(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you!

(gentle upbeat music continues) (cheerful music) - [Narrator] This program is brought to you by the Livingston Overton County Chamber of Commerce.

(cheerful music continues) (gentle music) - Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

I'm Caroline Moore and it's my pleasure to be your host of "Spirit of Holiday Traditions."

This year we explore many unique traditions that make the holidays extra special.

From the Pioneer days, we will discover old Upper Cumberland Customs as far back as the 1800s at White Plains in Algood.

Then we visit Muddy Pond, where we are invited into the home of a local Mennonite family as they dive deep into their family's history and share fond holiday memories while making their grandmother's famous sourdough bread.

And to wrap it all up, we'll sit down with a few cast and crew from the best Christmas pageant ever who delightfully display the joys of the Christmas spirit on the stage at Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville.

First, let's travel back in time to the 1800s to see how much Christmas has evolved from White Plains Algood.

(soft music) - A lot of what happened in the Upper Cumberland during the holidays was actually visiting with friends and families.

There were a lot of parties.

Parties were very, very popular for the young.

They would get together, they would sing, there'd be fiddles, there would be banjos.

There is a lot of stories of drinking that went on, most of it went on until probably about prohibition.

If they were celebrating in their own home for a Christmas dinner, a lot of times wild turkey would've been hunted, especially around the 19th century as well as deer.

In fact, this family here had a 10 acre plot that was specifically for a deer park and hunting deer because the owner was an avid hunter.

Around the turn of the 19th century, there was a scarcity of wild turkey.

And interestingly enough, and according to the DeKalb County Bicentennial history, we actually had to switch over to chicken because there was no longer wild game.

However, when they started to commercialize turkey, there was a shift back to turkey.

(gentle music) - We know that the Christmas tree is actually a German tradition of something that was started there in the 16th century.

Queen Victoria was decorating a Christmas tree with her husband Albert, who happened to be a Prince from Germany, which is where this tradition originated.

And one of the London newspapers did a sketch of them decorating this tree and it got promoted all over the world.

And it was sort of one of those things of, if it's good enough for Queen Victoria, it's good enough for us.

So in the United States, we took the Christmas tree and we started with some traditional elements, but then we really started to see a lot of the commercialized things come about.

(gentle music continues) So in the 1840s, we were looking a lot at more natural decorations.

We were probably doing a lot of nuts and berries and fruits a lot of dried fruits, as well as handcrafts that would've been made in the home, very small, very intricate little ornaments.

(gentle music continues) So the earlier pioneer families, a tree for them would've been something that would've been likely very simple.

Also, it probably would've only been, if they had a German settler in the town or they were German immigrants themselves.

It would've been very simply decorated.

It probably would've been a tree they found.

Sometimes they would actually just stack wood and put evergreen branches on it to try to conserve some space in the cabin.

And then they would decorate it with some dried fruits and some berries and some nuts things again that they could forage pretty easily.

And now it was a little bit after that time period that we started to see Christmas bulbs.

Gentleman named Hans was a glassblower by trade.

So he actually blew these glass ornaments that looked like apples to hang on the tree.

And that's where we first see kind of the Christmas ornament.

The bulb, if you will.

- The 1840 Christmas would be a lot different than the Christmas that we celebrate today.

Around about the 1860s in the upper coming, a lot of people would be hanging stockings that became popular around 1823.

The gifts that they would get would be smaller things.

One local called it like a grim crack, which basically means like a knickknack, small pocket knife, maybe a doll.

You wouldn't see the number of toys and purchase items that we see nowadays.

A lot of times a toy during that time would actually be something more along the lines of a fruit.

Children at the time received oranges, bananas and around the turn in the 19th century, I even read some accounts of coconuts being found.

And the reason being is these were pretty exotic.

They were rare, they were actually quite expensive.

There would be candies involved.

Peppermint sticks were huge, as were twisted candies and jawbreakers.

Another popular present was fireworks.

Fireworks were one of the most popular presents and one of the most popular ways of celebrating in the Upper Cumberland.

- They also had a really fun tradition that came around in this mid-19th century time period called, the Christmas Pickle.

And you may still see the Christmas pickle ornaments today on a tree.

And this was something that families did.

So they would go and they took an actual pickle and they put a hook through it and they would hide it somewhere in the tree, so beneath all of the lights and other ornaments.

