Holidays
cultivating
Connection I
Kwanzaa means a week of reflection and thanksgiving for this family By An n e Tate | Photography by J ohn Mi chael Si m pson
If you walk into Anna Richards’
Chapel Hill home around the holidays, you will be greeted by three full-sized Christmas trees, garland on every flat surface and 40 snowmen. Then there’s her extensive collection of African American angels, nutcrackers and Santa Clauses that’s 45 years in the making. “I am the biggest Christmas person in the world,” says Anna, who was appointed to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners in September and is the former president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP branch.
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Although she goes all out for Christmas, she also celebrates another December occasion: Kwanzaa. “Kwanzaa has nothing to do with Christmas. It is a celebration to itself. It’s not a substitute,” Anna says. In 2020, for the first time in 40 years, Anna’s annual Christmas party was canceled. Instead of preparing her famous homemade eggnog, she and her family focused on making Kwanzaa extra special. “Last year, it was more meaningful, in some ways, with everything that was going on [with the pandemic].” Anna says her favorite part was