“Wreathes and table centerpieces made from natural materials such as hazelnuts still in the husk; cones from hemlocks, white pines, and other types of evergreens; sweet gum balls; sycamore balls; milkweed pods; old wasp nests; small bird nests, and the like were standard decorative features of Christmas. So were wreaths made from grape vines and then interlaced with evergreens or sprigs of holly. The sycamore and sweet gum balls could also be dipped in a flour and water mixture and then dried to give them the appearance of miniature snowballs. They could also be painted silver or gold. These carefully crafted items gave Momma, a great deal of pleasure, always drew favorable comments from visitors, and added appreciably to the overall festiveness of our house at holiday time.”
—Smoky Mountain Boyhood Memories, Musings, and More written by Jim Casada
Last week Matt helped me with my annual greening of Christmas. It’s something I love to do each year.
One Christmas I got in such a big way of greening and made so many wreaths I ran out of places to put them and then I started giving them away.
Granny brought in greenery when I was a girl at Christmas. Her mother did the same. Several years ago she told me a sweet story about greening the house with one of her sisters.
“I remember one time Geneaieve and I decorated the whole house with pieces of holly. It was after we’d moved in with Grandpa and we were great big girls. We went to the cemetery and gathered the holly. Someone went with us and shot mistletoe out of those big oak trees for us so we had that too. I can’t remember if it was George, Lucky, James, or Woodrow. Whoever it was that had a gun handy I guess. We hung the holly over all the doorways and on every nail we found on the wall. I don’t remember why there was so many nails, but there was a lot. ”
I ask Granny what her mother thought about the holly she said “Oh she liked it. She liked anything us kids did.”
Not everyone can go to the extent I do of greening the house for Christmas, but even a small sprig of evergreen in a vase will lift your spirits and make your house brighter.
Many of you really enjoyed J. Wayne’s post yesterday. I knew you would! He is a prolific author and you can find out more about his books here.
Last night’s video: The Easiest Christmas Cookies & Making Matt Pickled Eggs.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
Love your natural decorations. It just makes everything look so pretty and aromas of the outdoors. Love and prayers for all. Merry Christmas
What a wonderful home you have made for your family, with Matt! it’s beautiful, fragrant, warm, welcoming and comforting to all the senses. Love is alive and well there. I am happy for your blessings and that we can enjoy them through your written words and videos. MAY THE BLESSINGS GROW AND FLOW. So much joy in those two wee boys!!!
I really enjoyed the “Greening of Christmas” what a lovely tradition.
That Matt, he’s a keeper! He just hangs in there the best he can. My husband would have ran the other way. It really turned out beautiful.
As always praying for Granny.
So beautiul! Thanks, Matt, for helping Tipper!
I enjoyed the “Greening of Christmas” very much. That Matt, he’s a trooper. I tried to think of what part of that project my husband would help with, I got nothing. Heck, he would send me out to forage on my own, calling you’ll be fine, lol! be back in time to cook supper. It was lovely, team Presley did a great job.
As always praying for Granny.
Just beautiful Tipper!
I always enjoy watching your greening of Christmas and it’s beautiful! At the old homeplace, I remember mama always cutting holly and putting it on our mantel. My brother would bring in mistletoe he had shot out of a tree. There was a certain type of tree that mama would get a small branch from and stick gumdrops on it and place it in a container. It was so pretty, and it seemed like the house always smelled so good that time of year.
We watched you and Matt making your greenery swag. Matt is such a good sport about helping you gather the greenery and helping you put it together. He doesn’t always seem like he enjoys it but he knows these posts allow him not to have to go out and work another job 🙂 Smart man 🙂
It is always such fun to watch you prepare your home for Christmas, Tipper – you have a ‘good eye’ for decorating. The swag you and Matt created is beautiful. My John loved all things Christmas and every year since he passed at the end of November seven years ago, I would decorate in honor and remembrance of him. This will be the first year I am doing nothing in the way of Christmas decorating – it will be just me here anyway and I don’t have the extra energy to do so this year. Tipper, I am still hoping you’ll get just enough snow this year to get out and enjoy with the wee lads – and always praying for you all with extra prayers for Granny.
