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)
“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.”
—Matthew Burns
Belsnickel was not something I was familiar with before learning about the tradition from Matthew many years ago. Since learning about the unusual way of celebrating Christmas I might have heard or read about the tradition a time or two, but not often.
Serenading at Christmas is another unusual Christmas tradition. I have heard and read of it often since I first started writing this blog.
The Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English has this entry.
serenade noun, serenading verbal noun
1 A raucous, spontaneous celebration after a wedding, usu late on the wedding night and at the residence of the newly married couple, characterized by the beating of post and pans, ringing of cowbells, and various pranks
2 A similar celebration moving from house to house in the community on Christmas Eve or other holiday.
1939 Hall Coll. Cades Cove TN Serenadin’ = men would go from one house to another, makin’ lots of noise, ringin’ cowbells, shootin’ guns. (Cora Myers) 1960 Mason Memoir 75 On Christmas eve night, it was customary for a group of young men to gather up and go serenading. We would take along all the old cowbells, muzzle loading shotguns, horns, and any other noise making device which was available. There were always three or four banjoes and fiddles in the crowd. We would try to slip up to someone’s house without being discovered. The serenade would usually begin with a long blast from a trumpet. The trumpets were usually made from rams horns. Then the firing of the shotguns combined with the ringing cowbells added to the commotion. If a family were somehow missed by the serenaders, they felt as if they had been slighted.
Here’s a memory from Foxfire of serenading at Christmastime.
“On Christmas Eve night, we’d all go a-serenadin’. We went from house to house. We’d put on different old clothes, you know, and carry things to beat on and cowbells to ring-all things to make noise. We went up to one place, and the man told his wife, ‘Lula, just carry the bed out and give ’em some room.’ It was a great big room, and they cleared it out for dancin’ and playin’ games. And some of ’em did dance. I didn’t though. It was against my religion, but my brother would play the harmonica. They’d turn the big room over to us. We’d all play games like go in and out the windows and spin the bottle, and I can’t remember what all. We’d be there ’til midnight. We’d play tricks on people, too, and my brother helped do that. One place where we went to dance and play games had two big horses with white faces. Those boys took shoe polish and painted them black! They painted those horses’ faces! Those folks never said a word about it. We had a big dinner on Christmas Day but not on Christmas Eve. We didn’t have no cakes then because we cooked over a fireplace. But Mother made a great big stack of apple pies out of dried apples and a great big, high stack of pumpkin custards.”
—-Nora Garland, Fall 1985 from the The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Book.
The Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English has another entry about another unusual Christmas tradition.
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.
Another Christmas trick I came across several years ago was a Christmas game of picking raisins from burning brandy and eating them while they were on fire. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me!
Here’s the details from the Online Etymology Dictionary.
snapdragon (n.)
popular name of a common flowering garden plant, 1570s, from snap (n.) + dragon. So called from fancied resemblance of antirrhinum flowers to a dragon’s mouth. As the name of a Christmas game of plucking raisins from burning brandy and eating them alight, from 1704. (also from 1570s)
Oftentimes individual families come up with their own Christmas traditions, though most aren’t similar to belsnickle, snapdragon, or serenading with cowbells.
Last night’s video: BACON Wrapped Dates (So Good & Easy!!) & Warming by the Fire.
Tipper
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There’s a good article in the current WV Living magazine, link: wvliving.com/belsnickeling-all-the-way/ that talks about this tradition. Good read!
I remember Christmas caroling as a kid with my aunt and her kids. We always had a wonderful time.one year she organized a cuppergade. At least that’s what she called it. We all had to bring a cup to all the houses of our relatives so we could get a cup of cider after singing to them. Happy memories.
