I love all things Christmas. I have a Charlie Brown Christmas T-shirt. I have three Santa hats - a Redskins one, a University of Alabama one and a cute little elf. I watch the Christmas TV specials over and over.

I was super-excited when I heard an all-youth cast would perform Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity” at the Great Aunt Stella Center.

I wasn’t disappointed during last weekend’s performance. Those kids were so talented, so cute and so full of potential. Black Nativity was a chance to broaden how the youthful participants see themselves and culture. It was chance for them to have dreams that will take them beyond the hip-hop music and videos that now define black youth culture.

Watching 7-year-old Sanai Harris sing about the Lord carrying our burden, I hoped she dreamed of being more than the next Beyonce. I watched three girls eloquently execute an Alvin Ailey style routine by choreographer JaQwan Cummings. I hoped he aspired to one-day create dances for the famed company.

“Black Nativity” was groundbreaking when it debuted on Broadway in the early 1960s. The Hughes play tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ with an all-black cast and through gospel music, dance, poetry and narrative. It was one of the first black plays to open on Broadway.

Monica Pettiford and Barbara Ferguson spearheaded the effort to create “Black Nativity” in Charlotte. The production was a fundraiser for Tomorrow’s R.O.A.D, which is a non-profit that culturally empowers black youth. The play featured about two dozen youth ages 4 to 20. Some were shy on stage, barely talking. Others seemed to shine. The two women hope participating in the play will build the youth’s confidence and fuel dreams of bigger stages.

Ferguson has a long history of exposing black youth to performing arts. In the early ’80s, she founded the now-defunct Afro American Children’s Theatre in Charlotte. Each summer the organization hosted two performing arts camps. Some of the arts camp students became part of an ensemble cast that did productions of “The Wiz,” “What I Think of Harlem” and other plays.

“We’ve done some really, really special shows,” said Ferguson, wife of prominent civil rights attorney James Ferguson.

The theater has a special place for the Fergusons. Two of their children participated in the Afro-American Children’s Theatre. Daughter Kali still takes the stage as a storyteller, teaching artist and poet. The Fergusons had grandchildren in “Black Nativity.”

“When you see your grandchildren or your child, it’s a feeling that you really can not express,” Barbara Ferguson said. “It also gives young people an opportunity to present themselves and to be celebrated, and that transitions into all kinds of empowering experiences.”

Pettiford hopes productions such as “Black Nativity” will help expose today’s youth to works by artists such as Langston Hughes. She wants to make sure the next generations keeps these works alive and creates their own works.

“A lot of them just aren’t aware of the achievements that have been made by black writers and people who produced arts for the stage,” she said.

“Black Nativity” reminded me of how much our youth need us to help them see beyond the pop culture trap. You know the trap that inspires so many black boys to dream only of being rappers and athletes. It lures so many black girls into seeing themselves only as pop singers and video dancers. Exposing our youth to our rich culture helps them see that they have a place in the arts. It shows them they can express their creativity in ways they’ve probably never dreamed of.

Performing in “Black Nativity” was the first time many of the participants had ever performed on stage. For some, it won’t be the last.

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