Twelve Days of an Appalachian Christmas I :: Beginnings

I'm hoping, good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, to spend the next days writing a little about the history and customs of Christmas celebrations in Appalachia.  Our own celebrations have been a little disjointed, with moments of pure joy and others of desperation, as the children have taken turns being sick.  It had been six months, so I guess we were very blessed!  Let's just hope Mama doesn't take a turn!  Enough of that, let's begin with some Christmas preparations in these dear mountains.

I'm referring to two books for this series: A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories and Traditions and Christmas in the Mountains: Southwest Virginia Christmas Customs and Their Origins.

Christmas as it was known here was held back, if that is the right way to say it.  Outside influences and commercialism were slower in taking hold, and many customs dated back hundreds of years.  If you've watched "A Tudor Monastery Farm Christmas" or read Christmas Folk, the customs will seem familiar. They have meshed well with our Waldorf perspective, to be certain, which can seem about as far from Appalachia as one could get.  In reality, it's a perfect match.

The Foxfire book begins with Christmas decorations.  They were found objects, both natural and otherwise, that were collected and reinvented to make things pretty.  Like many with a need and little pocket money, people made what they required, using saved bits of foil or everyday items like popped corn.  They rolled beeswax candles and made others using sand molds.  Strips of paper from catalogs trimmed the trees, along with paper dolls and bits of yarn.  Jean Ritchie offers a wonderful account of her family's first tree here.  We have many folks around here who are wreath makers, and it could be that your tree  or wreath came from our mountains.

The first non-native people to really settle in our Southwest Virginia were immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.  It's fairly easy to find more information on this topic (with a wide range of opinions!), so I won't spend a lot of time on it.  My mother's family, who has been in this area for a good many generations, hailed from the British Isles.

The view of the early Appalachian settler has been one of many stereotypes, but suffice it to say that these people were a hardy lot.  The mountains were considered a sort of hunting grounds before non-native people settled here.  Our hills (called New Appalachia) were steep, the soil was often poor or thin, and the weather varied tremendously, being the last vestiges of glaciation.  They dug in their heels, worked hard, and required few material possessions.  I think that kind of spirit is still at work here.  Each place has its own social ills, and we have our fair share, but we also have plenty of love of place, resourcefulness, and rugged sense of self that make this land a great place to live.