[Bells jingling]
["Joy to the World" plays]
[Emily] Christmas in Appalachia looks different than it did decades ago.
Traditions evolve, emerge, and sometimes disappear.
But if you look past the LED lights and holiday parades,
you can trace our celebrations back to the mountains
where historians say some things never really change.
[Natalie] We've had a long life with some of those traditions.
[Car driving by]
[Emily] At Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate...
[Natalie] So one of the things that children would've very much looked forward to...
[Emily] Natalie Sweet...
[Natalie] at Christmas time
was the different candies.
[Emily] ...is the program coordinator for the Abraham Lincoln Library.
[Country rendition of "Carol of the Bells" plays]
She grew up in Claiborne County, Tennessee near the Kentucky line
[Spoon scraping] [Music continues]
where old-time traditions mix seamlessly with today's.
[Natalie] That is what most people think of as fruitcake in Appalachia.
[Emily] One of her favorites is apple stack cake.
[Natalie] Wooooop!
[Emily] Or as people in Appalachia have long called it,
fruitcake.
[Natalie] Fruitcake that most people think of is a German tradition
where you use whiskeys, you use candied nuts.
[Music continues]
If you've ever seen it in a store, it looks colorful.
There's big globs.
Apple cake doesn't look like that in Appalachia
[Host] You ever get a fruitcake for Christmas?
[Man] I got one this Christmas.
[Host] You eat it?
[Man] No.
[Natalie] I would hear TV and there would be these running gags, you know,
people like, "Oh, give a fruitcake for Christmas."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
I was like, "I think fruitcake's good."
"What's wrong with fruitcake?"
[Emily] But Appalachian fruitcake isn't at all like what she saw on TV.
[Man] How come I got two fruitcakes from him?
[Woman] Well, that's probably the one he gave you last year.
[Emily] And she still makes it the way her granny taught her.
[Natalie] And I'm wearing her apron.
[Spoon scraping] [Music continues]
This was the one she always cooked in.
[Emily] The secret is to dry out the apples,
sometimes months in advance.
[Natalie] It is not a quick process.
A good stack cake
takes
patience.
[Emily] She layers the cooked apples with thin cakes sweetened with honey.
[Natalie] If you want to impress people, it has six layers.
If you get lazy, it might have three or four layers.
[Emily] There's another Appalachian tradition baked into the cake's layers,
superstitions.
[Elaine] Everybody makes fun of fruitcake,
but eating a piece of fruitcake on Christmas will bring you good luck.
[Emily] Elaine Meyer learned how to make her fruitcake the same way.
She grew up on the grounds of what's now the Museum of Appalachia
in Clinton, Tennessee.
[Elaine] This is my area, my people.
[Emily] Growing up, decorations only played a small role during the holidays.
[Elaine] We would put the tree up just a little bit before Christmas
and then not take it down 'til after the first of the year.
So that's changed.
And that's changed even from way back when, when it was Old Christmas.
["O Come Emmanuel" plays]
[Emily] Old Christmas is one tradition that's faded away over the years.
The families who first settled in the mountains of Appalachia
celebrated Christmas on January 7th,
two weeks after December 25th.
[Natalie] When the calendars changed in the 1500s up until through the 1800s,
there were still individuals that would remember the old dates
and kinda have passed on.
So there was this idea of Old Christmas.
[Emily] The few who still celebrate Old Christmas
simply leave their decorations up into January.
[Elaine] Isn't it funny how that's changed just in, you know, my lifetime?
[Match strikes] [Flame crackles]
[Emily] One tradition that still burns bright is placing candles in the windows.
[Ted] Certainly, in the old days in the frontier, there was,
there were miles to travel from family to family.
And so what a kind of an ennobling and heartwarming thing to see
candles in the window as you're approaching the house of a neighbor or a relative.
[Emily] At East Tennessee State University in Johnson City,
Professor Ted Olson studies Appalachian culture.
[Ted] Folks would often go to bed with the sunset,
but during the holidays, there was this need and desire to stay up longer
and have fellowship with visitors and family.
And candles would provide the illumination of the spaces
in which these celebrations were taking place.
[Singing] Away in a manger
[Emily] Families would often travel from house to house
taking part in what we call Christmas caroling.
But Olson says the tradition was about more than serenading.
It built community.
