- Just ahead on "Black Issues Forum," we've got a full show of holiday cheer just for you.

From holiday stories to traditions, we're unwrapping the magic of Christmas one memory at a time.

I'm joined by a very special guest, and we've got a very special treat for you, so you do not want to miss it.

Coming up next, stay with us.

- [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.

[energetic music] ♪ [energetic music continues] ♪ - Welcome to "Black Issues Forum."

This is our special holiday edition.

I am Kenia Thompson.

I've been counting down the days for this because I absolutely love the holiday season.

And here at "Black Issues Forum," we thought it'd be nice to set up a little Christmas decoration and step away from the politics and have fun while we share traditions and memories of favorite Christmases past.

In addition to having a special guest with me today, you wanna make sure that you stick around to the end of the show because we'll be raffling off several special gifts that you can keep for yourself or give to someone that you love.

But like I said, we have a very special guest joining us.

Many of you know her and you love her.

She's been part of the "Black Issues Forum" community for a very long time, and she is the face of "Travel Across North Carolina."

Welcome to the show executive producer of "Black Issues Forum" Mrs. Deborah Holt Noel.

- Why thank you.

- [Kenia] You're welcome.

- It is so strange to be in the guest seat.

- I know, but we had been trying to plan this for the longest time it feels like.

- I know.

And finally, and I think this is perfect because it's holiday season time for friends and family, and so this is perfect.

- I know, like I mentioned, it really is my favorite time of year.

I mean, I remember growing up just feeling Christmas spirit and energy.

It just always made me happy.

And I have a bunch of memories, but I'd love to ask you, what is your favorite memory from Christmas?

- Well, for our family it really was about family, faith, presents, and food.

- [Kenia] And food.

[laughs] - And so what I really remember is when I was a child, that elementary school age, and every single year our grandparents would come to New Jersey, which is where we lived, on the train.

There wasn't a Christmas that came when they did not come.

So they were very much a part of the family and we looked forward to that.

And when they would come on the train, they would always bring special food gifts from North Carolina because you couldn't find these items in New Jersey.

- Like what?

- They would bring country ham, homemade pear preserves, molasses, Lassiter cornmeal.

They would bring grits, if you would believe, because you couldn't get grits up in New Jersey.

So those were very special, and they brought enough to last the entire year.

And sometimes my grandma would bring a pound cake on the train.

- Oh, I love pound cake.

That's one of my favorite cakes.

Now, that you have your own family traditions, right, are there other traditions now that you live in the South that you guys partake in?

- You know, I just borrow tradition from family.

I always wanted to replicate what my parents were able to do.

They made Christmas magical.

So we looked forward to Santa Claus.

And on Christmas morning we would go downstairs and the living room will have been transformed.

- [Kenia] Mm.

- Everything would be sparkling.

We would have the big Christmas tree, presents every single where, presents for everybody that you hadn't seen before.

And it was truly magical.

- Yeah.

Well, I remember growing up, so I also grew up in the North.

I grew up in Brooklyn, and it was always pretty much a white Christmas.

Right?

And then we moved to the south and I was like, "What is this?"

- What is this?

- What is happening?

- I moved down south, and they were like, "Why do you have sleds?"

- Or snow boots, right?

And so that was interesting.

But we weren't huge on gifts.

Growing up Haitian, it was always really about the religion and the spiritual aspect of Christmas, although we did always have a good beverage, which leads me to my first plug of the night.

We have courtesy drinks, so this is a custom "Black Issues Forum" drink that our good friend at A Glass Above made for us.

And so I just wanna make sure that we highlight that today.

And so it's very tasty.

I'd love to get your opinions on that.

But I think one thing, well, I couldn't partake when I was a kid, but we had amazing spirits and beverages.

- Oh, really?

Oh, yes, that was an essential part.

- Oh, yeah, we had kremas which is kind of like a Haitian version of a coquito.

And then we had a cheries which this reminds me of that.

