On Religion: How Appalachian ‘Old Christmas’ Lit The Way Home
(ANALYSIS) Candles in farmhouse windows can shine a long way on dark nights in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
This light was especially symbolic at Christmas, when settlers in frontier Appalachia — many of them Scot-Irish — faced hard journeys on rough roads and trails through terrain crisscrossed with mountain ridges and valleys cut by rivers and creeks.
“There was a real sense of community building that occurred during the Christmas celebration across Appalachia," said historian Ted Olson of the Appalachian Studies department at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. "Before automobiles, travel would be on foot or horseback or in wagons. It was difficult to travel through winter conditions, with snow and ice and whatnot to visit kith and kin. ...
“The candles would invite people in, suggesting that the flame of spiritual renewal is alive in this house. They said, 'Please join us! ... You are welcome. We are all fellow Christians celebrating these sacred days together.'"
On the High Plains and in many frontier regions, farmers often lived great distances from one another. The distances were shorter in the "Southern Highlands" of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, but the terrain was treacherous. It might take two or three days to visit extended family or a nearby town with stores, a doctor and other necessities.
Many frontier churches welcomed occasional visits by circuit-riding preachers, and an Irish Catholic family would almost certainly be living far from a priest. Travelers on mountain roads, especially in winter storms, needed safe shelter. During the 12 days the Appalachian people called "Old Christmas," having relatives, neighbors and travelers at the door singing carols captured the essence of the season, noted Olson, author of the book "Blue Ridge Folklife," and a poet, musician and photographer.
Visitors could shout "Christmas gift," since the hosts would be prepared to offer them small gifts to show they were welcome: perhaps an orange, some candy, a decorated pine cone or something else gathered from nature.
“The gift was to break down barriers between people. There was also a bit of pranksterism involved ... creating a lighter spirit, of joy, of a sense of surprise," said Olson. "Were these rules and traditions codified? Most likely they were not. ... Did people invite strangers in? Yes, because they were not strangers. People were ... working together to survive in the difficult, agrarian life that was practiced in so much of (the) rural Appalachian frontier.”
In many cases, settlers found ways to retain some Christmas customs from the "old country" communities of their past. But the traditions that emerged in Appalachia were flexible and adaptable -- because they had to be. In the New World, settlers had to make do with what they had.
The mountains, of course, did offer spruce and pine trees, as well as plenty of holly, laurels, berries and mistletoe with which to decorate cabins and farmhouses.
“It's an issue of scale and of expectations. ... They didn't have a sense that their simpler approach was in any way, shape or manner deficient," said Olson. "The Christmas traditions practiced in rural frontier Appalachia were adaptations to the reality of the situation in which they lived. These traditions worked for them.”
Most of all, people in the valleys between the ridges wanted to find ways to be together — somehow. The traditional 12-day season, ending on Jan. 6, gave them more time for travel and simple festivities.
“Old Christmas," said Olson, meant that "Christmas extended into the new year. ... Christmas wasn't a one-off situation, it was a festival with multiple layers, meaning and significance. It definitely marked the transition into winter, with a sense of promise, of renewal ahead -- both spiritual and environmental renewal.”
The question: Can people in the age of shopping malls, highways, jets and the internet embrace any of this?
“Some people are intentionally borrowing some of the traditions of the past because they feel more meaningful to them," noted Olson. "I wouldn't be surprised to see intentional revivals of more Appalachian approaches to celebrating the Christmas holiday season. “But it's never going to be exactly how it was practiced before. It's always going to be some form of accommodation, some kind of assimilation. It will never be a kind of picture-perfect copy of what was done in the past.”
COPYRIGHT 2025 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.