Hi Tipper,
I have never heard of the tradition of Belsnickling. ‘My grandmother would
find out when my Aunt Maggie was coming home for Christmas. She lived about 6 hours by car away and it was a special treat when she came home to visit with her two daughters. When grandma got the date she would call all 6 of her daughters giving them the day we would have “Christmas”. Sometimes Aunt Maggie and her family would come the weekend before Christmas and sometimes the weekend of Christmas. It changed every year. Grandma would make sure that time for all of her daughters, son-in-laws, and grandchildren at her house did not interfer with her 14 Grandchildren’s Santa Claus time at their homes. Santa’s visit to our house was very special. Santa always came just after it got dark on Christmas Eve usually when Daddy took us to the store for a bottle of pop and a candy bar. Our Santa gifts were always spread out in the yard in front of the house in boxes or paper bags.
One year in addition to my Barbie Dolls, Santa left me Dixie Bell underwear. Between the time Santa left the gifts and Daddy got us back home, Smoky, our collie got my underwear gifts and scattered them through the yard. I was so embarrassed but Smoky was happy about his work. He pranced around carrying a pair of my white panties most of the night. Next year for some reason I didn’t understand then, Smoky was put up in the out building during Christmas Eve and let out AFTER our gifts were retrieved from the yard. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Interesting. I have never heard of that. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve heard of belsnickeling, but it’s not a tradition in my part of West Virginia. I think it may have been fun for people in communities that were familiar with the tradition and the anticipation of a possible “surprise” visit from friends and family in disguise. My family has lived in Kanawha County, West Virginia since at the least the early 1800s. My Dad’s mother was born in 1917 and it was her tradition to place a coconut under the tree every year. Eventually someone would drive a nail into the coconut and drain the milk into a glass which we would share and then we’d enjoy the coconut meat. I don’t know if she grew up with this tradition or it was her own. Has anyone else heard of this or it’s significance? I suspect the coconut was considered a rare exotic treat, much like oranges and bananas once were.
The coconut was a tradition we looked forward to at Christmas. I never learned or heard the story behind it. Dad would also hammer a nail into 2 coconut dimples so the milk drained faster. watching him crack it open and shave the meat out with his whittleing knive was my favorite part. Fresh coconut meat doesn’t look like toenails, Matt…nor tastes anything like them.
Watching you make the bacon wrapped dates last evening made my mouth water. lol. I have to try them. When growing up, the choir from our church went from house to house singing Christmas carols. It was so much fun. Sometimes folks would give us treats like fudge or hot chocolate. Mostly, they came to their doors or on their porch to listen and clap for us. I don’t think I would have liked costumed folks showing up banging things and making noise.
I love dates, goat cheese and of course bacon but have never had all three together like that. Will have to try it sometimes.
I have never heard of Belsnickeling in my entire life. I always enjoy the sharing here. I think my people stuck a little more closely to “Silent Night.” Thank Granny for her sugar cookie recipe I saw today. We always make sugar cookies at Christmas and I am going to make her recipe. It looks wonderful. I have a tub full of Christmas cookie cutters just waiting.
We sang Christmas carols in the car during the drive to our relatives house. I participated in a chivaree back in the eighties, but as far as I know, no one does it anymore.
Good morning Tipper and Tipper fans! Well, Tipper, once more you have educated me on something I never heard of. I just so enjoy reading your posts every day. I imagine we all have our Christmas family traditions. As I look at our tree and gifts beneath it, I see all green. That’s because we decided this year all the wrapping paper will be the same, and this year it’s green print. My daughter printed off tags with our names on them so no one recognizes the handwriting, and we will have to guess who gave us this or that. Perhaps this will become a family tradition for us as well. I love reading or hearing people’s traditions. Keep up the good work, Tipper. May God shower us all with His love and blessings, and especially wrap His arms around Granny!
I grew up in a family that didn’t have the time or the inclination for the kind of shenanigans witnessed here. We had a Christmas play and handed out treat bags at school and at church. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day but only after the cows were milked, the eggs were gathered and all the animals were fed and watered. We had to bring in wood to warm up the house and to cook food for Christmas dinner.
