WINTER 2019
THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF
THE HISTORIC TOXAWAY FOUNDATION
A NEW HOLIDAY TRADITION DEBUTS AT EARTHSHINE LODGE
Earlier this year, the Earthshine Lodge re-opened under new owners/managers, Ali Holroyd Lien and Anna Bracco, with a promise to expand onsite experiences for both guests and the general public.
Voila! Debuting this holiday season on December weekends before Christmas is Earthshine’s Appalachian Christmas Village and a Saturday-only Christmas Craft Market open from 1-5 pm. Come join in the fun and start a new holiday tradition of your own!
The site’s pioneer village around the pond has transformed into a Christmas village complete with carolers, hot chocolate, roasted chestnuts, and mulled wine. Families can enjoy Sunday brunch with Santa (complimentary in a special guest-stay package, and also open to the public with reservations). Kid-friendly events include making Christmas crafts, decorating cookies, and making ornaments at the blacksmith shop. As always, the Earthshine llamas are stars any time of the year!
Learn more about Ali, Anna, and Earthshine Lodge here.
AN OLD-TIME APPALACHIAN CHRISTMAS
IN THIS ISSUE
- A New Holiday Tradition Debuts at Earthshine Discovery Center
- An Old-Time Appalachian Christmas
- Holiday Sweetness At The Greystone Inn
- What A Time: Grandma’s Apron
At The Greystone Inn
Shannon and Geoff Ellis, owners of the Greystone Inn, will be hosting some seriously sweet Christmas celebrations this season.
The Angel Tree Lighting Ceremony
On December 5, the Greystone Inn staff hosts a traditional tree lighting ceremony for their lobby Angel Tree. In partnership with Lake Toxaway Charities, guests and community members can choose to shop for a child or provide a family donation for the holidays that will benefit those who need it in our community. Efforts this year will expand beyond area schools to assisting the elderly and disabled.
Elf Tuck-Ins
Guests with small children can make a magical memory by scheduling an Elf Tuck-In, where an appropriately attired staff member will tuck in your children, bring them milk and cookies, and read them a bedtime story. Watch this delightful little ritual enacted at the Greystone’s sister property, The Willcox, here.
Gingerbread Inn & Christmas Eve Smash
The Roman Catholic Church is said to have changed the date to December 25 in order to co-opt the existing pagan celebration of the winter solstice, and eventually their influence won many over to the new custom. Others continued to celebrate ‘Old Christmas’ as they had for generations, and some few still do today.
In fact, “breaking up Christmas” parties were held in some areas of the Appalachians. During twelve days of celebration, families would take turns playing host to their neighbors, cooking a big meal, providing a band, and sometimes even moving furniture outdoors to make room for dancing. Listen to a fiddle version of the tune “Breaking Up Christmas” here.
While this tradition waned in the days of World War II, it enjoyed a resurgence of popularity again during the 1970s, and may continue in some areas today, although get-togethers are now typically held in dance halls and civic clubs rather than in homes. [1]
Generally, visiting played an important role in the celebration of the holidays. It was expected that you would get out and see your neighbors in the surrounding area within a reasonable distance on Christmas Day.
In some areas of the Appalachians, visitors would pack their pockets with candy and trinkets and when meeting other fellow visitors try to be the first to say “Christmas Gift,” a common greeting for the season. Whoever said it first received a small gift from the other person!
Those whose homes were being visited would have treats such as stack cakes with apple butter filling, small mincemeat pies, and cider ready.
Visitors would not stay long but had to partake of the hospitality offered or there was a risk of taking the Christmas spirit away from the home. [2]
Another commonly held superstition was that visits from twelve neighbors would ensure good luck for the whole year.[3]
Long before Christmas décor became mostly store-bought, mountain folks made do with what they had at hand. Women and children would go into the forest and collect pine cones, burrs, and boughs; various types of holly and berries; galax leaves, which made fine wreaths; and mistletoe. These were used to drape mantels, windows, and doors throughout the house – as well as a Christmas tree, if one were had.
Ornaments on the tree might be edible: cookie dough cut-outs and popcorn balls and garlands. Some garlands took a bit more creativity – they could be paper chains glued together with flour and water; or strung together from acorns, shells, or broom corn. Nothing went to waste: old fabric remnants became bows tied to the end of tree branches, and other decorations could be made from crepe paper, yarn, and even the foil inside cigarette packs (at least until tin foil came into being).
