Belsnickles from Pendleton County, WV, notice the masks on the floor at their feet. (third man from left is Boss Bland, a friend of Matthew Burn’s Grandpaw Alfred Kile)
I’ve been sharing Christmas readings since December 1 on the Celebrating Appalachia YouTube channel. I recently read an account from A Foxfire Christmas. The gentleman from the book shared his Christmas memories detailing the way folks would get out and serenade houses (make a lot of noise) at Christmastime.
At one point he mentioned going around house to house making noise and receiving treats sort of like Halloween. His comment reminded me of Belsnickle.
I first heard of Belsnickle several years back, when I read a post written about them on Matthew Burn’s Appalachian Lifestyles website. Here is a portion of Matthew’s post.
“People where I am from in Germany Valley, WV, still talk about the Belsnickel and belsnickling, which occurred every year around Christmas time. People dressed up in costumes and went door to door, scaring people and it was all great fun. People tried to guess who you were in the costume, and if they didn’t, they had to give you a cup of hot cider or some other form of treat. While this belsnickling still occurs in some parts of Pendleton County, it doesn’t in my old neighborhood, the last time anyone can remember it was in the early 1980’s. My Dad talks about going belsnickling when he was a kid and remembers it fondly, he said that if people expected belsnicklers to come by, they’d make up cakes, cookies and other goodies and pass them out. Dad also recalls that some homes they visited gave them fruit (Apples & Oranges), which to him were a real treat. You have to remember, this is the dead of winter in a very harsh area, so I’m sure these belsnicklers were a sight to see, carrying lanterns and singing and hollering at the top of their lungs, celebrating a centuries old tradition from a far-off land. Keeping with the traditions of my ancestors, I proudly display my belsnickel every Christmas, and even have a huge belsnickel that tops our Christmas tree.”
The reading also reminded me of an entry in the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English.
Christmas trick noun An act or prank performed rarely, such as once a year at Christmas.
1855 (in 1956 Eliason Tarheel Talk 265) (Wilkes Co NC) Papa waded the river for his Christmas trick. 1862 Neves CW Letters (Jan 9) I woold be glad to see you & hear you tell some of your christmas trick as you have taken it wher you did never beforure I recon you had a big time.
I’ve never known anyone who played tricks at Christmas nor observed the old tradition of Belsnickle. Now I want to know why Papa had to wade the river in winter 🙂
Last night’s video: How to Make the Easiest Fudge Ever! So Creamy and Good!
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I have fond memories of Christmas caroling with our church youth group. We would walk a couple miles and stop and sing everywhere. I remember someone giving us homemade fudge and another lady invited us all in for hot chocolate and to get warmed up before the walk back home. Folks would come out on their porches to listen and cheer and clap for us. It was one of the best parts of Christmas growing up in rural WV.
I’ve never heard of anything like that here in New England.
Being born and raised not far German Valley I have heard of this when I was a young Boy, but didn’t fully understand it all. I agree with the comment that Randy gave and would never enter any home today with a mask on my face. Caroling, Wakes, Snipe hunting, and many Old Traditions have ended in W. Va. For information on the German Valley, go to Wikipedia and read the History of the Settlement and catch a View of the Beautiful Allegheny Mountain Range.
I’ve never heard of the belsnickel thing but I swear I believe that was the name of a naughty elf that had gone rogue in the Netflix movie “the Christmas chronicles 2”. Makes more sense now why he had such a strange name haha. Tipper, I was so excited to have snow in the forecast last night in Waynesville but we barely got a dusting and then it turned to rain and melted what little bit we had. Seems like every time it snows it’s overnight and I don’t get to see it falling…that’s my favorite part!
Why I never heard of this that I remember. Nowadays you might get your seat full of shot if you did something like that. I’d been scared to death if someone had done that when I was a kid.
Love the stories and recipes! Blessings to all!!
