How notables will celebrate Christmas - African-American celebrities

CHRISTMAS is the holiday looked forward to most by a vast majority of Black Americans, be they rich or poor, single or married, young or old. And to each individual, this sacred holiday takes on a special significance.

Most people spend a portion of the day at chruch and gathering with family and friends for a festival meal. But others prefer to spend the holiday in a more adventurous manner, such as skiing in Colorado or sunbathing in the Caribeean. Still others look forward to a quiet day at home.

When EBONY surveyed some of the nation's most visible movers and shakers, we discovered the same diversity in their holiday plans. ON the following pages, notable Black Americans tell how they will spend the holiday.s.

For BISHOP JOHN HURST ADAMS, Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the holiday is a time for reflection and renewal.

"We take the Christmas season very seriously in our family," Bishop Adams says. "We try to renew our family relationships and remember what the gift of Christ means to us.

"My wife, Dolly, and I always look forward to spending a few days together with our three daughters, Jann, Madelyn and Gaye, and their families who travel from Atlanta dn Hartford, Conn., to our home to Columbia, S.C., for the holidays.

"In addition to the pleasure of just bringing each other up-to-date on our lives, we like to informally meet in the family room of our home and take turns reading Bible stores together. Caroling is another part of the family Christimas ritual. Besides caroling, exchangin modest gifts of love, and feasting, we go to the Christmas Day service at my church, Dethel AME Chruch, in downtown Columbia, and we workship together.

"The most important things in life are emphasized during Christmas: family, friends and restoring and renewing relationships. Christmas lets us know that in the world there are cosmic and divine forces that care. After our special holiday gathering we all feel refreshed and renewed."

Singer WHITNEY HOUSTON is especially looking forward to this Christmas because it will be her daughter's first.

"This will be may daughter Bobbi Kristina's first Christmas, and I will be spending it at home with her, my husband [recording artist Bobby Brown] and my family. [Houston's mother Cissy Houston, father, John Houston, and brothers, Gary Houston and Michael Houston, and their families all live nearby the Grammy Award-winning singer's Mendham, N.J., home.] After touring most of the year, I look forward to being home for the holidays!"

DR. T. J. JEMISON, President of the National Baptish Convention U.S.A, Inc., marks the Christmas season by caring for those less fortunate than himself and his family.

"Oue of the things that we look forward to during the Christmas season is furnishing hundreds of families with turkeys, food baskets, Christmas dinners and a holiday pageant through our national convention and local church [in Baton Rouge, La.]. We think that's important because as many wife, Celestine, and I enjoy the holiday s with our three children, Bettye Jane, Dianne and T. J. Jemison Jr., their spouses andour six grandchildren, we like to feel that other families that are less fortunate might also be able to enjoy the holidays.

"On Christmas morning we gather for family prayer and a good, downhome Christmas morning breakfast of fresh fuits, juices, country ham, redeye gravy and grits and hot biscuits. It's a tradition my father began and I have carried through.

"After breakfast, we all settle in the family den to exchange and open gifts. In the early afternoon we all go to visit the sick and shut-in members of the church. And we spend lots of time caroling. But at 6 p.m. sharp we come to the table for the feast, where everything is at its best.

"The day after Christmas we continue our family reunion. We all fly to New York as a family -- children, grandchildren and all. We stay at one of the grand hotels, taking one of the largest suites there. And we spend the rest of the holiday there to enjoy the Christmas program at Radio City Music Hall."

Film and television actress HALLE BERRY plans tto spend a quite holiday at home with her husband. Atlanta Braves outfielder David Justice, and her family.

"We're trying a new way of celebrating Christmas this year," Berry says. "For the first time, there will be no gift-giving -- at least gifts that come from a store. The gifts we exchange this year will be expressions of love and appreciation that come from the heart -- handwritten letters of thanks to one another for what we have meant to each other throughout the year, or any gift that the giver chooses to make.

"Christmas had become so stressful for my family," the actress confides. "We decided to take the tension out of this precious holiday and celebrate its true meaning: love, togetherness and family."

Bishop LOUIS H. FORD, Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ will spend most of Christmas Day at his church in Chicago.

"I'll be spending Christmas Day here at the church as I have for the past 50 years," Bishop Ford says. "On Christmas morning, church members will deliver meals to senior citizens and other shut-in persons, while more than 500 homeless and bereaved families and motherless children join me, my wife, Margaret, our children, Janice and Charles, our seven grandchildren and the St. Paul COGIC congregation, for hot Christmas dinners, a one-hour program here and Christmas gifts wrapped especially for them.