It's cherries that have been soaking in vodka essentially since last Christmas.

And I don't know what else they do to it, but it's divine.

It just, it's amazing.

And those are some of the memories that I have of always wondering what did that taste like?

[Host 2 laughs] - Well, in our family, our drink was very American, very southern, and that was the eggnog, and there was this entire ritual around making the eggnog, and going out to get the ingredients, and my father and my grandfather would ride out to Eastern North Carolina to get the proper spirits, and they would take all day to do it.

- Of course.

- And now I know how long that travel is.

It really didn't take that long.

- [Host 2] It didn't take that long.

- But they did, and my parents allowed us to try the eggnog.

- [Host 2] That's nice.

- And it would be so yummy.

- Yeah, well, you know, one of the major things that Christmas has brought is the opportunity to give people we love gifts, and one thing we've been highlighting over and over again are Black businesses, right?

Not just this holiday season.

We've been doing it throughout the duration of "Black Issues Forum" as a whole, but we definitely thought that it was important that we highlight it.

And so I think it's a perfect time to, 'cause we're gonna have raffles throughout the show, and so I would love to introduce our first raffle.

So our first raffle is the Ava STEM Princess Science Kit.

And so this kit, and you see our QR code on this screen, if you would like to win this gift, you go ahead and scan the QR code.

If you're watching on YouTube, click the link in the comment.

But this gift, and I will pull it out, this was created by Ava.

She's an 11-year-old neurodivergent young lady, and she created STEM kits where you can build your own battery operated lamp.

So in this kit you get your very own goggles.

- [Host 1] So cute.

- Isn't it?

The battery and pack for the lamp.

You get your Team Genius shirt in here, which is awesome.

- [Host 1] A T-shirt.

- I know.

And you get your name badge.

- [Host 1] Oh, so you can be official.

- Exactly, and an apron, right, your own scientist lab coat.

- [Host 1] That's a lab coat.

- Not apron.

A lab coat, yes.

- A full lab coat, I love that.

- A full lab coat.

And so if you're wondering, this is great for ages 5 through 13, and it's a great opportunity to just let kids explore, and have fun, and be creative, and you never know what it could spark.

- No, and I talked to her mother, and she was just full of life and so bubbly.

But what she emphasized was that this is for purposeful play, and heavy word on play.

So this is a toy, but it's a learning toy.

So it's a really fun gift to give and for kids to receive.

- Yeah, so I wanna pop up that graphic again for those that of you that may not have had a chance to scan it.

Scan the raffle.

So by December 27th at noon, I will be closing the raffles.

- [Kenia] And we will pick winners for each one of our gifts.

But you got a full, you've got some time, right?

- [Deborah] Yeah, they've got some time.

- [Kenia] And so if that's the gift that you want and you wanna give to a young boy or girl in your life, enter the raffle.

I think it'd be perfect.

- [Deborah] These have been super popular.

- Yeah, if my kids were younger, it's definitely something I would give them.

So I think it would be so great - You could go online and get them as well.

- Yes, and on that raffle link is more information about Ava's journey and her story and her why, as to why she created this as well.

So make sure you take a look.

All right, so gifts.

- Yes.

- Was there a gift when you were a kid that you're like, Mom, Dad, I really want this one gift?

- Oh man.

I do remember one gift in particular and some who are watching might remember this gift.

I loved dolls.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- And so I wanted Baby Chrissy.

- [Kenia] Baby Chrissy?

- Baby Chrissy.

♪ So full of fun ♪ ♪ A big baby girl ♪ Anyway, I remember the commercials.

I watched TV all the time.

- [Kenia] She's on the screen.

She looks so cute.

So what was so special about Baby Chrissy?

- [Deborah] Oh, Baby Chrissy was about this big.

- [Kenia] Oh wow.

- She was about the size of a real baby.

She could even wear real baby clothes and you could pull her hair outta the top of her head and make.

- Wait, you like literally pull her hair out?