Your decorations look beautiful! I cut cedar branches and made an arrangement to sit next to my front door steps and it smells so good. I’d much rather decorate with natural materials. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us. God bless you and your family.
The wreath you and Matt made is stunning! It’s too cold in Alberta to grow holly, and I do love it! I just got back from visiting my family in British Columbia and luckily my cousin has two trees, so we picked a box of it for me to bring back home. I have it around my house, it’s so beautiful with so many red berries on it! Now to go out in the woods and pick some evergreens for the house too. I love anything from nature.
Years ago we had a long dining table when we put the 2 leaves in for our Christmas crowd.
I sometimes cut large shiny magnolia leaves off our backyard tree to make a long centerpiece and I spray painted nuts and fruit such as tangerines a bright gold.
It looked so pretty to me! My late husband always said I was like a magpie because I loved anything shiny!
Your swag is beautiful. It looks like it came from a fancy shop. I don’t have any greenery here in suburbia.
I love your annual greening videos. I will watch it sometime today! Praying comfort for Granny.
When I was a little girl, we would be careful to pick up sweetgum balls that had the stem on them. We then would wrap them an aluminum foil, and hang them on our Christmas tree for decorations. Reading this brought back so many childhood memories for me. Thank you for sharing.
Daddy use to shoot the mistletoe out of the tree, too. Sometimes, he’d have to shoot a couple of times and by the time we got it down, there was hardly anything there, except for the stems!
I agree. Natural greenery at Christmas is a special touch. Incidentally, I just the other day learned from the “All Creatures Great and Small” show that in England Santa Claus is most traditionally not red and white but green and white. I think maybe some of your Christmas card posts may show that. I had never heard that before as best I recall but realized immediately how appropriate it is. Just think snow on the evergreens with little hints of red and you have it. I like to think the green in the depths of winter is a symbol of enduring hope and promise. Related to Randy’s post is the line from the old carol “of all the trees that is in the wood, the holly wears the crown.” I had never thought of the holly leaf thorns being symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns. I do not think I can ever see the holly now without that thought coming to mind. Our lives also have their thorns but it is not in this life only that we have hope.
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly…” I love bringing holly and evergreens into the house at Christmas. My cabin is very small, so I don’t have room to put up a Christmas tree, but I have homemade wreaths and bought everywhere! Thank you for your story. Merry Christmas!
J had never heard of this til i started watching you but i kove it and think it is so uplifting. Merry Christmas to uou and your family!
I loved watching y’all do that!
My precious momma always greened up inside and out. She would even load her car full and come to do my sister’s house and my house. She would put bright red bows in the center. She would hang them at the bottom of each window outside. Of course we helped as Momma made everything fun! I surely miss her. Thank you for always stirring wonderful memories!
For those who want some green but can’t make wreaths or swags, you might want to get a Norfolk Island ‘pine’ (smell & look like pine but isn’t) in a bucket/planter from a nursery or big box store. I bought several years ago and put them all over the house. They grew big enough I have cut the top out and pruned, and given many away. Some years I put small decorations and/or lights on them. A friend I gave one to is having her neighbor’s grand daughters come over to decorate hers. They are house plants where it gets cold as they are tropical. Can put outside during summer in the shade but change the potting soil to indoor potting medium before bringing in for winter so you don’t have insects hatching.
I watched you and Matt collect the greenery to make the swag. It is beautiful. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Prayers for Granny.
I used to get Holly from a big tree in my BFF’s front yard. Since she passed away I haven’t gotten any. I may try to see if I can catch her husband and his wife at the burned home and see if I can get some. There is a big Holly on the hill in front of our trailer but I’d never make it up there. I want to plant a Holly here in the yard. I’ll have to cut some Hazelnuts from the back yard next year. I have lots of Mountain Laurel across the creek and Pine. I love Granny’s story. Watching your Greening of Christmas was so comforting. TY for always inviting us into your home and making us feel like family. I gotta go watch Matt get Pickled Eggs. I try to keep a quart jar of pickled beets and eggs in my fridge. I love y’all and keep everyone in my prayers.
