Hello, Sweet Tea family! Happy Christmas-Hanukkah-New Years-Kwanzaa-Yule-Solstice and everything else we’re celebrating this season.
I’d say I hope everyone is staying warm, but I don’t think that will be a problem. As one meme I saw says, “Twas’ the night before Christmas, and all through the house, the AC was going because we live in the South.”
As a little holiday treat, we have an extra big helping of sips from around the South. Think of it as the cookies of news. Something small and delightful.
SIPS: THE GIVING SPIRIT
💰 Minden, LA: A Louisiana CEO gifted employees six-figure bonuses after selling his family-owned company. Fibrebond, a manufacturing and engineering firm, went for $1.7 billion. CEO Graham Walker earmarked an eye-watering $240 million for the company’s 500+ full-time employees. That worked out to more than $400,000 per person. More from The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate
🏠 Memphis, TN: The mother of a Memphis-area rapper gifted a family two months of rent-free housing after the family lost their home in an apartment fire just days before Christmas. More from Action News 5
🧸 Atlanta, GA: Crescent City Kitchen is known for helping neighbors in need. This season the owners “adopted” 100 kids and their families who were affected by SNAP benefit losses. In addition to meals and necessities, the restaurant held a holiday gift giveaway for their new extended family. More from WALB
🍽️ Birmingham, AL: Diners celebrated the sixth year of “Operation Christmas Tip,” a project dreamed up by a local small business owner. The idea is simple: Donors add money to a collective sum that’s gifted to a server on Christmas Eve. This year, the gift totaled more than $1,300. More from WIAT
SIPS: PRESERVING PRECIOUS CULTURES
💛 Pembroke, NC: The Lumbee Tribe has received full federal recognition from the U.S. government after 137 years of effort. I love this write from Professor Victoria Sutton: “It is about more than benefits; it is about identity and confirming culture, history, and worldview. The Lumbee Tribe, though denied federal recognition for so long, never lost sight of holding to heritage and unity as a tribe.” More from Native News Online
🇺🇦 Raleigh, NC: The Ukrainian House School and cultural center has been a lifeline for refugees and immigrants who yearn to keep their culture alive. At Christmastime, that means singing Ukrainian carols and traditional takes on Yuletide celebrations. More from NC Newsline
🤟🏾 Jackson, MS: The Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University just secured funding to protect local artifacts of Black history. The oral history records, manuscripts, book collections and other items will be safely held while the historic building they’re housed in gets some repairs. The money will also boost professional development workshops and new museum innovations. More from Mississippi Today
SIPS: HONORING HISTORY
🚂 Charleston, SC: The Best Friend of Charleston, America’s first passenger steam locomotive, made its first run on Christmas Day in 1830. At the time, it was a swift-running marvel. According to The South Carolina State Museum, a local paper described the experience as flying “on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour, annihilating time and space.” More from the SC Museum
🔨 Lynchburg, VA: The city’s derelict program rehabs dilapidated historical buildings, a cause that’s close to many residents’ hearts. If a site is beyond repair, they clear it to make room for new development. The program just got a big boost from new legislation and capitol improvement funding. More from Cardinal News
SIPS: OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS
⚡ Athens, GA: Once a high school cross country champ and University of Georgia runner, a rare syndrome and an excruciating decision led Jarryd Wallace down a new path to several world records as a Paralympic sprinter. More from the AJC
🏈 Montgomery, AL: Alabama celebrated outstanding female achievement in AL.com’s Terrific 20, a list of the state’s top flag football athletes. More from AL.com
THE ‘CAJUN NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS’
Whew! Full yet? Finally, a little digestif: The “Cajun Night Before Christmas” was just named Louisiana’s official children’s Christmas book. Cheers, cher!
- The rollicking take on the classic poem is written in faithful French-English dialect, and is a regional read-aloud favorite. (Or regional “read quietly to yourself and smile, because there’s no way you’ll do the pronunciations justice” favorite.)
- Those up on their Louisiana history know the poem, featuring an alligator hero named Gaston, was first conceived as a jingle for the Bergeron Plymouth Company in New Orleans in the 1970s.
- When it was turned into a book, complete with beautiful illustrations of flying alligators, a new classic was born.
🐊 More from WBRZ: Louisianans reflect on their favorite Christmas story
TELL US SOMETHING GOOD
Is there a cool event we need to know about? Something great happening in your town? Let us know. This is your space, too. SweetTea@ajc.com.
SOUTHERN WISDOM
Twas the night before Christmas an' all t'ru de house,
Dey don't a ting pass Not even a mouse.
We obviously needed a taste of this masterpiece. See y’all in 2026!
Thank you for reading to the very bottom of Sweet Tea! Join us next week by subscribing to the newsletter.🍑
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