- Literally, there was a little hole in the top of her head.

- That's funny.

- Nobody worried about that.

But you could pull the hair out and then she would have those long straight hair.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- [Deborah] Or you could make it short by pressing this button in the back.

- [Kenia] Oh wow.

- [Deborah] And then she could have a little bob.

[Deborah laughing] - That sounds even way more sophisticated than some of the dolls we have today.

- It was.

- Because it's either long or short.

- I loved that doll.

- Oh, did you ever get her?

- I did get her.

- Okay, good, I thought you were gonna say you didn't.

- Oh yes, I carried Baby Chrissy for a long time.

- Aww.

I wish we could have Baby Chrissy with us today.

- Me too.

- Wouldn't it be funny if I just pulled Baby Chrissy out?

- What?

Baby Chrissy here?

- I don't have her.

[both laughing] - Now there was Baby Chrissy, but then there was Big Chrissy, which was the teenager, and my sister had Big Chrissy.

- Oh, of course she did.

[Deborah chuckling] Well, we know that you are the queen of travel, right?

So this is just a nod to "North Carolina Weekend".

You do such an amazing job.

- [Deborah] Thank you.

- Every time we go out, people are like, is is that Deb?

Is that Deborah Holt Noel?

And we just love it.

You take us to so many amazing places across the state that we would've never even explored on our own.

And we got the opportunity, or at least I got the opportunity to go to Charlotte with you.

- Yeah, that was so much fun.

- It was very fun.

And, again, on this Black business tour, we decided to check out some Black businesses.

Before we show that though, let's talk about how important it is to support our Black businesses, especially during this time.

A lot of folks are going to the big stores, department stores to shop, and we sometimes forget to patron our Black businesses.

- That's right.

Well, we were very intentional.

You asked about traditions.

This year in our family, we decided, let's make it a concerted effort to find Black-owned businesses to do our gift shopping.

And we were pretty good at it.

So there were two sides to that.

One side was I was excited to go find these places and do my gift shopping.

- Yeah.

- The other side is, there were so few, and I thought about some of the statistics out there and why it's so important for us to talk about this.

Even though there are over a million Black-owned businesses, there were at least in 2020, since then and since COVID, about 41% of them did not make it.

- [Kenia] Oh no.

- So that number has declined dramatically.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- And even though the statistics are a little bit more positive here in North Carolina, around 13% of small businesses are Black-owned businesses.

In the city of Charlotte, where we went, which it has a very large Black population.

- Just about 5%- - [Kenia] Really?

- of the small businesses are black owned so- - In Charlotte?

- In Charlotte.

- That's very interesting because we did take a trip to Charlotte.

- [Deb] We did, we did.

- We met three business owners and we captured our experience.

So, take a look.

[Jazzy Christmas music] [indistinct chatting] - [Deanna] Hi, ladies.

- [Kenia] Hi.

My is Deanna Allen, I am the owner and founder of the Brown Sugar Collab, and we are located in midtown Charlotte, North Carolina.

- What is in the Brown Sugar Collab?

- The Brown Sugar Collab is a gift boutique that's full of products that are sourced by BIPOC women.

Most of them come from a local Charlotte community.

We carry home fragrances, natural body and skincare products, jewelry, artwork, and we have our perfume classes.

So that's what we're mostly known for, right now, is our perfume making classes.

If you like something that's fruity, this is peaches and cream.

- I do.

- Ooh.

- I love fruit.

I also, I kind of like patchouli too.

- I have patchouli.

- Interesting.

- You get to smell the different perfume oils that we have.

You have about 15 minutes to do that and then we test the different oils combinations that you come up with.

We'll test it on your skin to see if it works with your body chemistry, and then once you're ready, you go ahead and make a full blend and you bottle it up, and you leave with a 30 milliliter bottle of perfume.

[Deb laughs] - I'm gonna sneak around and see if I can find something special for Kenia.