Christmas lights as we know them didn’t exist, and once invented, they were out of reach for most (in the 1900s, a string of lights cost $12 – about $350 in today’s dollars). Some braver souls lit candles on their tree; read a touching essay on the subject here, by local Marjorie Willingham (she was married to Jack Owen, one-time owner of the Toxaway Falls Stand).
A little gem of a book, A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories & Traditions, includes this assortment of recollections:
Aaron Miller: On Christmas Day my grandma bakes a big loaf of bread with a dime in it. Then everybody takes off a piece of bread, and if you get the dime, you have good luck for a whole year.
Douglas Jump: Each year, every family member would make up a song about another family member. On Christmas Eve, after opening gifts, each member would sing his song. Every member of the family has a collection of songs that have been written about him.
Lassie McCall: Usually our dad would get some wood up ready for good big fires. He would always get what he called a backstick, a big log to put in the fireplace, and it would last about three days. I guess it was called a Yule log in England. Daddy just called it a backstick.
Mattie Pearl McGaha: They would put [the backstick] on and as long as it didn’t burn up, then they got to celebrate Christmas, and they wouldn’t have to work.
Another common tradition during the Twelve Days of Christmas was to gather sewing materials in preparation for making new pillow cases on New Year’s Day. This was particularly an Irish tradition and was felt to bring good luck and prosperity in the upcoming year, especially if one sewed a few coins—even a penny—into the wide area of the opening to the case. [4]
Times could be hard in Appalachia, and sometimes Christmas consisted of very little in the way of gifts. Many old-timer recollections revolve around Christmas stockings, which might contain some hard candy, nuts, and a few small trinkets—and sometimes the rare treat of an orange. There might also be one or two gifts per child – ranging from a cast-iron truck or a wood wagon for a boy, typically a doll for a girl, and for either, hand-carved folk toys such as a whimmydiddle or a flipperdinger (learn more about these items here).
One old-timer explains it this way: “Mother would have something special, cook up something special for Christmas, like cakes. We always had cake. For Christmas you didn’t get much. There wasn’t much. One little country store close by. There were more in the county, but they had nothing for children. We would get some oranges and some candy. They had these boxes of stick candy, different flavors. But we thought it was great, whatever we got! We didn’t know about these other things like they have nowadays… And we would get something to wear for Christmas, like a new shirt or a new pair of pants or a new pair of shoes. One neighbor made my brother and me a little mill, and it had a crank on it. You would turn it by hand. You would take it down along to the creek and you could run sand through it and have a lot of fun with that. We would use sand. It was like a little gristmill, or like you were grinding some kind of grain. We thought that was wonderful. We had no toys, however, there were dolls. As I remember they did have little dolls for the girls. My father and mother would get the girls a little dolI.” [5]
The tradition most frequently mentioned was “serenading” – which got so many mentions that it deserves its own blog post. Read more here.
Executive Chef Sean Ruddy will be making a gingerbread version of the Inn, debuting for display on the piano in the bar area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. In keeping with an Ellis family tradition, the gingerbread inn will be smashed on Christmas Eve.
SOURCES
[1] http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2016/12/breakin-up-christmas-2.html
[2] http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2010/12/appalachian-mountain-christmas.html
[3] https://gotmountainlife.com/appalachian-christmas-history-legends-and-superstitions/
[4] https://holidappy.com/holidays/Christmas-Trees-and-Traditions-in-the-Appalachian-Region-of-America
[5] Oral history of Gwynn Jones, June 1976, Southern Highlands Research Center, UNC – Asheville
WHAT A TIME: GRANDMA’S APRON
Holiday time seems to stir fond memories of our grandmothers. This piece has been floating on social media for some time, and no one seems to know who wrote it, but it seems appropriate for the season. Enjoy!
I don’t think our kids know what an apron is. The principle use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..
And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron – but love.
Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your day with us!
Please let us know if you have questions or comments about any of these stories, or about our foundation; and if you have stories and photos to share of local people, places, and events, we’d love to hear from you!
Reach out to us any time at marketing@historictoxaway.org.
Join us on Facebook
