Here's Willow, from 2015, running through our Advent spiral. While we built one this year, we were never able to use it. I guess that is the way it goes sometimes. Maybe we will yet.
All good things must come to an end, as the saying goes, and so Christmas in the mountains began changing around the time of the Civil War. Boys came home with traditions from other places. The mountains began to be logged for timber and mined for coal. Mission schools were built, and children were introduced to school Christmas programs. World War I changed things in innumerable ways and time marched toward the Christmas we know today.
My own childhood Christmases had very little of the magic of these old ones Hubert Davis describes in Christmas in the Mountains. I still loved it with all the fervor a child could have, but the day fell flat shortly after all the gifts were opened. It can feel silly, at times, to try to revive old customs, a little like we are putting on something we don't really own. I guess it's also creating a family culture--if we want to have such richness, we must be willing to make it our own and keep it going. It's a great reminder for starting up the school year again.
Thanks for reading my little book reports. I wish you all a joyful New Year and a happy Christmas, ever how long you celebrate.
Thanks for sharing all this goodness Brandy. I have enjoyed reading along. Yes many people complain that the modern day Christmas can fall flat after Christmas Day...all that build up and not many nourishing traditions around it. It is tricky to live authentically with some of the older traditions with communities not being as tight now and so many other influences in today's culture. We have been on several walks around out area over Christmas in the early evenings and most people are sitting at home infront of televisions wanting to be entertained, rather than making their own entertainment or being in community. It is sadly a sign of the times. I hope things will change one day, but in the meantime, let's try to enrich our own family culture with song, dance, games, riddles and meaningful activities as much as we can.
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome! You do such a good job at making things special for your family. :-)
DeleteThanks! You are so sweet. So do you, which is why I love to have a peak at what you are doing :-) We need special touches in our lives as much as we can, don't we?
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed following your 12 days of an Appalachian Christmas! Got lots of good ideas for new Christmas traditions for years to come, so thank you :)
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome! Thanks for reading along. :-)
DeleteI have loved this series, so much! Thank you for taking the time to do this for all of us. I think you are quite right about creating a family culture - your children are so lucky to have you to do that for them. My childhood feelings were similar to yours... Christmas seemed "over" when the gifts were opened on Christmas morning. Modern Christmas has never sat well with me, as an adult and a mother. I'm so glad we've made the extra effort in our family to observe Advent and keep the Twelve Days of Christmas - it's SO much better. I think that the first years of trying out new (old) traditions may feel odd to some, but I think it is so worth it, and over time, you can't imagine it any other way. I read the Letters to Santa in the local paper, all those children asking for xboxes from Santa... and I think of us and our cedar branches and gingerbread and songs and snowy walks, and I feel so grateful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading along with me! Yes, my children now have a picture of "things we do every year," almost a better memory of it than me. Your traditions sound lovely. Willow has her heart set on gingerbread very soon.
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