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

(cheerful music) - Hello, Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

My name is Caroline Moore, and I'm excited to serve as your host for the "Spirit of Holiday Traditions" showcasing homes from the Merry and Bright Holiday Home Challenge from the Department of Leisure Services in Cookeville.

Afterward, I will take you to my family's house where Dawson Davidson speaks about his family, and international home decor traditions for the holidays.

And, finally, we will learn about the history and origin of Kwanzaa, an annual celebration of African American culture that is held from December 26th to January 1st.

So here is our first featured home from Matt and Leslie Reep from the Merry and Bright Holiday Home Challenge.

The QR code below will direct you to this year's map of all 28 homes, so you can hop in the car with your family, and enjoy the many displays.

Best of luck to all this year's contestants.

Ready, set, glow.

(upbeat music) - When my children got a little older, we went and watched the Christmas light show that was synchronized to music.

It was in Hillsboro, Tennessee by the Delaneys.

We felt like watching that show gave us the spirit of Christmas.

Seeing something that you can do with Christmas lights can give you the joy and the spirit of Christmas, we looked at that and wanted that opportunity.

So we started looking at what would it take to do that?

- He usually starts around the 1st of October putting it together, and takes us until Thanksgiving to get it going.

- I told myself whenever I started, that I would like to grow my show every year.

We started off with probably five strands of Christmas lights, and over the years we've added a little more each time.

I think we're over 300,000 lights plus not including any of the RGB lighting.

I would say the most time-consuming part is sequencing it all together.

So before October comes, I'll usually start February, March, picking out the songs that you have to take a lot of those images and videos, and make it one show.

So that does take a lot of time sequencing that.

Christmas light shows can get very, very expensive.

So we have to not only figure out a way to do it, but try to do it in the cheapest way we can.

So this year, when I built the arches over the driveway, that was a big accomplishment for me, of how to do it and how to make it work.

And that probably took me three weeks just to get the arches over the driveway.

- [Leslie] We all get together as a family during the shows, and, like, hand out candy canes and hot cocoa to the people coming.

- [Matt] The kids really enjoy that.

- Yeah, that's their favorite part, is handing out candy canes and hot cocoa.

- We always say that, like, the kids have more fun handing out the hot cocoa and candy canes than they do trick or treating.

So it's good to get all of our family together, and let the kids hand out the cotton candy canes.

And they really do, they enjoy giving it better than receiving it.

- We take the donations that we receive, and also the past few years that we've won the contest, we take the winning money also, and we take the kids and we go buy presents.

And then we give them to, last year was Toys for Tots and Teens at Life Church.

And that's where we'll be giving them again this year.

- I think last year it was probably just a little over 1,000 that we raised.

We filled the car up full of toys, and took it to the church and dropped it off so they could hand it out to the Toys for Tots.

- And our kids enjoy being the ones to go shopping for the kids, too.

- It creates a lot of traffic.

So we'll get out and try to direct traffic.

And during that time while we're directing traffic, we will get out and talk to people, and ask them how they're enjoying the show.

And that's usually a lot of opinions is wow, you know?

People pull up and they're like totally focused, and the good thing is, is that we don't charge people to come see it.

They can just pull up in their car.

Christmas is a whole new world for me.

As a child there wasn't a lot of great Christmases that I can remember.

So I love to be able to get together as a family, and give my kids something I didn't have, and let them know the true meaning of Christmas, and why we're here.

- For me, Christmas just means spending time with family, and giving and showing our kids that it's not all just about receiving, but also it's about Jesus, and without him, we wouldn't be here or any of this be possible.

We usually get together as a family on Christmas Eve in our pajamas and Matt reads "The Night Before Christmas."

He gets a little into it.

- [All] Merry Christmas.

- Wow, that is an impressive light display with the lights synced to music.

We will now venture over to the home of Robert and Charlene Sealy.

You are not going to believe all the elaborate displays in their yard, and everything is homemade.

(cheerful music) - My name is Robert Sealy, and this is is my wife, Charlene.

We live here in the northern part of Putnam County.

We started making our own Christmas decorations about, oh, eight to 10 years ago, and started doing a few each year, adding a little bit more to it, and a little bit more to it.

Most everything is made out of plywood, and a couple of coats of primer, and typically about three coats of paint.

So that's what takes the bulk of the time.

Since these are gonna be outdoors, they need to be painted and prepared for outdoors.

We spend a lot of time painting, and go through quite a few gallons of paint.

(cheerful music) Our latest edition last year was a train, electric powered train, runs on a little scooter motor two 12 volt batteries.

And we had about three cars last year.

