Reviewed by Jeanne
Many people are familiar with the Foxfire series of books which collected oral histories of
Appalachian traditions. Students in
Georgia interviewed people about folkways from planting by the signs to butchering
hogs to caning chairs. A collection of
books ensued, and then specialized collections such as this one which features
holiday memories.
The book is divided up by topics: Preparation and Decoration,
Gifts and Santa, Food and Menus, and so forth.
One that surprised me was Serenading, which I took to mean caroling. Not exactly! Serenading was done at Christmas
when groups of young people would get together and slip off to someone’s house
to create a ruckus until the people inside would invite them in. Cowbells, firing shotguns, beating buckets,
anything to make a noise. Mind, this was
mostly done at night and some people even said they would wait until the lights
were out in the house before they started.
More than one compared it to modern day Halloween, with tricks and
treating.
I remembered hearing about Christmases of long ago when people
strung popcorn and made paper chains to decorate trees, so I was interested to
read what other things were popular. The
section on food included recipes such as Black Walnut Pound Cake and Syrup
Candy made for sorghum.
Most of all, I just enjoyed the stories and memories. Carolyn Jones’ will stay with me for a long time;
simply told but powerful. Some stories had echoes of things I had heard from
older people in the community, others I wondered if they were just local to
that area.
For me, this is a good book choice for this time of year,
because I can pick it up and read a bit, then get back to all those little
things that need to be done for the holidays.
And, honestly, it’s nice to read about a time when Christmas wasn’t so
over-scheduled and didn’t start in October.
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