And then on Christmas morning, kids would run into the room and they would search for this pickle.

And the first one to find it got a special extra gift on Christmas.

So the Christmas pickle became a very popular tradition among families, especially those with very small children as a way to kind of get them into the spirit as well and have them search around and also help them to decorate the tree because they really wanted to make sure they left spots that the pickle could be put in there, so that they could find at Christmas morning and get that gift.

(cheerful music) So holiday dressing, very specific occasion dressing was something that we did not see up until the mid-19th century.

And we actually started to see the traditions around the holiday change at that time to have more not just getting up in the morning and opening presents or spending time with family or being around the tree.

We started to see these other sort of winter pastimes come up.

And in fashion history, any time a new pastime comes up, there is a new piece of clothing that goes along with the new pas time.

So one of the first things we saw was ice skating.

And when you're out ice skating, of course, it is very, very cold.

So we started seeing, especially women and children wearing these really heavy thick coats and also dresses.

And the thickest fabric you could get at the time outside of wool velvet.

Velvet also has some luster properties to it, so it shines when the light hits it.

Velvet really became the fabric of the season.

Everybody wanted to wear that because it was special and it was different and had a little bit more of that holiday feel to it.

The heaviness in men's wear, they stumbled upon the satin tail coat, was their favorite item to wear.

So while tailcoats were certainly popular for evening wear, they sort of became everyday attire during the holiday season.

A lot of top hats, a lot of tail coats, a lot of large sort of frilly blouses to go along with it.

Really that image that you see when you're watching like "A Christmas Carol" and you see Ebenezer Scrooge walking down the street and you see individuals in those movies today that really is a pretty direct recreation of what we were wearing at that time.

A lot of formal pieces that you would've kept in your closet for very special occasions suddenly became everyday wear because it was a special time of the season.

One thing that became very popular for holiday dressing is dressing quite literally as the holiday.

So during the mid-19th century, early 20th century, we saw a lot of women's garments that became almost direct recreations of the Christmas tree.

They were quite literally wearing dresses that looked like they had Christmas ornaments on them, coats that had sort of that striped motif to it.

In fact, I brought today a candy cane dress and it's a red and white striped taffeta gown.

And it was very, very reminiscent of that time period.

You wanted to look like the candy cane.

You just didn't want to enjoy them.

You wanted to be the candy cane.

Having those things that were very stereotypical of the holiday season, as we started to see that commercialization come up, it grew so quickly and it happened in dress as well.

We saw dresses with Hollies on them and little berries and leaves and things like that.

We saw the candy cane dresses.

We saw a lot of sort of the stereotypical red and green plaids start to come a round those holiday colors really pulling through in the clothing pieces at that time to kind of show outwardly how excited you were inwardly about the holiday season being here.

(soft music) - Speaking of passed down traditions, we will now join Holly and Michelle as they gather in their family kitchen reminiscing over fond memories and traditions that their Mennonite family brings every year to celebrate the holiday, including their grandmother's loving sourdough recipe.

(cheerful music) - Hello, my name is Holly Elliott and we are in my home here in Muddy Pond, Tennessee.

This is my kitchen and we are gonna do a traditional family bread recipe.

This is sourdough bread, our grandma's recipe.

And this is my cousin Michelle.

So she's gonna get started with the mixing.

- You're gonna start for me?

(laughs) - Yes.

- Okay.

It's about a cup of sugar and about a tablespoon of salt.

- And so this is one of the older recipes or family has always done this.

We learned from our grandmother, and her mother made it before her and it's so nice be getting together to do this with you around the holidays always makes me think, so much of grandma.

- Yes, I know she did this for 55 years for her store.

She baked bread and cookies and things and people came from all around for her sourdough bread.

And it's probably our oldest family recipe 'cause it comes from her mom.

I still remember that little sign at the end of the road.

It said even after she passed, the sign was still there.

I can remember it say grandma's place and people would drive down there to her house and get bread and things.

Do you wanna get the water for me?

- And so the last few years our grandma has not been able to make so much of the bread, just health- - By herself.

Yeah.

- So we've actually been helping her make it.

(gentle music) Our family around the holidays, we always get together, usually at our grandma's house.