- All right, so I've got to find Deb a present for Christmas.

I have not gotten her anything yet, so I'm gonna take a look and see if there's anything that she'll like.

Come on.

These would look good on her, don't you think?

This might be good.

We'll hold on to this one.

- Oh, that's divine.

- Now I know she's a sucker for pistachio, so... Mm.

Cherry Pistachio cream.

[Jazzy Christmas music continues] Thank you.

The bag is secured.

- [Deb] Thank you, Deanna.

- [Deanna] Bye.

- Onto the next location.

- Bye, see you there.

[car engine starts] [Jazzy Christmas music continues] - My name is Christopher Moxley, I'm co-owner of 704 Shop here in Charlotte, which is where we are in our flagship storefront in Historic South End.

- So tell me about the background.

How did 704 Shop come together?

- The idea behind 704 Shop was really to create a hometown pride brand that the city could be proud of.

Give folks a way to celebrate that hometown pride beyond sports paraphernalia, right?

You think Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte Knights.

So, we wanted to set out to kind of create our own thing that we could control that was a little bit more fashion forward in street wear than what existed in the marketplace at the time.

- It's cute.

I like it.

- So, I mean, at our core, like I said, we're a street wear brand, right?

So that's your everyday, your casual wear, your t-shirts, hats, hoodies, tracksuits, sweaters.

You know, I like to say we're a fully rounded out fashion brand.

So everything from your traditional kind of dad caps to your fitteds.

Most of our hats are through New Era, so very unique for a business of our size to actually have a New Era account, as well.

We're known for our quality craftsmanship of our products, but also our customer service.

[Jazzy Christmas music continues] [Deb chuckles] - Hey Deb, come here.

Isn't this cute?

- I love the colors on that.

- I know, isn't that so pretty?

- A cool little hoodie.

- I know.

- Look what I found, perfect for the holiday.

- Oh, that is so perfect.

I love that.

- Very classy.

- I love that.

That's perfect.

- Okay.

- It's perfect.

I think I'm gonna get this one.

- I think you should.

That'd be super cute on you.

[Jazzy Christmas music continues] [Jazzy Christmas music plays] - So where are we going now?

- Well, right now, we're at Camp North End in Charlotte.

And this place dates back to before the Great Depression.

Ford Motor Company used to have factories here, the U.S. Army once had warehouses here.

And now, there are just so many great retail spaces and places to eat.

But the spot that I'm taking you to is just as unique a business as it is a building.

- So where is it?

- Right here.

- Right here?

- Kicks & Fros.

- Oh my gosh, this is so cool!

- Isn't this adorable?

- This is adorable.

[door knocking] - Knock, knock, knock.

[both friends laughing] - Hello.

- Hi!

You're Melissa?

- Yes.

Come on in.

Watch your step.

- Thank you.

- And welcome to our Kicks & Fros HQ.

- Thank you.

- This is adorable!

- [Melissa] Thank you so much!

- [Kenia] Oh, this is so cute.

- [Debbie] What in the world?

- [Kenia] Love it.

- Kenia, this is Melissa Carnegie.

- Hi, Kenia.

Nice to meet you.

- [Kenia] Nice to meet you too.

- Tell us about Kicks & Fros.

- Yes!

So Kicks and Froze is a lifestyle brand and community created for black and brown women who are looking for their sneaker style, trying to find sneakers that they like with a change of lifestyle or just those who wanna, you know, get a little jazzy and fancy, but would rather be comfortable in sneakers instead of heels.

So in this space is where all the magic happens.

- Melissa, do you have any products you can show us today?

- Yes, I will be right back.

[bells jingling] These are some of my favorite items from our merch shop.

The Sneaker Money Pouch is what we started with, that's how we opened our shop.

You can wear it as a clutch, you can throw it in your bag, you know, you can carry pencils.

It can be a ton of different things.

So when you think about sneakers, you want to have comfortable socks that make a statement.

