the Ocean Hotel at the bottom of King Street. Another was in the Parade area.
There was always a crush of people at the site of the Christmas Market – vendors selling a wide range of Christmas items, and everyone else turning up there to buy them. Everyone was in fancy clothes, including colorful hats which were usually bought on entering the market. The vendors sold small toys, gift items, firecrackers, twinkle-twinkles, balloons and sweets. They also sold pinda (African word meaning “peanut”) cakes, grater cakes and peppermint sticks, oranges, uglis, apples from America, tangerines, sorrel (in heaps), Blue Mountain coffee beans (“the best in the world”) and such beverages as chocolate, tea, and coffee. There were sounds all around – loud exchanges between vendors and customers, greetings and chat among the customers, Christmas carols, and music from the street dancers.
Christmas Market came to be set up at the  front doors of legitimate businesses in town, now closed for the holidays. People went there on foot. Parents and children would set out early Christmas morning, dressed in their “Christmas Best” clothing.
Stalls were decorated with streamers, large bells made of kite paper, and balloons of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
In the olden days at the Kingston Christmas Market children would ride the ferry to Port Royal or go to the Christmas morning concert at Ward Theatres.

The present-day Christmas market is still alive but is a mere shadow of its former self. Today a great deal of  shopping is done in the larger stores beforehand or on Christmas Eve.

See Seasons Come etc. from The Gleaner

Montserrat
(a few notes)

Many of the people of Montserrat have left the island since the volcanic eruptions that changed the face of their homeland.
However, the traditional fare at Christmastime is roast pig, goat water (stewed goat meat), goat meat cooked on a wood fire, potato pudding, dooknah(?-spelling) (potato, coconut, oil, sugar wrapped in "chainee (?-spelling) bush").
A number of celebrations converge around Christmas time. Apart from the house-to-house caroling, there are masquerade competitions (including Moko Jumbie, "bull man" etc) and a Miss Montserrat show.
Christmas shopping is done on a crowded Parliament Street.

St Kitts and Nevis

St. Kitts has a carnival over the Christmas holidays - one huge party with music and dancing in the streets.   It features calypso, steel bands, the big drum and fife corps, masquerade and children’s dancing troupes, the Bull, Mocko Jumbies, clowns and string bands. Festive foods include black pudding, goat water, conchs, Johnny cakes, and roti. There are also competitions such as the Queen Show, the Calypso Monarch Competition and the Caribbean Talented Teen Competition.

Christmas in Saint Lucia 

One of the Christmastime traditions in Saint Lucia is “bursting the bamboo.” From late November one can hear the sounds of bamboo bursting during the night. Men in the neighborhood use kerosene and rags and sticks as fuses to make cannons out of hollowed-out bamboo. 

There is also the Festival of Lights and Renewal, which begins December 13, and  features a lantern-making competition and the decoration of towns and villages with lights.  The celebration honors the patron saint of light, St. Lucy, with a switching on of the Christmas lights and a lantern-making competition.

 St. Vincent and the Grenadines

An interesting aspect of the Christmas season in St Vincent is the pre-Christmas celebration called Nine Mornings, observed for the for the nine days – December 16-24. It features early morning street activities such as parades through the streets of Kingstown, bicycle races, string band serenades, caroling and singing. The sound of drums and steel pans, along with Vincy food and drink are very evident. Activities start early, at around 5.00 am, while it is still dark. Bay Street in Kingstown and, more recently, the Cultural Center in Calliaqua are full of people at this time. At around  7.00 am, the Nine Mornings activities give way to a regular work day.

Suriname

In Suriname, Christmas begins early. Children  put out cookies and milk for Goedoe Pa (or Dearest Daddy) and his servants who would be busy delivering gifts throughout the country.  Goedoe Pa is a black man and his servants are also black. He and his servants leave the children’s presents next to their shoes on the morning of December 6th, with poems attached to the gifts.

It was not always so. Before 1975, when Suriname was colony, Christmas traditions were the same as in the Netherlands. Then, it was St. Nicholas (also called Sinterklaas), an elderly white man, who arrived by ship on December 5th, the eve of his birthday. He rode a white horse and had a retinue of Black servants. Children left hay and carrots in their shoes for St. Nicholas' horse.

Surinamese celebrate Christmas Day and the following day, December 26^th, called  Tweede Kerstdag in festive fashion with parties, gifts, and ethnic Christmas dishes. During the two days, national holidays, Surinam’s offices, factories and schools are closed.

Families attend church services on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. After church, they enjoy opening gifts at home and there is a festive atmosphere during which friends visit and share the good things of the season throughout the day and into the next.

 

Trinidad and Tobago

CHRISTMAS IN TRINIDAD

Parang
Parang music is an important part of Christmas in Trinidad. There is nothing quite like it in the rest of the Caribbean.
 Parang groups (traditionally, four to six singers with their instruments, but now more in number) go from house to house within communities playing and singing music passed down from their Hispanic American ancestors. Their Christmas offerings include lively folk carols heralding the birth of the Christ Child and relating the story of the nativity. Parang was introduced into Trinidad, according to one theory, by Spain’s Capuchin monks of the Order of St. Francis, somewhere between 1686 and 1689. Another theory is that Trinidad Parang began in the nineteenth century whenVenezuelan workers were imported to serve on the Cocoa estates during the Cocoa boom of 1870-1920.
The aguinaldos recount the angel Gabriel’s prophecy to young Mary and the manzanares are about the celebrations after the child is born.
 Initially, the instruments they used were the guitar, cuatro, mandolin, box base, and maracas. Over the years, however, other instruments were pressed into service - horns, guitars, steel drums, tambourines, even pots and  pans. The paranderos (as parang performers are called) show up at a house and would  sing and keep on singing until the household recognizes them. They may start by singing songs for the 'opening of doors', such as Serenal or Pasen Pasen. The household would generally invite them in for refreshments.
Over the years parang was adapted to the social environment of the island, mainly by the native Amerindians and African slaves. Called La Parranda initially, it became parang. Significant numbers of parranderos  are found mostly in Moruga, Santa Cruz, Valencia, Caura, Lopinot,  Sangre Grande, Maraval, Siparia and Rio Claro.

Christmas music now also includes Parang Soca (introduced around 1978), a blend of soca music and parang;

More about Parang

Food and Drinks

Trinidad's Christmas cuisine include the usual Caribbean favorites, but also pastelles (cornmeal pasties filled with meat, olives, capers and raisins, steamed in banana leaves) and stewed pigeon peas. Ponche de crema (a kind of eggnog with added rum) is also very popular.