If you buy Holly make sure to get a he and a she plant. Only she-hollys have berries and only if there is a he-holly nearby.
Tipper, your swag is really just beautiful! It looks very festive and I’m certain to smell it and look at it brings you and your family great delight. Last night I went out in the dark and when I came back I saw the ugliest wreath imaginable on MY house! From a distance all I could see was square, pitiful lights. Murray said “all I see is a square. It doesn’t look right.” It’s sad and I guess I could fix it up, but I’m gonna rock it as is…I’d love to see and have some feller shoot me some mistletoe. I can’t say I’ve ever seen the real deal. Oh well, I’m excited about my seeds and spring. Also, I am predicting a HIUGE BLIZZARD at some point because it’s been ‘96 since the last big ‘un hit…Greening up the house is a great idea! There’s money to be made in swags and wreaths so there’s an idea for creative entrepreneurs with pine and boxwood, cedar, holly, etc….
Very pretty! Merry Christmas!
I never shot the mistletoe from the trees. I climbed to get it so I could have the berries intact. Each time a couple kissed under it a berry was removed. I wanted plenty of berries, shooting it out caused them to fall off.
Tipper, I also love making greenery for Christmas, and I make sprays to put on my family’s graves in the cemetery. My mother did that too. Speaking of my mother, she was a crack shot and kept a 22 rifle under her bed, and every December she would pull it out and track down some mistletoe in a nearby tree and usually shoot it down in one shot! She was amazing, and I really miss her.
(I post as VirginiaBred on your YouTube videos and look forward to every one of them.
Your swag is beautiful. I would love to gather some branches from our pine trees to decorate, but my son is allergic. I need to go into the woods and see what else I can find to green up the house—maybe just something for a little vase like you said. We have the grandchildren today and I am sure they will want to play outside in what is left of our big snow, so we can explore then. When I was growing up, we would always collect ground pine and mama would wrap it around our white porch posts. It was a beautiful sight. She would also make a wreath from it for our front door. Nice memories this morning.
My momma always decorated with what she could find on the land and it was always so pretty.
Love Granny’s story about when she said her mom liked anything her children did. What a great memory for her and a great reminder for us as moms to slow down and enjoy the small things.
Indeed, there is something so special about greening our homes with nature. Last year, my Mama and my three sisters and I took a wreath-making class, knowing it would likely be my oldest sister’s last Christmas. It turned out to be my Mama’s last Christmas as well. I kept the straw frames and used them to make two wreaths last week, missing my Mama and my sister with every move, but thanking God I had them as long as I did. Merry Christmas, Tipper!
Home made is always best. Yours are beautiful.
The greening of Christmas video was fun and the swag that you and Matt made is beautiful!
My sisters and I used to gather holly from the woods to decorate the house. The berries looked so pretty!
Praying for Granny to feel better so that she can enjoy Christmas with the family❣️
I do remember using holly and shooting mistletoe out of trees for decoration at Christmas. I read an old BP&A post a few days ago and something said in it about holly trees being thorn bushes at one time and the thorn wreath placed on Jesus’s head when he was crucified being made from a holly bush. After this the holly bush became a tree that would always remain green and the red berries would be a reminder of His drops of blood. I had never heard that before. Maybe not true, but just like with the Legend Of The Dogwood Tree, I never look at a dogwood tree without thinking about it. I will now do the same whenever I see a holly tree with red berries.
Yesterday, much was said about in the past an eastern red cedar cedar tree being one of the more popular Christmas trees. The smell of a cedar tree and seeing red berry holly always makes me think of Christmas and how it use to be. It does not matter about the time of year.
thank you for this wonderful presentation, Merry Christmas, happy and safe holidays, God bless everybody, God bless Granny
you decorate your home beautifully, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and God bless Granny