And this year we're expanding a little bit on it, and adding about six more, so we've got nine cars.

We also added about another 100 feet of track.

So right now we've got about 350 feet of track.

We're also working on a second one.

This time it will be gasoline powered.

So we'll have two of them out here.

And the second will be ready here in a few days.

So by the time you come around, you'll see two of them running and they can pull kids, or adults, so it's fun, so we enjoy that.

You're never too old to be a kid.

We're fairly close to the road.

So I enjoy walking out and talking to people.

If it's not 10 degrees, I may stay inside, but I enjoy, again, talking to people, finding out this first time they've come out here, finding out if they live in this area.

And quite often you find somebody that you know, or you find that you have a common friend.

I basically started doing some of this just to be different.

And lights are pretty, we've got some, not nearly as many as others do, but, again, just to be somewhat different, have displays that you don't see elsewhere.

That's one of the reasons we started.

The train was more of a personal challenge to get all the mechanisms and everything so that I did somewhat for myself, not to impress others, but achieve my goal to have it functioning.

(cheerful music) My brother-in-law and sister own a tree farm down in Hendersonville, and that's where our tree came from.

And here's the decorator of the tree.

- I went somewhere and I come back, and he had the teddy bear he bought for me one day.

We've been married eight years and we both enjoy this.

- And she does pretty much all the decorating of the tree.

We leave it up for on average, probably about two months, and then come first part of the year, time to disassemble, and put everything back into storage.

One of the signs we have the real tall, eight foot tall, red letters, spelling out joy.

We're gonna take that up to our church in Livingston, First Baptist Church of Livingston.

Our pastor said he would be more than happy to have us set that up out front, and it spells out joy, and has a little nativity scene in the center of it.

There's a few others out here in our yard also.

So you gotta be careful that you don't get to the point where it's addictive.

I don't work on this 12 months out of the year, but typically start, oh, maybe about September, or something, building something.

You got to be careful that you don't lose sight of the fact that Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth, and you see some of that in displays, but you do see a fair amount in relation to Santa Claus, and reindeer, so it's a little bit of mix of both, but the bottom line is it's the celebration of the birth of Christ.

And you're welcome to come by.

I like to chit-chat out there at the road.

You're more than welcome to stop, pull in the driveway, and say hi and walk around if you want, bring some kids, grandkids.

And if there's no line, you might get a ride on the train.

- I am just mesmerized by their beautiful displays, and the amount of time and work it took to create them.

Our next segment features Dawson Davidson, and my family's home who with the help of Dr. Lee and Cheryl Moore created two variations of table decor with items borrowed from The Painted House owned by Kim Johnson, and all the food was provided by Beth Davidson.

Whether you're sitting down for Christmas dinner, or hosting a holiday banquet for friends and neighbors, these tabletop ideas will perfectly accentuate any celebration you have in mind.

So let's get started with Dawson Davidson who is known throughout central Tennessee as an agricultural advocate and lifestyle guru.

("Twelve Days of Christmas") - Hello and welcome, my name is Dawson Davidson, and I'm a lifestyle guru and agriculture advocate.

And today I'm gonna be talking to you about holiday traditions.

I'd like to show you my tablescape that I've created based on my family style, and particular tastes in Christmas.

I went for a white simplistic Christmas thinking about neutral tones and fresh greenery, and Christmastime to me signifies coming together with family, enjoying wonderful time with friends, and also enjoying great food.

So with great food comes wonderful tablescapes.

I decided to go with a formal place setting just to describe my personal tastes, and I love an elegant dinner party.

I like lights and glitter and fresh greenery.

This is particularly faux greenery with a few berries, just because it's less messy on the tablescape.

And also it's a little less convulsive when you have to move it around, but I have fresh greenery here to show you.

You can go with multiple options.

This is a pine tree, which is really pretty and spriggy, which adds great texture.

And I also have a cypress here, which has lots of good depth and body to it.

And you can just plug these into your tablescape, and adds really great color to any kind of decor that you have.

I decided to go with a formal place setting, and I like that just because of its simplicity, and it's design on a table.

I went with a neutral placement, a dinner plate, a salad plate, and a soup bowl, with a simple design of a fork, a spoon, and a knife, which is essentially the jewelry of a table.

I did a simple folded napkin that goes with the color tones, and I love a whitewashed plate and place setting just because it's so simple, and anyone's decor in your home for Christmas can go with a white place setting.

Another incorporation into your holiday tablescape can be lights.

I've used a multitude of lights into my tablescape.

The first one is place settings that are LED tree lights.

