The Lawsons celebrate Old Christmas

This year we have decided to prolong our Christmas celebrations into the Twelve Days of Christmas, or, as  they call it in the mountains, Old Christmas.

Winter snow in the Appalachian Mountains

Now, we're not against people taking their tree down and putting Christmas away in boxes on the 26th, but at the Lawson house we always look for a way to prolong parties and festivities. So, we have revived a tradition from the mountains that takes the celebration all the way to January 6th.

As far as I can tell, Old Christmas has its roots in the fact that they changed the calendars way back when, and Christmas used to be on January 6th. That's why they call it Old Christmas. Now, it also coincides with Epiphany, the day celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. Needless to say, Appalachians just use it as an excuse for more parties, more feasting, more music making. And, we're all for that. Why should Christmas come and go in just one day?

So, although we're officially on break from school, we're still learning about Appalachian culture. Here's some of the fun things the Lawsons are doing:

Jessie and TJ are attending Christmas Country Dance School all week. This is an event held at Berea College which teaches and celebrates traditional dancing and music. The kids are learning about Molly dancing, country dancing, clogging and Danish gymnastics. They will be part of a performance on New Year's Eve.

This is very much like what the mountain people would probably be doing on the Twelve Days of Christmas - dancing and making music. In fact, I heard of a fiddle tune and song about this  called "Breakin' Up Christmas".

We also attended, this evening, a performance by the Morrison Brothers Band, who are part of the Christmas Country Dance School staff. They were pretty good! Looking forward to the concerts and family dances during the coming week.