PUTTING THE X IN CHRISTMAS:

Embracing Kwanzaa faith: What began in 1966 continues today teaching such things as community responsibility and self-determination (Nancy Ancrum, 12/26/07, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS)

Maisie McNaught's first encounter with Kwanzaa pretty much embodied its seven principles in one go.

More than 20 years ago, as a new mother looking to forge family traditions, she discovered a book on the African-inspired holiday at a black-owned bookstore. She joined forces with six other families to host dinners each night from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 and got her husband to make a special holder called a kinara for the seven symbolic candles.

In the process, McNaught and her friends were Kwanzaa in action, exhibiting unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose and creativity.

"We could barely pronounce the Swahili words, but we decided to celebrate this thing," she says.

That confident plunge into the unknown was evidence of the final precept: faith.

"The principles of Kwanzaa seemed like the principles you need to teach your kids," says McNaught, 58, who sells African-made garments at her Miami Gardens, Fla., shop, Kulture Klothes by Isis.