Christmas in the mountains used to look a lot plainer than it does now, and in some ways it meant more. Here are some of the old ways mountain families kept the season.
Old Christmas
Many mountain families once kept Christmas on January 6, which they called Old Christmas. When the calendar changed back in the 1700s, some folks in the hills just kept the old date. Some older people still remember Old Christmas as the quiet, holy one.
The animals kneel
One of the best-loved old beliefs is that at midnight on Old Christmas Eve, the cattle kneel down in the barn and can speak. Children were told it, but they were also told never to go look, because it was bad luck to see it.
An orange in the stocking
For a lot of mountain children, the best gift was an orange, a few pieces of hard candy and maybe some nuts in a stocking. Oranges were rare and costly up here, so one was a real treat.
Stack cake
The Appalachian stack cake is thin layers of sorghum-sweetened cake with dried apples cooked down between them. The old story goes that neighbors each brought a layer to a wedding or gathering, and the taller the cake, the more friends you had. It’s best after it sits a day or two and the apple soaks in.
Homemade everything
Trees were cut off the family’s own land. Decorations were popcorn strings, paper chains, pinecones and holly. Gifts were whittled, sewn, knitted or baked.
If you want to bring a little of the old mountain Christmas into your house this year, my Holler Kitchen cookbook has over 250 old-time Ashe County recipes, and my Holler Christmas Bundle has printable mountain Christmas cards and gift tags. See all my picks in the Appalachian Christmas gift guide.
What Christmas traditions did your family keep? I’d love to hear them.
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