I helped my wife decorate extravagantly and prepare decadent meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas but my heart wasn’t in it. I spent money I didn’t have so that she could “buy a little something” for everybody in the world. I worked all the overtime they would let me and through all my holidays and vacation time so that my wife could be a part of the uppercrust for a season. Most of the people she was trying to keep up with were no better off than we were and were putting on an act too.
I don’t think I am a Scrooge or the Grinch. I see the celebration of Christ’s birth as a somber reflection of how His life, death and resurrection effects my life daily. More importantly, in the future!
If my words cause anyone to flinch, I’m sorry. I could lie and try to be like the world but that hurts too much anymore.
Ed, I fully agree with your third paragraph. Adult beverages/alcohol and some other so called Christmas celebrations were never a part of any of my wife or my family’s Christmas celebration or other get togethers through the year. I have never understood how getting drunk and sometimes acting a fool could be respectful or honor the true meaning of Christmas and Jesus birth. I refused to go with my coworkers to our department’s after work Christmas dinners because of them being only held at restaurants that had a bar and knowing many of my coworkers would be drinking. I didn’t want to be around it and I had too much respect for my wife to take her to something like that. I hope taking this stand may have been considered unspoken witnessing to others.
There are several towns in WV that make up Germany Valley where people from both German and Swedish countries migrated to years after they arrived on ships to Paris Island to register to live in America. After living in New York several families that had bonded together as a community decided to head to WV to buy land together since it was reported to them it was a lot like their homelands. Once they purchased the land they all set up homesteads to farm, raise sheep, cattle and honey bees. As families grew they spread out, purchasing more land and established town of their own. Shepherdstown, originally called Mecklenburg is found in Jefferson County was settled in mid 1800s with more german influence than the Swiss. Helvetia is in Randolph County and is also known as Little Switzerland even though there were many german descendants amount the settlers back in 1869. There were other settlements along the Potomac River too with German and Swedish influence, but Shepherdstown and Helvetia are the earliest and most established towns that still exist. They are popular places to visit even though they are still small tight net communities that have not changed much in population since the early 1900s. I’ve never been there myself, but still have them on my bucket list to visit one day. I do have both German and Swedish descendants in my family tree from both parents but they are both low percentage according to my DNA results.
I remember serenading my oldest sister and her second husband on their wedding night. We all took pots, pans, cow bells and drums at midnight to get them to come out. The joke backfired when their neighbors called the police on us. We tried to explain to them that it was a traditional prank, but they weren’t buying it until my brother in law came out and confirmed our story. Police told us to go home and congratulated my brother in-law for marrying into a fun but crazy family.
I must say I have never heard of this tradition. It sounds a little scary. Great post & picture.
As always praying for Granny,
Thanks for sharing but “no”! Leave the scary for Halloween. Have a good day.
For some reason this German Christmas Tradition reminds me of Halloween trick or treating – wearing a costume and going door to door and getting goodies. Tipper – maybe you could share again Granny’s poem about Christmas – and the little stuffed dog called Fred? 🙂
I made a pumpkin custard the other day. It took bread crumbs. Had the taste of pumpkin pie. We topped it with whipped cream, pecans, and drizzled maple syrup over it. It was absolutely delicious!
Merry Christmas to you all.
A dear friend of mine was from Newfoundland and they did something similar to belsnickling. Google explains it better than I could: traditional costume-wearing practice is called Mummering, or Janneying, a festive, centuries-old Christmas custom where disguised people (Mummers) visit homes, playing music, dancing, and telling stories, with hosts guessing their identities before sharing food, drink, and fun, celebrating community spirit. I don’t know if this tradition is done today, but sounds like fun to me!
I loved the video on dates wrapped with bacon. I would use goat cheese with cranberries and wrap it in turkey bacon. I will be bringing these to my daughter’s place Christmas Day. Have a wonderful day!
I remember watching The Office and Dwight was the belsnickel for the group, I’m sure he took it way too far but it was really funny!
