The Night Before Christmas: A New Christmas Tradition

In this adaptation of Clement C. Moore’s beloved Christmas poem, a young Black girl wakes up on Christmas Eve to find Santa placing gifts for her family underneath the tree, and to her delight, Santa looks just like her.

Like my uncle, my auntie, my father, and mother
My cousins, and grandparents, sister, and brother
He encompassed us all, the man by the tree.
Who’d imagine that Santa could look just like me?

In this retelling of the holiday classic about jolly old St. Nicholas, a young Black girl patiently waits for Christmas morning with her family when, to her surprise, she chances upon Santa, with his red suit, hot-cocoa-colored cheeks, and snowy white beard.

Candice Bradley is an author-illustrator from the San Francisco Bay Area who discovered her ability to create through the very first markings of her pencil. Her passion today has evolved into a love for storytelling in all its various forms and has led to study of film and TV at NYU Tisch School of Arts. She is the illustrator of the Let’s Play Outside! series by Shauntay Grant and Before the Ships by Maisha Oso and is the author and illustrator of picture book The Night Before Christmas. Candice’s hope as an artist is to support the movement of writers and storytellers, redeeming the narrative for minorities and people of color.