The first time I ever heard of a “Belsnickel” was on The Office when Dwight dressed up as a Belsnickel and decided if you were impish or admirable!
kind of strange looking dudes there, Merry Christmas friends of Appalachia God bless Granny Wilson with healing and health in Jesus name
I’ve never heard of “belsnickeling” but when I was a child, our church members always went around to the homes of older community residents—mostly shut-ins—to sing Christmas carols. We always took homemade cookies to leave with the residents of the homes where we went to sing. I also remember that the neighbors who lived on my aunt’s street always got together during the Christmas season—a usually a few days before Christmas Eve to visit the neighboring streets to sing Christmas carols—they always came back to their street which was really a small subdivision of several streets joined by a large clearing in the center of the subdivision where someone had planted a huge cedar tree and they always put Christmas lights on this tree every year. It was always those old-fashioned colored lights with the over-sized screw-in bulbs. They always lit a bonfire and served hot chocolate and cookies—it was SO MUCH FUN. Those days are gone now—the houses in that subdivision are now occupied by mostly new inhabitants and the tree is gone from the circle out front—it’s so sad to drive through knowing that all those special people have all mostly died now and their holes sold to new people, but those childhood memories will always live in my heart. We still drive through that same subdivision every year to look at Christmas lights, and thankfully, most of the houses are all decorated with lights during the Christmas holidays—I always wonder if they still get together for hot chocolate and cookies. What precious memories!!!!!
I’ve never heard of belsnickling but it sure does sound like a lot of fun. We used to take our youth groups at church Christmas caroling. We would fix little goodie bags and go see the shut-ins in the church. Some of them would have a little snack for us or pass out candy canes. I don’t know who enjoyed it more, the kids or the ones we went to see. It was a blessing for the young and the old.
Tipper, I plan to make that fudge. I always make fudge for Christmas and that looked so easy and delicious, I have to try it. I’m going to see if my family can tell the difference in this one and the one I usually make. Have a great day everyone!!
I guess most of us know or have heard of someone that would do just about anything to pull a joke or get a friendly laugh from unsuspecting participants. I especially love people like that . It always makes a person feel better after a good laugh. Merry Christmas to all. Tell Granny to take it easy and to know that she is loved and prayed for. She is a precious friend. I’ve been praying for her. Love to all.
Never heard of Belsnickel but my ancestry is Scotch-Irish/English and I do remember one of my dear Aunts, that is in heaven now, telling me how she and her siblings would go serenading. I said don’t you mean Caroling, as I didn’t think of serenading going with singing Christmas Carols but back in her day it was called serenading. She was born in 1911, the third child of 11, and I can still hear her and her sisters laughing about a story their father, my grandfather, told them about a trick he and friends played on a friend at Christmas. They took his wagon apart and put it on top of the barn where they put it back together. I’m such a serious type person, I did not think that was funny but apparently everyone at that time thought it was funny.
Your reading of “A Foxfire Christmas” brought back a lot of good memories. I bought that book for my father many years ago and those stories are just like my family’s’ Christmas stories.
The story is so interesting. The gents in the picture are a good looking bunch and I love their costumes! My mom and I make 20 or so pounds of fudge every year. We make chocolate with walnuts and Peanut butter fudge. We have started passing out our recipes because it is getting to be too much for us. We also bake about 10 different kinds of cookies. Right before Christmas we make containers of fudge and cookies to give to our friends and family. So much work but so gratifying!
The clue to tracking down the origins of Belsnickel is that reference to GERMAN VALLEY, West Virginia. Most Americans know Santa, or Saint Nick came to our Christmas traditions very late. Belsnickel, like Santa, has interesting German roots. Belsnickel was one of Saint Nick’s most notorious helpers, what our kids now call elves. Before he swapped filthy ragged clothes and old tattered furs for those clean clown costumes worn by the men in that photo, Belsnick’s ugly scary masks often featured a long menacing tongue. He carried a switch in his hand for beating naughty kids. On his back, or in his deep pockets, he had an assortment of cakes, apples, oranges, and candies for well behaved children. That tradition can be traced to a very specific region within southwestern Germany along the Rhine. I find it fascinating to follow Belsnickel’s footsteps into America and trace how he has evolved into not only the way we celebrate Christmas, but much of modern Halloween as well. Most of the commercially profitable aspects of both those originally religious days can be traced back to this particular “elf” who not only asisted jolly old Saint Nick, but helped American businesses turn two sacred holidays into buying frenzies. Trick or treat. Ho,ho, ho…have you been naughty? Its coal and a whipping for you kid. Just kidding. I found everything on your list and more. I couldn’t resist those Black Friday bargains. Merry Christmas. You might say Belsnichel is the grinch who stole the original meanings of both Christmas and Halloween.