So we have our Kicks & Fros logo socks in different colors.

For sure, black and white.

You wanna keep a nice solid base when you have fun and funky sneakers.

And then our sneaker cleaner, so this is the cleaner that we launched and developed last year with one of my friends that's a chemist, and it comes with the brush.

So you can get it together with the brush as a kit or the cleaner on its own on our website.

And we've done sneaker cleaning classes just to educate people on how to clean their sneakers.

We do them like quarterly.

- That's gotta be a hot item because a lot of people really treasure their sneakers.

- It is.

[indistinct] later!

- Happy holidays.

- Bye - [gasps] Deb, that was so amazing.

- Aw, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

- Yeah, I mean, I know that you are the queen of travel, of taking us all over the state and I'm just so grateful that you could take me to Charlotte.

- Absolutely.

I love Charlotte.

- Yes.

Well, guess what?

I have a little something special for you.

- You do?

- I do.

- I got a little something special for you too.

- All right, well let's go take a look.

[heels tapping] All right!

That was cute, right?

- That was so fun.

It really really was.

- I had such a good time with you.

And like I said, I have a little something for you.

So I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and thank you so much for all your support that you give on the show.

- That's a big something!

Oh my goodness!

Thank you.

And I've got a, a little something for you.

- Yay!

[Kenia applauds shortly] Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- The audience don't think that Debbie is a miser.

- No.

It's okay.

So I will say I cheated and I went back and got some other things.

So yes.

[laughs] - Open it now?

- Yeah, why not?

We got a little time.

- Oh my God!

- We got a little time.

- I dunno.

[indistinct] to show this- - [gasps] This is so pretty.

- But she went all out.

This is gorgeous!

It says cat mom!

- Cat mom!

- Smokey and Willow- - Yes!

- Will understand.

- Yes.

- [chuckles] And those are my kitties, of course.

Oh my goodness!

Kenia!

- Well, and I think it goes perfect with your outfit today.

- It does.

This is so elegant.

Oh my goodness.

And then the earrings that I saw, I do love these.

- Yes.

Do you love those?

- They're by A'Dor, which is in Charlotte.

- Yes.

Yes!

- They're made in Charlotte.

- I gotta show all the stuff.

- And I know you like to write and I know.

- I do.

- So this is interesting, she loves to write with pencils.

- I do because I like the feel of it.

- [Kenia] Yeah, she likes the feel of pencils.

- And then another goodie in here.

- [Kenia] That's that.

- The cherry pistachio.

- [Kenia] Yeah, yeah.

[Deborah gasping] - This is divine, folks.

- Well, I love, love, love, love my earrings.

These are so perfect.

Perfect.

- Those are also by Adore.

- Yes, we also got these.

- [Deborah] Which is in Charlotte.

- I think these are, this is so me.

- [Deborah] Very fabulous.

- Very, very good, thank you.

- And as a gift, I'm like, she'll find the perfect occasion to wear those.

- Oh yeah, I mean, right here on "Black Issues Forum".

- Thank you.

- So I want to make sure we cram in all of our raffles.

So our next raffle item is a body, or an herbal-infused body oil by Renascential.

This scent here is Calendula & Safflower.

Renascential, and I'm just gonna read this off so I don't get it wrong.

- [Deborah] You're fine.

- [Kenia] They embrace eco-friendly packaging and use clean ingredients like natural oils and unrefined shea butter, that's been ethically sourced from a small women's cooperative in Ghana.

Isn't that great?

- [Deborah] Wow.

And the owner is a young woman.

- [Kenia] She's amazing.

- [Deborah] So sweet.

- Yes.

And so they create products like this body oil, but they also sell body creams, scrubs, and perfume oils.

So the graphic is up.

If you want to try this out, scan that QR code, click the link in the comment section if you're watching on YouTube, so that you can enter to win this raffle again by December 27th at noon.

So it's a great, I actually used one of her products this morning.

'Cause you know, it's getting cold, you get a little ashy.

