I’ve been stoking my Christmas cheer by listening to Christmas songs and reading stories about Christmas past.
I’m an avid reader, mostly fiction, and this time of the year I’m always looking for books with a Christmas setting. Since I like to read mysteries often the characters aren’t exactly having a merry Christmas.
For the last year or so I’ve been enjoying the Flavia de Luce mystery series by Alan Bradley. Flavia is a very smart eleven year old girl who loves chemistry and solving crimes. She lives in her family’s dilapidated estate manor house called Buckshaw. The books are set in the early 1950s in the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey. The installment from the series I Am Half-Sick of Shadows takes place at Christmas and I’ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival to my mailbox.
A book I’ve been reading is True Christmas Stories from the Heart of Appalachia compiled and edited by James M. Gifford, Judith F. Kidwell, and Wayne Onkst.
I’ll be sharing a few of the stories from the book over on Celebrating Appalachia.
And if you’re looking for other Christmas readings you can find them there too.
The Christmas Barn is a heartwarming book set right here in Cherokee County where I live. Not long before I left the college where I worked for many years the librarian told me I should come by and look through a box of discarded books they were getting rid of. Many of them were related to Appalachia, The Christmas Barn was one of them. I might have passed it over, but thankfully the librarian pointed it out to me and told me it was about a family who lived in Hanging Dog. You can hear the book here.
Another great Christmas book is The Homecoming. It was written by Early Hamner Jr. and is about the family who most of us know as the Waltons but were originally the Spencers. There was a movie made from the book and many folks have told me they watch it every Christmas. You can listen to the book here.
One year I read a story a day for the first 25 days of December. Many are short stories I’ve shared over the years here on the Blind Pig. You can listen to them here.
A friend has a YouTube channel filled with relaxation videos. A couple of them are perfect for leaving on in the background as a peaceful Christmas screen saver as you cook or relax. This one of a snow globe is my favorite.
If I’m in the car this time of the year I’m listening to Pap and Paul’s Songs of Christmas cd. It’s been well over 10 years since they recorded the songs but I’ve yet to get tired of them. You can hear live versions of a few of the songs on this Christmas playlist of videos.
When I’m at home I often listen to Pandora. I use the free version and my favorite Christmas channel is the “I Wish You A Merry Christmas (Remastered 2006) Radio.” It has all of the old favorites from Christmas movies and tv shows.
Another thing I’ve really enjoyed reading is your comments. I love reading about your Christmas memories, traditions, and decorations.
Last night’s video: Christmas Crack Candy – Matt Loves it!
Tipper
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In the 70’s as a girl I enjoyed reading the Trixie Belden book series; mysteries that she would solve. I kept a few of the paperback copies that I had but my daughter was never interested in reading them. Both my husband and I like to read. He reads mostly fiction but likes nonfiction too. I mostly read nonfiction. I probably have not read any books set at Christmas time but I will have to look into them.
Tipper, I’m a bit late because I drove home from being in your neck of the woods almost a week watching a grandson in competition as well as middle school band concert. It was cold this morning and I saw snow on the peaks above the Ocoee but roads were fine. While there a friend loaned and gave me some books. I read the small book, Papa’s Angels, about a sad family and how the children helped their father at Christmas. Another I haven’t read yet is Christmas Gift! My mother tried to be the first to say Christmas Gift as long as I remember so this story should be meaningful to me. Thank you and others for all the other book suggestions. My.Christmases are not the same as years ago but I’m determined to make them as good as can be under the circumstances. Last year I was able to spend holidays with my grandchildren far away and this year due to a former secret I’m spending it with a new part of family. It has been different the past few years but is still a time to love and share. One memory I have was when I shared a bonus from my job with a family that was shopping for clothes in a thrift store. I really made me feel good to share what had been a gift to me when I saw the expressions on their faces. There are so many little things we can do to lift others spirits any time of year but especially at the holidays. It seemed as I shopped a few places along my journey today that several people were extra kind to others. Just watching and listening to those acts of kindness seemed to spread to bystanders as well. We don’t have to spend money to make someone else feel good. There are so many other ways that can be done and this is the time when so many people might be suffering and it does not show.
some of my favorite Christmas stories are by Grace Livingston Hill. She wrote many books but the one I really like this time of year is called “The Substitute Guest”. Another favorite is “The Christmas Bride” while they aren’t mysteries, they are still really good reading for this time of the year.