And just the smell of her house, she had a wood cook stove as well and the smell- - Those kerosene lamp she would use 'cause she didn't have electricity much of her life.

And when she did, cave and finally get a little bit of electricity put in she would still have her kerosene lamps, so she loved to use.

- Yes.

- It's like growing up that smell is just kind of the underlying memory smell, I guess.

- Yes, for sure.

Yeah.

- The Amish in Mennonites, that's our background.

They don't celebrate Christmas like we do now.

- [Michelle] They would do some gifts, but even that was not the focus.

- Right.

- The focus would be on the birth of Jesus and family and food.

Gobs of food.

- Yes.

- (laughs) So no meal in any Gunther family home I think is complete- - [Both] Without bread.

- And it's this bread.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- And this is our grandma's sourdough starter.

And how long do you think that we've kept this?

I don't even know how long.

I mean I can't say for sure.

She didn't have to restart it at some point.

You know, sometimes if you don't feed it properly, it will stop working, but she made bread every day.

And I think this I don't know how old this starter is exactly, but it's pretty old.

- So when this gets down to about an inch, you have to add to it.

Some people add sugar, you can add potato flakes.

- Some... Yeah.

This is kind of a unique one, isn't it?

'Cause it's potato flakes and sugar.

- Yes.

- A lot of people do flour and maybe a little sugar and water.

- Yeah.

So you just wanna mix and add a little flour at a time.

You don't wanna add too much.

It'll kind of make your dough stiff.

- It's about a teaspoon of yeast per loaf.

- Right.

And our grandma, she didn't measure anything.

She didn't have measuring cups first.

She would just put it in there and that's how she taught me actually.

So to actually use measuring cups now to me is a little foreign.

- I always do a little bit better with measuring cups.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) (gentle music) - Back in the 1870s, I believe the Gunther family came from Ukraine and Russia and that part of the world over to Canada.

And they lived there for close to 100 years.

And then they decided to move down to the United States.

In 1965, our family moved from Pennsylvania down here to Tennessee and it was really the wilderness back then.

- Right.

- She would bake bread and things like that to help earn a little bit of money, even though she really loved farm work and being outside.

- Yes, she did.

- But she combined the best of both worlds and she really became well-known for this and very good at it.

- Yep.

- And so many granddaughters have spent time in her kitchen helping her do this, I feel like.

- Yes.

Yes.

That was one of the biggest things of our family always gather.

Usually at grandma's house.

- Yep.

- And we have such a large family.

Our grandparents had eight children, seven boys and one girl.

And we are 2 of 32 grandchildren.

- For some of the older grandkids- - Yep, we are some of the oldest ones.

So you can imagine the noise and the chatter around the holidays when everybody's in one house.

- Yes.

- It is very loud.

And there's always all kinds of food, lots of breads, fruitcake- - Grandma's... Oh, all of her boys go crazy for her fruitcake.

- Yeah.

And of course, we put sorghum in everything.

Well, not in this bread.

- Best we eat it on it.

(laughs) - Yes, absolutely.

Hot butter and sorghum on a piece of bread.

- Oh my... - There is nothing better than that.

When it was Mondays, that was butter turning days.

And that's just a great satisfying feeling when that butter starts to curl in there and really starts to form.

- There's so many people anymore that do home setting and things.

On one hand, we were doing it back when it wasn't cool.

It was like we were living in the pioneer days.

- Yes.

(both laughing) Especially around the holidays.

Something we would do was sing.

- Oh yes.

- The family.

And of course, we never had musical instruments or anything like that.

- It's all just harmony and grandma loved to have everybody sit around in her living room and sing.

And we would always do that at Christmas.

- Yes.

- The food and the singing.

That's what I remember most.

And we still do.

I mean, I'm looking forward to Christmas this year a lot.

- Yes, me too.

- And we'll definitely have the bread on the table.

- We will.

- Me and Holly will probably be the ones to make it.

(laughs) Right, it's really a family tradition.

And like we said, we have lots of family recipes and especially ones like around the holiday, but this is probably the most used that everybody kind of makes it and one of the favorites in way.

- Yes, definitely.

When my grandma got older and wasn't able to do this as much.

I'm gonna grab some powder here.

My grandpa would go in the bread room and help her need it.

She would mix it in the bowls and he would help need it for her.

I always thought that was very special and very sweet.