Belsnickeling is a new one on me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word, nor have I heard of or seen the performance. In my hometown, it was a tradition for some local guy to hold a shooting match on Christmas Eve, with a turkey being the prize for the winner and a fat pocket for the host. Also, that was the only time of the year when fireworks were set off. I was grown and had moved to the big city of Detroit before I knew firecrackers were a 4th of July tradition and were not common on Christmas Eve in places we called “off from here”.
Hi Tipper!
Merry Christmas to you all. I have enjoyed watching your Christmas preparations. I have always loved these things so much and making the house special. I continue to pray for Granny, my mother is also Granny, she is 95 and lives with me. My husband Mike passed away in April after a lung transplant. The holidays are very empty this year, so I have enjoyed watching you guys. Hold on tight to your Deer hunter, Tipper.
Diana, God bless you! I’m so sorry you lost him.
Enjoyed reading the post and comments. Our church would go sing to shut in folks and one of the people we would sing to was a man who refused to go to church (even though he was able) but would send a large gift of money to the church every year. Our Pastor would visit him often in his home and every year that man looked forward to us singing carols to him.
In my wife’s family immediate family it was a tradition to give a prank gift and sign it from Santa Claus to one another. When my nephew was about 14 years old and beginning to learn there was more fun to girls than pulling their pigtails, he kept saying he wanted Santa Claus to bring him a doll baby, so being a good uncle I bought a cheap doll and gave it to him signed from Santa Claus. He is now 35 years old and married, he laughs and reminds me each year of doing that to him. Now after so many have died we no longer do this, it is just another memory of the past and how it used to be.
Now that’s one I’ve never heard of. I love your holiday posts because they are full of fun & interesting information. Merry Christmas & praying for Granny from Texas.
Good morning Tipper and Acorns. We grew up singing Christmas Carols and doing a hay ride here in our TN Mountain community on Christmas eve. Folks would give us hot cocoa, candy, fruitcake but mostly thank yous. I have seen people play Snapdragon. There was a chant the players said as the pinched the blue flaming raisins and hopefully quenched the flames before popping them in their mouths. They often burned their fingers and mouths. The chant was about a dragon. “With his blue and lapping tongue, many of you will be stung. Snip! Snap! Dragon! For he snaps at all that comes, a snatching at his plums. Snip! Snap! Dragon!” They say it over and over till all the fruit is snapped up. When we got older, Christmas Eve was a family gathering with a potluck of desserts, candies and sandwiches. We had drawn names at Thanksgiving and presented a “Gag” gift on Christmas Eve to whomever we drew a name for. We don’t get together any more for decades now. Some families are just dysfunctional for many reasons. Christmas for us is just me and my son. My daughter says Merry Christmas on facebook that morning. It’s all good though. Christmas is a quiet time of praise and prayer. I am ever thankful for GOD’s Mercy, Grace and Blessings. I like to focus on our greatest gift of the MESSIAH and our salvation. I keep every one here and up Wilson Hollow in my prayers. I love y’all.
I enjoyed reading this. My roots go back to the 1750’s in Pendleton County, WV and it makes sense that Pendleton County would keep the belsnickeling tradition alive; the first settlers were almost exclusively German. George Washington had a hard time finding anyone there who spoke English when he went through there on his surveying odyssey.
I’ve never heard of such in all my days… at a loss for words on this one. I’d say that’s definitely one of the wierdest, most outlandishly outrageous and most dastardly dangerous ideas I’ve ever heard tell of. Just because it was done does not make it right in my humble opinion. I’m sure it lead to a many hard feelings and possibly way worse…. I’m just shaking my head on this one trying to figure out why a grown up would think of such a thing especially a long time ago… it’s only fun if it’s fun for EVERYBODY…
I remember my kinfolk and others would go home to home singing Carols and all thought it was good and hoped it would continue every year. Oh the good ole days of closeness and being! God bless your blog.
My very good friend, Annie, was from Switzerland. I loved hearing about the traditions she grew up with. One was belsnickling. I miss her.
When I was a teenager, our high school choral class would go caroling.