The comments here today makes me think of the “storyboard” trails I have seen in a few parks. I expect one or more of the stories mentioned in today’s comments would make really good storyboards.
Randy, I wish that you were nearby and that I could give you the biggest hug and kiss on your cheek!!
Some will tell you…this will pass or it gets easier, thou we all know that it’s a one day at a time situation.
My heart is heavy for you and I just need you to know, I’m standing right beside you and Jesus is on your other side! Just lean on us. There is only grace given to all by our Lord Jesus, so please take his hand.
Love to you from central Oklahoma ❤️
Tipper, your blog this morning was better than any tangible gift you could have given us! I can’t wait to check out some of the books and videos, etc., that you mentioned. I loved reading all the comments and suggestions from your readers, too. I have three books that I love and would recommend … “A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories and Traditions” edited by Elliot Wigginton; “Christmas in Georgia” by Celestine Sibley”; and “Christmas in Plains” by Jimmy Carter. I am a child of the Depression and WW II, and I so enjoy stories that take me back to those days. The gifts were sparse, if any, but we always managed to find a little scraggly tree out in the woods to decorate with popcorn and a few other homemade decorations. We were always so proud of our little tree. My aunt who lived in another state would sometimes send us a package with used toys. One of my favorite Christmas memories was of a little red accordion she sent. My heart leapt with joy when I saw it in the package, and I just about wore it out! She’s been gone a few years now, but I will always cherish that wonderful memory of her at Christmas time.
I actually wound up buying most of the suggested books used on ABE Books
I have been going back and watching your previous posts about the holidays since this is the first Christmas I found your channel. Imagine my surprise and shock when I found out about your family tradition of saying “Christmas Gift”. My dad’s side of the family,from Georgia, did this and I thought we were the only ones! I would love to know where or how this tradition started. My dad was in the military and where ever we were in the world, my grandparents would call on Christmas morning and yell “Christmas Gift”!
Christmas music can be so depressing. I remember when I walked into a store with my cousin, who had just lost her mother, and Christmas Times A Coming was playing. She started crying and ran back to her car. The saddest Christmas song I ever heard was “Please Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas.” I play Pap and Paul’s CD or Phil Spectors A Christmas Gift For You and don’t have to worry about sad songs popping up on the radio. It’s hard to find time to watch Christmas movies or read this time of year. I hope everyone will remember to take an angel from the nursing home Christmas tree, as it can be the most gratifying experience to buy a gift for folks with no one and nothing but memories.
I usually re-read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I also like The Christmas Cantata by Mark Schweizer. He also has a related series of mysteries set in a small town in present day western North Carolina. Thanks for all the suggestions. My Amazon cart is going to be full.
Tipper
I make Graham Cracker Pralines almost the same way you make your Saltine Crackers. I use 2 sticks of Butter melted with 3/4 cup White Sugar and bring to boil let cook 1 minutes while stirring. Pour over 1 and 1/2 pkgs of Graham Crackers broken up on buttered Foil and sprinkle chopped Pecans all over.
Bake 350 exactly 15 minutes. Take out of oven and don’t touch till it completely cools and hardens. It is like Brittle so very good!
My husband wants me to make these every Christmas!
You could put Chocolate Chips on and let them melt if you wanted to.
Hope you try this I am sure you would like this. Just be sure when you bake just watch after 10 minutes of baking since everyones oven heats different but mine don s better to bake 15 minutes that makes it more like oeanut brittle.
Joanna-that sounds delicious!