- Yes, to go in the morning and they'd be making the bread together was just so sweet.

- Back there speaking German to each other.

- All of our parents, that generation speaks German.

- I always teased them that they just didn't teach it to us, so that they would have their own language and we wouldn't understand what they were talking about.

(laughs) - That's right.

So that just needs to rise.

- All right.

This is gonna rise for about an hour and then we're gonna shape it into rolls.

Are we gonna do some rolls?

- Yeah.

- And some bread.

All right.

- Yep.

- Awesome.

I'm excited.

(gentle music) - So this dough looks amazing.

- Yes.

It's ready, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- Okay- - So I'm gonna go ahead and make some rolls.

- Okay, well I'll grease these bread pans while you do that.

I'm always on the lookout for new traditions.

We always like getting some special ornaments for the tree.

I'll let her pick things out, but it's a little different for us because we didn't grow up doing that, did we?

- Right.

We didn't- We did not have Christmas trees.

- Nope.

We didn't do trees or lights or decorations.

And we have moved away from that a little bit.

- [Michelle] We do decorate and... - Something about the lights and the red and the greenery that I love.

- It's very cheery in a dark dreary time of year.

- Yeah.

Most Mennonites and Amish do not celebrate the holiday with trees and lights.

I know if we got a gift growing up, it was very treasured and it would be something extra special.

We didn't do just a whole lot of gifts.

Now, my grandma always had a lot of fruitcake made at the holidays and her boys absolutely loved it.

So sometimes she would send them home with an extra big piece.

- Right.

(both laughing) - Grandma's recipe makes a seven-pound cake.

Can you imagine?

It's so big.

- Oh my goodness.

- You have to put it in multiple pans.

Grandma pop these in the oven.

- It's so nice that you have the wood stove.

I just love it, especially in this weather.

- Yeah.

Yes.

There is nothing like wood heat.

Do you wanna go ahead and make some loaf?

- Okay, sure.

It's so nice that we could get together and do this.

- And that was very special.

- Yes.

- Especially with recently our grandma passed and so it was so special that we could do this and it's kind of- - Get together and remember her and her recipes and look forward to the holidays.

It'll just be so hard without her.

- Right.

- Our first holiday season without her.

- I'm so thankful that she taught us.

The baking and- - [Michelle] So much canning and things too.

Kind of how to be self-sufficient.

- Canning, gardening.

Grandma loved to garden.

And some other actually, foods you know that we didn't talk about was the, I think one of the family favorites is borscht.

- It is.

- That Russian borscht that she always made.

- Every Mennonite family has their own different recipe for borscht just depending on what specific country they came from or right part of the country.

And also you used what you had on hand, didn't you?

- Right.

- Whatever meat or vegetables you had on hand.

Beets are really popular option.

And potatoes, onions, carrots.

- Our grandma made the best pickled beets.

I love the pickled beets.

So we'll- - We should have some for lunch.

- We should.

(laughs) (gentle music) I'm so, so tickled that we could do this this morning.

That bread looks amazing and I can't wait to try some.

- So thankful we got to do this and honor grandma's memory and just really do this- - They keep carrying on the tradition.

- Yes.

- Yes.

Especially around the holidays.

It just makes me appreciate our family so much.

- Exactly.

And I am really looking forward to the holidays this year.

- Yes.

Oh my goodness.

Right now.

I can't wait to get into this.

(laughs) (gentle music continues) Would you like some sor- - I would.

- Me too.

(Holly laughing) Cheers to the holidays.

- All right.

Merry Christmas!

- From our family to yours.

- That's right.

- Finally, wrapping up the Christmas cheer wouldn't be complete without a little theatrical magic.

We join Weslei Webster and the cast of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" to share their favorite time of year on the stage.

Let's get a sneak peek of the Fantastic Wonders from the theater with the unforgettable Christmas atmosphere of the Cumberland County Playhouse.

(upbeat music) - We usually put on a Christmas play every year of some sort of Holiday Inn, White Christmas.

We keep them rotating, but we usually do something to cater to the holiday audiences.

We've been open since 1965, so having something traditional to do every year, like an annual Christmas project, always just, it's a celebration of the life of the theater too, not just Christmas and holidays.

- I've been a resident company member here since 2008, so I've been a part of all of the Christmas production since then.

