Gertrude Keener: We would help put on a Christmas play at church. We dressed the children up in paper dresses. We made their little costumes out of crepe paper. We’d decorate them and dress them up, and they would have a little cloak on. And we’d read just a little verse from the Bible. We usually read the Christmas story.
Nearly every Christmas, my daddy would go wild turkey hunting. We had a lot of wild turkeys in the woods when we were younger, and we’d see him come back through the fields with a big turkey on his back. We were just tickled to death. And my mother would cut the tips of the wings off, and the tail, and put a smoothing iron on them and dry them out for fans to fan the fire with.
—A Foxfire Christmas
For most of my life I’ve eaten turkey exactly twice a year—at Thanksgiving and at Christmas. I was a grown woman before I realized you could eat turkey anytime you wanted to 🙂 But I still only manage to eat it twice unless The Deer Hunter is lucky enough to get a wild turkey in the spring of the year during turkey season.
I’m fascinated by the description of her mother using the wings and tail to make fans. Brings to mind the saying waste not want not.
Last night’s video: The Homecoming 6.
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Ours was turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas too, but I think Mother probably had a little ham as well for both. I too was reared with the “Waste Not Want Not” mentality and it has stayed with me!
When my husband and I had children, we started our own tradition for Christmas dinner…Lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. I made the pan of lasagna on Christmas Eve and then it only needed baked on Christmas…leaving me with the whole day to play with the kids. Now that they have grown, they still want lasagna for Christmas. I now have time to make homemade Italian bread or rolls instead of store bought. And sometimes I add a little turkey breast to the menu. .
Turkey for Thanksgiving for sure, but we NEVER had ham at Christmas. For some reason, that was reserved for Easter. And to make Christmas special, it was roast beef. Merry Christmas to all! We plan to keep the tree up through Olde Christmas.
I have made too many comments but I like to joke and say being poor is a great motivator for “waste not, want not,” “use it up, wear it out make do or do without” or learning to do it yourself.
I do not remember the first time I ever had turkey on Thanksgiving. I much suspect a bunch of my earliest years were without. I do remember there were no wild turkeys when I was a boy and not many deer. Now they are both common and unremarkable unless it be to complain about deer depredations. I’m (mostly) glad they are back. But most of all I am glad that Christmas means we all are loved enough that each one of us was worth Jesus dying so we could be redeemed.
One of my best memories of holiday dinners was Mom’s cornbread dressing. We could hardly wait for the sage flavored delicacy to come out of the oven. I would say that was my favorite dish.
I too was older in my fifties when I realized I could eat turkey any time of the year and that it was also a bargain for the pocket. Even in recent years, we found grocery store turkeys very economical by the pound. (NOT THIS PAST YEAR WHEN WE PAID $87.00 FOR A 21-lb STORE BIRD, HOLY MOLY!!!) We like a big turkey to freeze leftovers for sandwiches or meals later– not to mention the beautiful turkey noodle soup from the bone the day after we cook our bird. I am for that philosophy of waste not want not as well. Merry Christmas and I pray for blessings for all here in the coming of our Lord and Savior, Baby Jesus Christ! Oh, I forgot to mention…my sister makes a cake for Christmas Day that reads “Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus.” I think that is so sweet. Pray for Peace to be in our World!
In Arizona we lived next door to a family from Mexico. The husband was given a turkey at Thanksgiving. They had never eaten turkey so he gave it to us. I cooked it on the charcoal grill and invited them over for dinner. Several times during the following years he would bring me a turkey and say, “You cook and we eat Saturday.” meaning I was to cook it and my family would eat at their house. The whole family learned to like turkey.
We cooked two hams for the Thanksgiving get together with my wife’s family. A nephew insisted on cooking the turkey in peanut oil. He had not fully thawed the turkey, lost oil, sent someone for more and brought the turkey in after everyone had eaten and some had left. His family had most of the turkey left and all our ham was gone.
Such sweet words from “A Foxfire Christmas,” you and your dear readers who post here. Thank you, One and All.
Merry Christmas!