I’ve been listening to Christmas Traditional Radio. It plays Christmas music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I will have to check out the one you listed as well! I loved The Homecoming readings last year and was inspired to watch the movie for the first time. I have to say, although I was a Waltons’ fan as a child, I enjoyed the book much more than the movie. Maybe it was because Ralph Waite and Michael Learned didn’t play the parents. When you’re accustomed to something being one way, changing it isn’t easy sometimes .
A favorite Christmas story is “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry. It is not Appalachian, being about city tenement living early in the 20th century. But it captures the heart of Christmas in an unforgettable way. The December chapter of “The Old Man and the Boy” by Robert Ruark is also good, again not Appalachian being about the North Carolina coast but still very relatable. I think Randy would really like that book. At one time that book and its sequel “The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older” were bound in one volume. I know Jim Casaday knows those books and most likely that edition. We like the old books that nowadays would likely fit the ‘Christian fiction’ genre but which did not exist when they were new. That is, of course, a commentary on us. So be it.
I enjoy mysteries too. I’ll have to check out the Flavia de Luce series.
Hello Randy. Thank you for writing your thoughts which I’ve enjoyed on many occasions, including this one.
I don’t remember any really happy Christmases in my life either. My mother was always depressed during Christmas. We were very poor so presents were meager. I would be so happy if I could scrimp together some money and buy mom a box of cherry filled chocolates. She was glad to get them, but it also reminded her of all the presents she couldn’t afford. She didn’t know how to generate happiness because that revolved around material things which ahe lacked. She did make Christmas dinner though. It was always a stuffed chicken which she had saved up for. She made mashed potatoes and some vegetable.
When out on my own I wished like you, that I could pull myself in a cave. It was excruciating to hear others talking about the gifts they had to buy and the meals they had to prepare for the family when I had no one. Turning the tv on and listening to all the commercials about what to buy and where to go for the holiday didn’t help. Pictures of families having fun and getting together with their many friends made me desolate because I had none of that. I had moved away from home and the thought of going back was depressing because there was no joy there. I was happy when January came and I was no longer buried in the myths of family, joy, comraderey, and plenty. It took a long time to understand that a large portion of people hated the holidays and couldn’t wait until it was all over. Faking happiness is tiring.
Now, Randy, I’m happy. I love staying home for the holidays. I don’t need to be the fifth wheel at anyone’s family gathering (I found that generally people don’t really know how to be inclusive of a non-family person). Starting at Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), I write in a diary every day, one thing I’m grateful for. I continue this until the end of the year. I have found inner peace because I no longer depend on anyone’s presence or acceptance. There is only God The Father on whom I can depend and it’s that love that I give to others. No one ever knew how lonely I was and I didn’t share my feelings, so I know how a kind word and smile can lift someone’s heart. I gladly share that daily. Two years ago I wrote a story about kindness. It was included in a book that made Amazon’s best seller list where it can continue to inspire.
You have a lovely gift of writing, Randy. I hope you will not only continue to share it, but expand it. Share your memories and give life to the love and happiness that made your heart sing and fulfilled you. You deserve that and so do we!
Wishing you much love and contentment always.
Catherine
Caye, we were also poor, my depression or feeling like I do has nothing to do with presents, we were always happy with being together with our family. I enjoyed my wife’s family just as much, I don’t just mean immediate family but also the extended family. We were always happy to be together at all of the “get togethers.” The memories of these times together is what I miss. When growing up my sister and I got presents or a toy twice a year, one at Christmas and another if Daddy got anything back from a income tax refund. Mother would scratch up some type of cake on our birthday. As for presents, one of my happiest Christmas was when I was 12 years old, Daddy had been out of work and in the hospital with pneumonia. He came home in time for Christmas but had no money and my aunt ask me what I would like to have, I ask for a box of shotgun shells (25 shells), that was the first full box of shells I had ever had, up until that Christmas I bought them 5 shells at a time at our local country store. Back at that time, if a blue collar was not able to work, he didn’t get paid, there was no such thing as today’s sick pay.
