Caribbean Christmas in Toronto

Toronto has a large and vibrant Caribbean community, and Caribbean Christmas traditions add warmth, flavour and music to the city’s holidays.

The flavours of a Caribbean Christmas

• Black cake (rum cake or fruit cake): dried fruits soaked for weeks or months in rum and wine, baked into a rich, dark cake.
• Sorrel: a deep-red drink made from hibiscus with ginger and spices.
• Pastelles: a Trinidadian favourite of seasoned meat in cornmeal, wrapped in banana leaves.
• Christmas ham and pepperpot (a Guyanese stew).
• Ponche de crème: a creamy, rum-spiked eggnog.
• Ginger beer and sweet bread.

Where to shop

Caribbean bakeries, grocers and restaurants are found across Toronto, including Little Jamaica along Eglinton Avenue West, and throughout Scarborough, North York and the west end. Order black cake early; many bakeries sell out before Christmas.

Music

Parang, a Trinidad and Tobago Christmas music tradition with Venezuelan roots, features Spanish-language songs with cuatro and maracas. Soca parang and reggae Christmas songs also fill Toronto’s holiday playlists.

Caribbean Christmas traditions by island

• Jamaica: Christmas cake (black cake), sorrel with ginger and rum, curried goat, rice and peas, and Grand Market on Christmas Eve, a festive night market.
• Trinidad and Tobago: parang music, pastelles, ham, sorrel, ponche de crème and black cake. Homes are often freshly painted and decorated with new curtains for Christmas.
• Guyana: pepperpot, a slow-cooked stew traditionally eaten on Christmas morning with bread, plus garlic pork and black cake.
• Barbados: jug-jug (a dish of pigeon peas, guinea corn and meat), ham and great cake.
• Bahamas: Junkanoo parades on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, with colourful costumes, drums and cowbells.

Toronto’s Caribbean communities

Toronto is home to one of the largest Caribbean diasporas in the world, shaping the city’s food, music and culture. Every summer, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival is one of North America’s largest street festivals, and in December, Caribbean bakeries, restaurants and grocers across the city are busy with holiday orders.

Where to find Caribbean holiday food

• Little Jamaica along Eglinton Avenue West.
• Scarborough, with many Trinidadian, Guyanese and Jamaican bakeries and restaurants.
• Rexdale, Jane and Finch and Malvern, with established Caribbean communities and shops.
• Brampton and Mississauga in the suburbs.

Order black cake and pastelles early in December.

Make your own sorrel

Steep dried sorrel (hibiscus) with fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel in boiling water, sweeten to taste, let it cool and chill. Some families add rum. Dried sorrel is sold at Caribbean grocers in December.

Caribbean Christmas: FAQ

Where can I buy black cake in Toronto? At Caribbean bakeries in Little Jamaica, Scarborough and across the GTA. Order early.

What is parang? A Trinidadian Christmas music tradition with Spanish-language songs, cuatro and maracas.

Celebrate

Look for community concerts, church services and holiday events from Caribbean organisations in December. And many Caribbean families visit family and friends on Boxing Day. See Boxing Day in Toronto.

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