[Deborah laughing] - Keep it real.

- Keep it real.

- I put on my custom perfume this morning.

- Yes, mine's almost gone.

- Oh girl.

- I know.

I love, love, love perfume.

All right, next raffle item.

Nothing too Black about this, but everybody loves money.

- [Deborah] I know that's right.

- So we have.

- [Deborah] Money can be Black.

- That's right.

We have a $50 Visa gift card that you can use for anything you wanna use it for.

Reimburse yourself for those holiday gifts that you bought everyone else.

- [Deborah] Treat yourself.

- [Kenia] Treat yourself.

- [Deborah] Treat somebody special.

- [Kenia] That's right.

- [Deborah] Tell the people who matter to you.

- That is right, so scan that QR code, click the link in the bio.

Same process here, to make sure that you can enter to win a $50 gift card.

All right, we've only got a few minutes left here.

- I know, that's because it's so fun.

- So we gotta cram things in a little bit.

Question, before we show our last gift and also share some of this good yummies that's on the table.

What does Christmas mean to you?

What does the holiday mean to you?

- Oh gosh, Christmas means, first of all, the Lord.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- And the biggest gift that came to us, I'm a Christian, so I believe that Jesus is the gift to mankind.

And being able to give gifts as the Lord gave gifts to us is very special to me.

I love to give gifts.

I love to have the special foods and be around family, and that's what I believe is the most important.

- Yeah.

- Seeing my brother when he comes.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- He's gonna be here from New York or LA, wherever he's coming from.

- [Kenia] Wherever he's coming from.

- Yes, and I'm very blessed to have both of my parents.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- With us.

And they're both in excellent health.

I'm just blessed to have family and we like each other.

- Yeah.

No, and I could tell, I've had the privilege of being around her family, and you do definitely more than like each other.

So it's definitely a blessing.

All right.

- And my sister will be here too, won't leave her out.

- Yeah, sister's here too.

She just lives locally, so it's not like, yeah.

So anyway.

All right, last gift on the table.

Our wizard behind the screen or scenes that no one ever gets to see is our beloved Jewel Lowe.

She put together a goodie basket of all things PBS.

She is the queen of PBS Kids.

But she helps us here on "Black Issues Forum".

- Thank you so much, Jewel.

- Yes, thank you.

She put together some of the items, not even in this basket 'cause we couldn't fit it all, but it will be shipped to you.

PBS North Carolina hat, shirt, Ava's books.

We've got 704 Shop hats.

We've got more importantly On Board Charcuterie, a $10 off gift card.

And I'm gonna do this because we have an amazing, lovely, delicious, these are mini charcuterie boxes, but what you don't probably see is a larger charcuterie plate on the table.

Well, in that basket is also a $10 off gift card.

So pop up that QR code, scan it, click the link in the bio or in the comment, excuse me, if you would like to win that PBS NC swag basket.

Again, the T-shirt, the hat, the 704 Shop hat, On Board Charcuterie gift cards, and some other trinkets in there.

So real quick, I wanna run through all of our raffles.

We had the Ava STEM Princess kit, we have the Renascential Body Oil, we have the $50 gift card, and then we have the PBS swag basket.

I know that was very fast and a lot, but I wanna make sure that we got through all of those so that folks can enter in the raffle and have a chance to win.

- We appreciate our viewers.

- Yes.

- And we're big givers too.

- I know, we really are.

So we do still have a little time before we have to wrap up again.

I just wanna thank A Glass Above for our signature "Black Issues Forum" drink.

And I wanna wish our guests a happy holiday.

I wanna wish you a happy holiday and I thought we could cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Happy Holidays.

- Happy Holidays.

Thank you for watching.

If you want more content like this, we invite you to engage with us on Instagram using the #BlackIssuesForum.

You can also engage with us on, you can download our PBS video app and watch us anytime there.

I'm Kenia Thompson, I'll see you next time.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.