A favorite book of mine is Fannie Flagg’s Red Bird Christmas. I grew up hearing about how when a red bird visits you, it is someone who is no longer here in this world looking out for you. The particular year I first read this book, was the first holiday without my husband, and it was a remedy for a tough season. I often give it as a gift to someone who appears to be having a Blue Christmas. Blessed holidays to all!
It is such a good book. I enjoy Fanny Flagg’s novels.
I love stories set at Christmas time, including cozy mysteries.
Not a mystery, but a nice Christmas themed short novel I re-read every few years is A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg.
Thank you for sharing these books! Have you read any of the Mitford series by Jan Karon? They’re set in the NC mountains and they are just wonderful. She has one called “Shepherds Abiding” that’s a Christmas story, it is just so good. They will make you laugh out loud, cry, and everything in between.
Skylar-I enjoy that series too 🙂
Her books are so good!
Here’s a Christmas memory for you. Our family has always been what would be considered poor (but when I was a kid, my brothers and I didn’t know that). It was Christmas of 1988 and I was 8 years old. Most of my play was outside with whatever was on hand. I used to tear up leaves and berries and pretend I was cooking soup, or make “roads” in my Nanny and Papa’s front yard (we lived in hollering distance of each other). There weren’t any “inside toys” so I’d usually just read books borrowed from the school library. On Christmas Day, James (he later became a preacher) and Diane (Loggins) Holden came with a huge trash bag full of toys!! There was a 3 story Barbie house, with elevator, a Barbie and Ken doll, all kinds of accessories, and I know there was more but I remember the Barbie stuff best. They went to our little country church. They had no children of their own (their 3 day old daughter was killed in a wreck coming home from the hospital) but throughout their lives, they fostered numerous kids. They’re both gone now, but every Christmas I think of how they made one little girls Christmas the best ever.
Love your Christmas memory Kelley.
This Christmas will be different for my family. My dad is suffering from dementia and many other health issues and is living in our local nursing home this year. He has been there for the past three months. He is 85. My mama is 82. They have lived together for 66 years so this is hard on them both. She visits with him several days of the week. She pulls a chair beside his bed and they hold hands the whole time. This morning brought to mind a favorite story my mama always told me. She and daddy never exchanged gifts at Christmas. They had four kids to make sure had a gift from Santa, and not much money. But…one especially cold Christmas Eve, mama was in the kitchen standing on our cold linoleum floor making candy. Dad came in beside her, kissed her on the cheek, and slipped a pair of new bedroom shoes on her cold feet. It was such a sweet surprise that she thinks about how special it was every year. We are gonna try hard to make Christmas as normal as possible for my parents. ..but we all know it won’t be the same. I am just thankful to still have them both. Have a blessed day!
I love the Flavia de Luce series! She is so delightful!
Thank you for my early Christmas present. I will be listening to the stories you suggested. I remember as a young girl, probably 9 years young, my Granny always had Readers Digest hard back books. She suggested I read, Spencer’s Mountain. I loved it so much cause my Daddy was from Virginia. Little did I know, as a mom, it would become one of my family’s favorite Thursday night tv shows. The Homecoming movie was always a Christmas movie favorite for my kids. Have a blessed day.
Thank you for sharing your reading list! I love Appalachia too and I’m looking forward to reading or listening to every one of these!! Merry Christmas to you and yours
Look up John Henry Faulk’s Christmas Story on YouTube, which I first heard on the radio. His voice is so authentic as he relates a boy’s excitement over sharing Christmas with another family during hard times. My Daddy was not exaggerating when he said he was excited to see an orange in his stocking on Christmas morning as a boy in the 20s and 30s.
Another favorite of mine is Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory.
Tipper, thanks for reminding us about the beautiful stories for the season. Merry Christmas!