I don’t make much fudge other than a batch of white vanilla fudge and some sugar free peanut butter fudge. I make several batches of peanut brittle, I made 2 batches of cayenne peanut brittle and have a few more batches for certain people.
Well, Tipper! Here’s yet another tradition of Appalachia you have introduced to me and at least some of your readers and watchers! Belsnickles…can’t wait to hear the next thing you educate me on, lol! God’s blessings on you and yours, Tipper!
I’ve never heard of Christmas tricks, much less a town called German Valley in WV and I was born and raised in WV. It just goes to show, just because one lives most their life in a state doesn’t mean they know everything about it. No matter how old I get, I learn something new everyday! We did Christmas Caroling in our area of WV. When I was a teenager our church youth group went caroling. I had heard of some other youth groups in our area had a kind of a traveling house caroling party. They actually had a name for it but I’ve forgotten what they called it. It sounded like a lot of fun! I was told the youth group would travel together to different homes of people in their church who volunteered to prepare different foods. The first house they would sing one Christmas song be invited in and had appetizers. Second house they would do the same to be invited in for salads or vegetables with dip. Third house served cups of soups. Fourth house served meat, cheese and breads. The fifth house served small desserts with coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Even though the youth group I was in didn’t participate in the traveling caroling party, we did get invited into a few homes for hot chocolate or apple cider and one home had sweet treats for us to enjoy. The best part I experienced was the wonderful fellowship , singing songs about our Savior, one home read the Christmas Story from the Bible and then prayed over us. It was such a great blessing and a wonderful memory.
Oh gosh, that must have been fun. I have been making this fudge for years, and it is wonderful. I like it when it is hot and eat with a spoon! I later discovered that if you put a piece in a small bowl and microwave for a few seconds, it is just like when it is first made. I enjoyed watching Matt force down (hahaha) his fudge with the walnuts he doesn’t like (wink, wink). Love and prayers to all of you and Granny and Little Mamas 1 & 2.
I’ve only ever heard of “Belsnickling” in reading about Christmas traditions and history (I don’t know how I manage to waste time on random things like this, but I do… Christmas and Halloween history are two that have always intrigued and entertained me). It seems it was a German tradition that made its way to our shores with German immigrants in the 1800s to settlements in Pennsylvania and Maryland and slowly trickled down through Appalachia in many of the same ways some of the Scotch-Irish traditions did. My Granny (on my father’s side) was a prankster and trickster right up to the end of her days. She liked to pull little innocent tricks and “spook” us grandkids and great-grandkids for fun. She lived with us my whole childhood in her final years and we always hosted Christmas dinner at our house each year. I can remember she’d be in rare form playing tricks on us and just having a good time. Some of those little “spooky tricks” were always grand fun and now makes me wonder if some of that trickery and the like maybe drifted-down from things like the Belsnickle.
We never had carolers or tricks at Christmastime. If someone had visited with a ‘scary face’/mask, Daddy would have added some noise to the fireworks folks set off at Christmas. I don’t recall anyone celebrating the 4th of July with firecrackers and cherry bombs but everyone had them Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Well I never. That’s a new one on me but then my family was from the Cherokee and Scottish.
“Belsnickle” and “belsnickling” are new words to me, and I am convinced the German practice described is somehow tied to English-style Christmas caroling as well as Halloween and perhaps shivareeing–all being lighthearted fun for the participants. “Dry sitting” is also a new one for me. How quaint! I love learning new things. Thanks, Tipper.
Richard
I have never heard the term Belsnickle (sp). I do remember people putting on garb and sometimes disguising themselves to “serenade” folks around Christmastime and the New Year’s holiday. I have done it myself lots of times. The behavior was much like described in the piece, but sometimes the revelers would enter a home an not say a word. The hosts would try to guess their names and offer them treats, drinks, etc. We called it “dry sitting”. I never heard where the tradition came from, but know my kids were still doing some of that 20 years ago.