What a great photo! I love those costumes. I have never heard of belsnickeling. Reminds me a little of the Wren Boys tradition in Ireland for St Stephen’s Day, Dec. 26. I’ve always enjoyed reading about different holiday traditions around the world.
My parents got married in January 1938. Friends and relatives put on a shivaree/chivaree outside their home the night of the wedding, making lots of noise. My mother said she was so embarrassed!
Those are some interesting games and traditions, we play games on Christmas day, but it’s nothing like what you posted, in fact, they are pretty tame! When we were kids we would go Christmas caroling to the different members of our church that couldn’t get out and to a couple of the nursing homes in the area. That was always a fun event.
Growing up all the local children on the street would go to all the homes and sing Christmas Carols. We had so much fun and the families truly enjoyed it.
What a wonderful post! It’s so much fun to read about Christmas traditions. Merry Christmas!
good morning everybody, thank you for praying for me and my brother, remember the sick lost suffering and struggling, God help in Jesus name, God bless the Wilson and Pressley family today
I remember in It’s A Wonderful Life they went serenading the couple. When I married my first husband and we left for our honeymoon we came back to some shenanigans. Our landlord was good friends with one of my sisters and her husband. Well the 4 of them, landlord and wife, my sister and her husband they took all my labels off my canned jars (but numbered them and gave me a list of what number was what). At times though when I would go to open a can it would not be what their list said. haha. They also hung streamers and I think put balloons all over our bedroom.
Thanks for bringing this memory back to the front of my mind with your post today.
Thank you Tipper for this post. The one Christmas tradition that was so meaningful to me was going to midnight mass on Christmas eve or going to the first service Christmas morning. After that we would go home and my mother would hand one present to each member of the family and watch that person unwrap the gift. When I married Diane we actually went to midnight mass even though I was no longer a member of the Catholic church. The funny thing is we lived in a small Florida town where there were as many bars as churches so midnight mass started at 10:00. PM because the church wanted the people attending to get home before the bars let out. The best part of the service (other than the reason for it) was at the end when an Irish priest came out and sang “Mary’s Baby Child” solo in a beautiful tenor voice. And that’s the reason for the season; Mary’s baby child, Jesus. The most perfect gift of love and salvation. Have a very Blessed Merry Christmas!!
I would have been scared to death as a child if someone come about looking like that.
I’ve never heard of the bacon wrapped dates. I will be trying them for our New Year get together. I’ve made rumaki and I’ve made bacon wrapped cocktail weenies, but never heard of these. I love dates. Thanks for sharing!
We’re off to gad about today. We’ll be looking for things to go in stockings. We like to put in items that are local and handmade. We always get some type of venison jerky, or grill spices for the guys. The girls are a little harder, but we’ll find something. Maybe sorghum, honey, or spicy apple butter. If you’ve not tried spicy applebutter it’s really good to add a little to things like chili, spaghetti sauce, etc. Very good
Bless y’all!
Belsnickling sounds like a fun Christmas tradition!! I’m assuming that Germany Valley was settled by people of German descent. In Germany, they still have a similar tradition at Christmas called “Krampus” where people dress up in devilish costumes and scare people. I believe they also carry bells on walking sticks so anyone can hear Krampus coming from far away. I love that all these traditions carried over here to the new world.
Whoa…I gotta make me one of those outfits for next Christmas. It makes you wonder where the either purchases those or who made them or where in the world did that pattern come from. Thanks for sharing. God’s Blessings on you guys and please hug Granny for me.
I have never knew of any of this being done in my lifetime in my area. I do remember when the youth at our church and other churches would go visit the elderly “shut in” folks in the community and sing Christmas Carols for them.
Yesterday, Tipper mentioned having a little bit of green in the house. I know she was referring more to Christmas, my mother would put a sweet potato in a container that had some water in it and sit it on top of our brick fireplace mantle. The potato would sprout vines that would grow around the mantle.
My mother would grow sweet potato vines like that, too! She’d cut the potato in half and use toothpicks to hold part of the potato above the water and the cut part/bottom would be down in the water