If you haven’t, you should add The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston and illustrated by Barbara Cooney to your collection. It’s a picture book, and in a couple years the boys will love it but you grown ups will too. It’s set in the mountains during WW1. A little girl’s daddy is sent off to war but it’s their family’s year to provide the tree for the community church. She and her mother are determined to provide “the perfect balsam fir from atop the rocky crags, where only a venturesome man will go.” There’s a lot of mountain culture and vocab, and the illustrations are a feast. It’s one of our favorites.
This year we’ve added A Little Christmas carol to our collection which was just published and also is a beautiful rendition of the classic.
One of my favorite memories is of me and my brother Caleb, he’s 8 years my junior.
One Christmas morning we were under the tree seeing what Santa brought us and our solid white cat, Max went scurrying up to the tip top of the tree and it fell right between he and I! Of course that was the only Christmas the tree came down that day.
I hope it brought you a smile. I’ll tell you again I’m sure but , Merry Christmas.
a YouTube channel popped up the other day–i forget the name of it, my memory is less than good–the young man was talking about this book so I quickly went to amazon and found it and put it in my cart (truthfully I have not purchased it yet but I put it there so I had a reference point of which to be able to copy and paste the title here for you and ask if you have read it) Snow in the Holler: A Patchwork of Appalachian Christmas Storiesby Shane S. Simmons
Gaylia-I haven’t read that one but will look for it. Thank you!
I also like to read, it is one of the few things I still enjoy. I have recently read two stories about someone giving up something they wanted in order to buy or give to someone else in need. Right now I can not think of their titles. I am not looking for pity or sympathy when I write this, but since my wife and so many others in both mine and her family ( close to 20) have died in the last few years, I no longer enjoy Christmas or some other holidays. For many others like me, Christmas is a depressing time of the year, I find myself wishing I could crawl in a hole and pull the dirt in behind me until it is over. Tonight I have laid awake for nearly two hours thinking of my memories of the past years with these people. Unlike with some, these good memories are painful for me. I do enjoy the old time traditional Christmas Carols but some of them bring tears to my eyes. The one Christmas song I remember that would be fitting for me goes something like this, “I’ll have a blue, blue Christmas without you.” I have the radio in all of my vehicles turned off and have for many years, I do not enjoy any of today’s music. I apologize for writing this, but it is just how it is for me, I don’t want it to take away from anyone else’s joy and happiness. I am a Christian and they were too, I know I will be with them again someday but I am also a human and miss them while I am still on earth. I feel bad about feeling like this, without the true meaning of Christmas and Easter, there would be no hope of being able to be with them again.
I asked for prayers a few days ago for a lifelong family friend named Andy, he passed away Monday at the age of 94 and had been married to his wife, Mary, for 68 years. They have been friends to both me and my wife since we were young teenagers.
Randy-sorry Andy passed away. And I’m sorry your life is so burdened. I know Christmas is a hard time for people who have lost their family or never had good family relationships. I will continue to pray for you.
I can absolutely understand. My Mama is on hospice, not expected to live much longer, and my Daddy has been dead 8 years. I had 2 aunts die within a few months, and it’s just so hard. The song that gets me every single time is by The Statler Brothers, “I Never Spend A Christmas That I Don’t Think Of You” Praying for you and your wife.
Kelly, I have heard the Statlers sing this song. But just so you understand, my wife died 3 1/2 years ago from a blood clot forming during heart surgery. We married when we were teenagers and would have been married 50 years this year. I buried a huge amount of my joy and happiness or will to live when I buried her. She was the heart and soul for me and our family.
Randy, I was the 9th of 9. Christmas around our house was wonderful. I enjoyed 21 of them before my Pa died, but we had another 24 before Mama died. So, I had 45 great Christmases with my siblings. Now, all but 1 sibling has passed away.
My daughter was born 8 months before Mama passed; so I was able to enjoy Christmas with her for another 20 years. I was blessed with 65 years of celebrating Christmas with my family.
All of that is in the past, but instead of being sad for not still having those holidays, I try to be thankful that I had such good ones for so long. I hope you can gain that perspective because it truly does help.