Another fun story!
Belsnickles!!! Something new to learn about.
Snow!!! As reported by 1 reader – indeed parts of NC had snow. Beautiful I know.
Everyone have a blessed day.
I make that similar fudge recipe but I add a half bag of butterscotch chips it gives it a much more deep flavor you will find it Racheal Rays Christmas Wreath fudge
She shapes the mixture around the condensed milk can then decorated it to look like a wreath I don’t go to all that trouble anymore I used to now I just put it in a 9×13 pan and be done I hope you try the recipe some time I have had many a pleasant response to my fudge
Tipper,
This brought back the memory of when people used to go “Christmas Caroling”.
Sometimes when someone in the community was sick, and many times dying, a group would get together and go to the front of the person’s home during the Christmas Season and sing Christmas songs.
Sanford, for many years the teachers of the young children and teenagers at my church would take them Christmas Caroling. They would go sing to the elderly and especially the “shut ins”in the community. One lady would have snacks for them and want them to come in and spend a little time/visit with her. I think every one involved enjoyed doing this and got a blessing from doing this.
Listened to the story and read the comments. Never heard of any of this but it sounds like everyone was having a grand time!
Growing up in the Midwest, weather was the only one playing tricks. Living 15 – 20 miles or so west of Lake Michigan, often receiving ‘lake-effect’ snow that came up to my knees. Brrr! 65+yrs later, I still shiver thinking about it though I reside in the other peninsula state of FL.
I have never heard that before and I think that would have been so much fun! I love hearing these stories I know it would have been such a treat.
I am so excited for your family going to have another addition two babies will be so much fun! Sending prayers then and Granny!
I love listening to your stories you read I am going back and listening to Mountain Path and I can picture them . I love to read also it is one of my favorite hobbies.
I have never heard that before and I think that would have been so much fun! I love hearing these stories I know it would have been such a treat.
I am so excited for your family going to have another addition two babies will be so much fun! Sending prayers then and Granny!
I hadn’t remembered about these tricks at Christmas until I read this post. I think I was told about this in grade school and found it fascinating. Maybe where caroling started?
I’ve heard my family talk about people “dry sitting “ neighbors as a joke. Usually a group of young people would visit and enter the house and just sit and refuse to have any conversation. The host family was then expected to have some type of refreshments.
Years gone by and hard to remember some of the things that were so good back then. When I was growing up in the ‘country side’ of Jacksonville, our Christmas tree was a long-needle pine ‘harvested’ from the fields behind our home. Trying to level it up, something you do not have to do in the current age with all the things you can purchase to do that, making homemade garland was so fun. Of course you had tinsel to cover it. Tinsel is hard to find now days but was abundant then. Of course the pine needs were a booger to clean up. Those were the days. Sometime I do reflect and miss togetherness that neighbors had. On a current note, I made that fudge and vowed to wait til next year to make it again….it goes too fast, lol. Prayer for Granny and asking for God’s Blessing for you guys. Preparing for the two additions, what fun.
Glenda, I remember some of these same things, but the one thing that stood out for me was the sentence about the “ togetherness” of neighbors. I remember times in the past of sometimes spending/visiting most of the day and eating dinner -midday meal, with your neighbor. Sometimes in the evening after supper would visit with a neighbor for a little while. I am have always been country to the bone and still live in the most rural area left in Greenville Country, the “native” neighbors still wave, blow horn, and even stop and talk to each for a few minutes if we see you out in the yard. The “newbies” that are now moving in will do none of this, seems like they don’t want to know their neighbors. How many of you remember when the neighborhood men would gather around the pot bellied stove or out front of the old time country stores depending on the time of year in the evenings, sit on the turned up coke cola crates and fellowship with one another. I sure some things said were not meant for ladies or children to hear, but if a lady or child was in the store none of this went on. They had the upmost respect for women and children.
I have never heard of any of this ever being done in my area. In today’s time and with the attitudes of many of the people someone doing this would probably get shot. In our celebrating nothing went beyond a trick present.
By looking at the weather radar, it seems a good bit of NC had some snow or ice overnight. It may not have reached Tipper. The area around Rocky Bottom, SC may have seen a little bit.