Nothing ever went to waste back in those days that’s for sure. Growing up we always had turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for Christmas. I also do the same thing. Now when my mother-in-law was living, for Thanksgiving and Christmas she had both and always did as long as I can remember, even a big pot of chicken and dumplings. She had a lot to feed but loved every minute of it. When I think of turkey and ham, I think of eating it at only at the holidays. I also do a ham at Easter.
“Use it up, wear it out; make do or do without” comes to mind when reading about those turkey feather fans. We always had a wood stove so used a “blow pipe”, a hollow wooden or metal tube we could blow into to wake up the coals in the morning. Merry Christmas Yall.
When my husband used to to hunt, he shot a wild turkey after Thanksgiving, and we had it for Christmas dinner. Our oldest was 4 at the time, and she was so excited when her Daddy got out of the Jeep with the turkey. I don’t remember the size of the turkey, but it was really big for a wild turkey. It was delicious.
What wonderful stories that are cherished memories from people in Appalachia. Their printed memories will keep our Appalachia culture living for generations, regardless if the present or future generations practice them or not, they will still be carried on through stories like these.
We have exactly the same menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas: Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with Turkey gravey, green beans and rolls.
For dessert
I have cheesecake for the boys as that is their favorite. I used to have cranberries and pumpkin pie as well but I stopped those as I’m the only one who likes them and I gave up processed sugar a couple years ago ( I do eat a tiny amount of sweet potatoes as I use brown sugar when I prepare them). When we were first married, I taught my husband how to make mashed potatoes (my mother’s way), so he’s in charge of that as well as the green bean casserole.
I left this out in my earlier comment about good dressing. I think you need giblet gravy and plenty of cranberry sauce to go along with the dressing. I joke and say Good cornbread dressing is the kind that is spiced up so much that it gives you heartburn later on. It sure tastes good when eating it, but you pay for it later. My sister in law made some good dressing back at Thanksgiving, I don’t think making a fool of myself eating it had anything to do with me staying awake half the night with indigestion. I did a mighty good job of showing her my appreciation by how much I ate.
I had turkey for Thanksgiving, it didn’t turn out too well, after following it in the refrigerator for 3 days it was still frozen, I’m going to try a small 8 lb ham this time, Merry Christmas
My Grandma Nix had a turkey tail fan. As a child I was very fascinated by it. She used it to fan the fire in her cookstove to get the fire burning good. Grandma’s life was a simple life but she left behind so many precious memories. I am grateful that she was my precious Grandma.
I just love all these stories! Thanks for sharing!
God bless all y’all!
Like you turkey was something we ate twice a year at Thanksgiving and Christmas at other family and friends get togethers. My dad started cooking ducks and a lot of times rock Cornish hens instead of turkeys for our holiday dinners since they were smaller and he didn’t have so much left over. We love eating turkey but I still cook them twice a year during the holidays. I have cooked them other times of the year, but it seems to take away the specialness of the holidays prepping and cooking the bird.
Merry Christmas to all of the readers here at the Blind Pig and the Acorn!!!!!
Merry Christmas to you as well. Thank you for sharing. It’s nice that some habits become fond memories.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
same here Tipper turkey at both Thanksgiving and Christmas here. I don’t know why we never had ham for Chrismas. When I was grown and started hosting Christmas I bought a big ham and a smaller turkey for the older group in my family. Turkey at Christmas was tradition and I wouldn’t break that.
I remember that my mom and I always had a stuffed chicken at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were very poor, and there was just the two of us. When chicken went on sale, mom would buy one for the next holiday and freeze it. She’d thaw it up the night before, and I still remember the wonderful smell of the giblets cooking with the celery, sage, and onion. The giblets were cut up very fine and mixed up with the dried bread, and mom would use the stock to moisten it and then stuff it into the bird. I couldn’t wait for dinner!
Other people we knew had turkey for both holidays. It was so surprising to me to learn that some folks ate ham at the holidays and not just at Easter.