- This year the best Christmas pageant ever is a musical.

We've done the play before.

The play's been around for a really long time.

It's based on the very famous novel.

- Christmas is my favorite time of the year, so this'll be my fourth time doing this.

We've done the play version three times, so this is the first time that we're tackling the new musical.

So it's fun.

- I've actually never been on a play.

This is my first time and it's really exciting.

- I've done Christmas plays in the past.

In 2015 I was just ensemble and then in 2021 I was Martha.

My favorite Christmas play is probably "White Christmas."

I love the old timey 40s, 50s feel and the dancing too.

It's just, it looks really fun.

- So my favorite Christmas play always I look forward to in the holiday season is "White Christmas."

It's magical anywhere you see it, whether it's the movie, whether you come see it live on stage, this just a beautiful piece.

We try to make this holiday time very special for the kids and honor all the traditions that they would normally get to do, but they're here working for us and participating in the play.

- We do a pretty good game of Secret Santa with the cast every year and that's kind of fun getting to buy a gift from someone and then try to pick out at our Christmas breakfast who your secret Santa is.

We've been doing that for a while.

- We try to make it as fun and festive as we possibly can.

And we also name them, it's Double Cast, so one's the "Holly" cast and one's the "Ivy" cast.

So we really do try to holiday it up for 'em.

- Just to get to see all this and to have a chance to do it.

It's really fun.

- Christmas plays are fun at the end of the year.

It's just the vibes that go around the cast, we're all happy and just it's very pleasant time and it's nice to close out the season with the Christmas spirit.

- The last performance here, especially in a musical that involves so many children is always really special.

And it, the kids don't see that there'll be another one next year.

They get really attached to the process and to the cast members.

So the last performance before Christmas is always very emotional, very sweet, very nostalgic.

It's a wonderful, it's just wonderful to be around the children at that time of year right before because you do see the magic of Christmas and everything that you've put together and worked so hard for.

I think everyone could come out to see this play.

I know there are kids in it and it's based on a book that mostly children read, but it's sort of like watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on TV for Christmas.

It's just a tradition and it really is for everyone.

Everyone can find something that they will love, whether it's the music or the humor of the children or the beautiful nativity that we present at the end when we actually do the Christmas pageant itself.

There's something for everyone.

So not just for kids, adults, children of all ages.

- What better way to celebrate the holidays is to pack up your family and bring them to the playoffs for a Christmas play.

- We have a lot of people that return every year to see whatever our Christmas show is.

For a long time, we did Sanders family Christmas and people came to that religiously all every single year.

But I do think we have returned people that come every single year to see what we do for Christmas because it's something different besides just a movie or something you can watch on your TV.

It's live.

You get to hear the live music.

So it's a really fun holiday experience to come see something here during the holiday season at the Playhouse.

- The message that they always tie to wrap up in a bow of humanity, of treating one another kindly, love one another, showing people grace.

I think that's what Christmas means to me.

It always reminds me that no matter what, we're together and I get emotional when you talk about that.

(laughs) - I think working with children is magical in and of itself.

And when you couple that with the magical feeling of the holidays, it's just it you get double the punch for it.

To see the kids light up with wonder at the once we add the lights and once we add the costumes and once they've heard the applause and realized that they've accomplished something that they're so proud of.

So that's exciting.

That's like a present.

But then to couple it with the holiday season on top of that, it really is a very positive, magical time.

- And we are definitely a family here.

I mean, from the backstage to the costume shop to upstairs, we make sure that we all check in on each other.

And during the holidays, we're all one big family.

And so like this one, putting this show together, everybody's been up and down.

I've seen everybody around and everybody's just working together to make sure that this happens.

Come and see us at this play.

You will be blessed.

You'll be rejuvenated.

You'll be walking out of here with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.

(gentle music) - On behalf of WCTE, PBS and myself, may this Christmas season fill you with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

(gentle music) (cheerful music) - [Narrator] The Livingston Overton County Chamber of Commerce presents Christmas in the country on the square in Livingston.

There will be Carousel and Ferris wheel rides, caroling and much more each Friday night.

And an ice-skating rink December 15th, 16th and 17th at Central Park.

Our small businesses are the heart of our community, so Discover Livingston this holiday season.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you!

(gentle upbeat music continues)