Instead of a place card, I decided to use a tree just to signify where everyone's gonna be dining.

And I also used LED bottlebrush trees.

These add great texture and glitter, and they reflect the light beautifully on a table.

Another use is a real candle.

This is a tea light candle, and I love the texture because it's got liquid wax, and hard wax, and the warm light compared to an LED makes the tablescape really cozy and warm for people to dine at.

A holiday tradition that we'll speak about is called Diwali, which is an Indian Hindu holiday that celebrates putting good over evil, and new growth into a home for the new year.

They light small candles called diyas inside and outside of their home for the five days of Diwali.

And it signifies family coming together, and the start of a new year, and new growth within the family.

(soft music) Welcome to table number two.

I've decided to do a charcuterie runner.

I'm sure many of you all are familiar with the charcuterie board, but this is a long table runner to use as the decor for your centerpiece and holiday dining.

I think that food is a universal language in all of the cultures, and everyone around Christmastime enjoys holiday foods and traditions.

So I've tried to symbolize so many different cultures, and traditions on this table using many different foods from around the world, and also introducing a lot of different textures and colors to make it a little more holiday and more fun.

I think a lot of people love color at the holidays, and I want everyone to be aware that you can use food as decoration, and have a colorful scape on your dining table.

On our table spread I have a Yule log.

I have a panettone.

I have many different Italian and French cheeses.

I have so many different fruits and vegetables, and I also have a few seasonal fruits like a pomegranate.

I think the color and the texture in the fruits provides a great contrast to a simple tablescape.

And as you can see, this is technically a grazing table where we don't have plates or cutlery, or a setting.

We just have people being able to walk up to the table and enjoy.

This would be a great option I feel, if you had a large gathering, and you wanted to have one table set up that just had people able to walk by, and pick up food, and then had a second table like our first table you saw that was more formal setting for the actual dinnertime.

This is great for any large gathering.

It doesn't have to be just Christmas, but I think that you can make it Christmas with the greenery that we've added, and the candlelight, and the wonderful memories you'll make with your family.

A Mexican holiday on December 23rd is called Noche de los Rabanos which is Night of the Radish.

In Oaxacan culture many people carve radishes to celebrate Christmastime into different figures as far as shepherd's men, donkeys, and chickens, really any kind of shape you'd like to create.

This year I decided to create radish flowers using radishes, carving them into thin slices, and making small tulip shaped, or pansy shaped flowers.

I think that this is a great insert because it is a floral arrangement, but it also is food.

So you have two different options to use here, and it adds color and texture into your table.

Beginning in Norway, families would bring a Yule tree into the house, and stick the large end into the fire, and it would feed the fire for the 12 days of Christmas.

The Yule log symbolizes the beginning of the holiday season for many families beginning in Norway, but now it's celebrated throughout many cultures in Europe.

So as you can see, we have a flat sheet cake that's filled with a cream and wonderful chocolates, and it's a wonderful Christmas holiday dessert you can have.

Down the line here we have a panettone, which is an Italian sweetbread similar to a sourdough stuffed with candied and dried fruits.

And this is the way the Italians begin celebrating the holiday season.

Just like the Norwegians they have their own sweet bread, and many cultures have many different fruits and vegetables, and cakes that they make to symbolize the Christmas holiday.

In European culture they would roll out gingerbread, and make it for the holiday season just as a sheet pan for bread, which is full of ginger spice and pumpkin spice, which is a wonderful holiday scent, but in American culture, we use that gingerbread to create gingerbread men.

This is something that you can see many cultures transfer over, and we take some traditions from other places, and make them our own.

So just as Europeans did making gingerbread, we have gingerbread men.

A staple on a charcuterie board is a wheel of Brie cheese.

As you can see here, Brie is a soft cheese that you can use on many different spreads and crackers.

And I think it's an important aspect to have on your grazing table, but to make it holiday and to make it special, we've added pomegranate seeds.

As you can see, a pomegranate is a beautiful fruit.

We've used it as decor and as a garnish on top of the Brie cheese, and the red color is beautiful in the Christmastime, and it adds a tangy crunch onto your smooth Brie cheese.

Something that symbolizes Christmas to me is having sweet treats throughout the holidays.

And one of my favorite treats is a white chocolate truffle.

I think that as you see on the table here, you can incorporate many savory and sweets onto your board.

Many people think a charcuterie board is just savory items like crackers and cheeses and meats, but to make it more holiday and festive, I've incorporated many different cultures' sweets, and cakes and candies just to show that it doesn't just have to be savory items to incorporate for your table.