It’s become my tradition to have roast duck at the holidays. I just love getting a nice one at Aldi’s and preparing it for myself. I make the sage and onion stuffing separate. Carrots and parsnips get mashed together, and I whip up mashed potatoes. Gravy, made with the stock of the duck giblets, is wonderful.
My Christmas wish is that everyone in the world can have clean, good food to enjoy everyday.
Blessings and love to y’all, and Merry Christmas!
Turkey is just too good to only have it once or twice a year. Let’s eat more turkey!
Larry,
I would bet chickens think the same thing? The chicken slogan; “Eat more turkey and less chicken!”
I so look forward and wait on your video and/or posting every morning. We are gonna be lost if and/or when you decide to stop your offering. We did have Turkey on Thanksgiving, but decided to to a spiral ham for Christmas. Prayers and hugs for Granny and you guys. God Bless
They put absolutely everything to use back in the day. Many times your posts make me wish I had paid more attention growing up. So much in those days was based on ‘’waste not want not.” Also, almost everything was done in a way that is totally foreign to the world we live in today. It was not uncommon to have a small box of what we called “witties” in our bedroom to tend and feed until they were big enough to be placed in a small separate pen from the other chickens. Occasionally Dad would sneak some under a laying hen who happily adopted them as her own. There were just not the amount of predators in those day, and I just figured overtime the old farmers had eliminated them. The wild turkey sure do not have the large breast as do those commercially grown, but tasty nonetheless. I actually remember helping process numerous chickens complete with a barrel of hot water to help remove the feathers. Years later I traveled in many counties in West Virginia in my work, and the beautiful remote county of Monroe had wild turkey galore. The scene of a flock of wild turkey was so fascinating to me that I would stop even on a too busy day to just watch them. All the different things of nature will heal what ails you! Taking a job that let me travel in the mountains was the best career choice I have ever made, because working with walls all around was so confining. You are so gifted, Tipper, to take all the ordinary day to day parts of Appalachia and write about them in such a way as to spark the interest of many. I hope it makes many as grateful as I am for their upbringing in Appalachia, instead of believing we are somehow deprived as former writers would have us believe. There is still occasionally those who seem to think only toothless and ignorant folks reside in Appalachia and even the south. You are one of the best ambassadors Appalachia has ever had, so no wonder your YouTube channel keeps climbing in popularity.
I had the great pleasure of hunting wild turkeys in the 1990s in Hampshire County, WV, on property owned by a friend along the Cacapon River. Yes, “almost heaven.” What a beautiful place! It had wild turkeys galore, although I never got one, but my son did, on our last WV hunt. I don’t know who was proudest–me, my son, or our host. I think it was the latter, who had traveled in his work too. He was a retired rural mail carrier.
Two things, one about predators, do you know a cat is now considered one of the worst predators by many state wildlife departments. A cat does not kill out of being hungry, the just have a killer instinct. I think cats and all of these housing developments are about alike as predators. The second one, I once knew a bird hunter that would swap the eggs out from a sitting bantam chicken with quail eggs. Earlier I mentioned deer and gardens, in the past when a garden was the difference between eating and being hungry the folks would have had a permanent solution for the deer and the heck with the game warden or laws.
Those 14 deer were live deer not dead.
We didn’t eat turkey when I was growing up except at our church Christmas supper. Mother would boil a chicken and make dressing from it. After marriage, my wife’s family would have a store bought turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I never have ate a wild turkey. There were no turkey or deer around here until the 70’s when the state DNR begin to stock/turn deer and turkey loose. Now that is all you see, and no bobwhite quail and very few rabbits. The shoulder of the roads have dead deer laying everywhere. The DNR is happy, deer and turkey are their bread and butter. I recently counted 14 deer along the side of the road within a half mile of my home. Along with wrecks, you can no longer have a garden because of them, but the DNR is tickled pink. I think SC has the longest deer season of any other state Aug 15-Jan. 1. Along with chicken dumplings, I can eat a large pan full of Good dressing, I will skip dessert and eat more dressing. For my northern friends, dressing and stuffing ain’t the same.