I hope this has given you many different holiday ideas to begin creating Christmas memories, whether by creating a grazing table with cultures incorporated, or a simpler dining table with a formal setting.

I hope that I've given you some design items you can take throughout the holiday season, and begin creating holiday traditions with your family, and friends for many years to come.

(soft music) - Ho-ho, whoa, that was amazing.

And thanks to Dawson you can all give your homes just the right ambience for the holidays.

Our next segment features Dr. Krystal Akehinmi, who is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Tennessee Tech, as she discusses the history and origin of Kwanzaa.

As an African American holiday celebrated by millions Kwanzaa brings a cultural message, which speaks to the best of what it means to be African American.

And it's my pleasure to introduce to you, Dr. Akehinmi.

(soft music) - Hi, happy holidays to you.

I'm Krystal Akehinmi, assistant professor of History at Tennessee Tech University.

I'm gonna talk to you about Kwanzaa today.

Have you heard of it before?

Maybe you haven't, sound a little bit familiar?

Well, let me give you some information about how that holiday started.

It began in 1966, founded by a man who took the name Maulana Karenga.

He's a professor of African American studies.

And how did he initiate Kwanzaa?

Well, it happened as a result of his experiences in the 1960s in part.

He was what people called then a cultural nationalist.

So who are cultural nationalists?

They are people who emphasized the aesthetic arm of black power.

What does that even mean?

What we're talking about is people who had inherited the psychological weight of slavery and segregation, who had been told that they were less valuable by the larger society for a very long time.

And many of whom also practiced what one scholar described as congregation, this turning inward to strengthen African American institutions and people.

So cultural nationalists are going to say empowering black people to recognize their own cultural heritage, and looking backward to Africa, to affirm who they have become in the United States.

So Karenga is a part of this kind of collective.

So when he creates Kwanzaa, it's an effort to say we are African people in the United States and that's okay.

We can celebrate that and recognize that.

There's disillusionment along with expectation, and hopefulness among the various groups who had been active in the civil rights movement cause, so cultural nationalists are among those people who say, we need to lift our thinking and in so doing, they create things like Kwanzaa, they wear Afros, they put on clothes that they get from West African images in order to say it is okay for me to have my hair grow out of my head the way God intended.

It is okay for me to have this darker skin.

I can celebrate myself and celebrate my African heritage.

So what Dr. Karenga did was take the lessons that he gathered from studying various African cultures, and combined them with some experiences of African Americans into a holiday that would help connect African people around the world.

As colonialism was dissolving across the African continent, and African Americans were finding their place in the national political realm of the United States, he wanted to like other cultural nationalists, encourage African Americans to embrace their heritage, and to be able to recognize that it was okay to be black.

In his studies of various African cultures, Dr. Karenga discovered at least five common things in African harvest festivals across the continent.

He added two more to those, and expressed what he called the Nguzo Saba.

That's Swahili for Seven Principles.

These are the seven principles that he advocated people celebrate in the seven days between the end of Christmas, and the beginning of the new year.

So in that one week between Christmas and New Year's, he advocated that people embrace these principles.

On the first day, Umoja.

That stands for unity, reminding Africans and African Americans, that they could work together for common causes.

The second was Kujichagulia, or self-determination, telling groups that they could be the ones to decide how to advance their communities.

Ujima stands for collective work and responsibility, knowing that everyone in a society can contribute to its well-being.

Ujamaa stands for cooperative economics.

This is one of the reasons people celebrating Kwanzaa are encouraged to create their own gifts, or to buy from vendors who support their communities.

Next there's Nia, which stands for purpose.

Dr. Karenga hoped to encourage Africans, and African Americans, Africans throughout the diaspora to collectively work, to strengthen their communities and assist one another.

Kuumba stands for creativity, celebrating the genius that's within every person.

Imani, faith, encouraging groups to keep the faith and press on.

And to also honor the creator God.

Like many other holidays, Kwanzaa celebration has evolved over time as more and more people have become familiar with it.

And you often see it celebrated by large groups of people, community centers, churches, collective family groups, who might take the time to say these are principles that we can embrace, and that we can celebrate.

There are still many people who've never heard of Kwanzaa even within African American communities, or African Americans who don't largely celebrate it.

Yet, as Dr. Karenga said in a recent interview, it is still true that many of these principles are principles that can be embraced universally.

Lots of people can recognize the value in committing to one another, and helping the communities in which they live, and striving to make them better.

You might think about that today as you walk into the new year, grateful for all that you've experienced in 2021, and hopeful for the future.

- Well, that wraps up our holiday show for this year.

On behalf of WCTE-PBS, and myself, may this Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone.

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