[Ted] People would go, sometimes unannounced,
up to a house and start singing.
It's kind of like the modern-day caroling concept.
But there was a bit of prankster-ism involved.
I mean, there was a bit of Halloween as a part of the serenading tradition.
[Elaine] You'd yell "Christmas gift" or "Christmas treat" or "Christmas Day."
And you'd yell that to your neighbors and then they'd have to and they would give you a gift.
[Emily] One coveted Christmas gift was an orange,
since the fruit didn't grow in the mountains
and stores seldom carried it.
[Elaine] A train car would come with a train carload of oranges.
So that's about the only time they saw oranges in this area.
[Natalie] And every child, the thing they most looked forward to was the orange
that they would find in their stockings.
[Ted] Appalachian people on the frontier were folks who were truly
self-reliant, self-sufficient, and extremely resourceful.
[Natalie] Pinecones was something that could be taken
and in some cases decorated or painted.
You would also find berries that would add a bit of color.
[Emily] Where it could grow, mistletoe proved to be a popular decoration
with its bright berries and evergreen leaves.
[Ted] It provided a sense of, of course, beauty,
provided a sense of comfort that there's life,
you know, even in the darkest days of winter.
[Emily] Like other holiday traditions celebrated in the mountains,
mistletoe came with its own superstitions.
[Natalie] On Old Christmas, if you place your mistletoe underneath your pillow,
you're going to be able to see the face of your true love.
[Emily] There were other similar wives' tales
that added a sense of mystery and magic to the holiday.
[Elaine] At midnight on Christmas Eve,
that all the animals would kneel and get quiet and talk to one another.
But then I've also heard that on Old Christmas.
[Emily] The stories and traditions weren't unique to Appalachia,
although the people there put their own spin on them.
[Ted] It was a regionally specific kind of celebration
that involved, of course, old-world traditions and beliefs,
as well as adaptations and new approaches to celebrating the holiday.
And so Appalachian people would, you know, they'd have the Christmas tree,
which, of course, is from the Germanic heritage,
but they would adapt it to their own locale.
[Elaine] People in this area had only heard of a Christmas tree,
weren't really sure what that was.
So they just went out and got a dormant tree and decorated it
because they didn't know it's supposed to be an evergreen tree.
[Crunching footsteps] [Birds chirping]
[Wayne] My dad was one of the first to ever grow the Frasier Fir down south.
[Clanking]
[Emily] Wayne Ayres and his family...
[Wayne sighs]
[Emily] ...have been in the tree-growing business for more than half a century.
[Wayne] A tube comes here.
[Wayne] People thought my dad going crazy.
He started planting Christmas trees,
and they said, "All you have to do is go out in the field and cut you one."
"You'll never sell 'em."
First year had people begging for them.
[Wind blowing] [Bugs chirping]
[Emily] For years, business was good,
[Rumbling]
even the White House tree came from the Ayers' farm in 1993.
[Hillary] The Ayers have given us another tree
that will go upstairs in the second floor
that will be our personal tree.
[Emily] And Tennessee governors still turn to this farm for their annual evergreen.
[Wayne] We used to give it to them.
Now, we charge them a little.
[Emily] Now, times are hard.
More than a decade after the 2008 recession...
[Wayne] A lot of folks went out of business.
[Emily] ...tree farmers like Ayers are still hurting.
[Wayne] I don't know we'll ever pull out of it to tell you the God's honest truth.
I had to sell two farms.
I couldn't...I couldn't sell trees for any money.
[Emily] It takes 7 to 12 years for the trees to grow.
So there's a shortage.
[Wayne] We went from 32-34,000 down to sevens.
[Emily] It's a similar story at farms around the country.
[Wayne] The next year's even be less.
We've got some coming, but it's gonna be a while.
[Emily] They no longer ship trees off to places like California and Mexico.
[Wayne] It's what keeps us alive right here.
[Emily] The chop-it-yourself section is what keeps them in business.
[Wayne] I've had parents that brought their kids here when they were small
and they still...the parent might be passed on
or it might be they may not even want tree anymore but them kids want one
and they remember where they got it,
where they seen their first one.
[Birds chirping] [Crunching footsteps]
We love that part of it.
[Crunching footsteps] [Music fades]
[Emily] It's in our nature to connect with our past.
It's why traditions like Christmas trees and caroling exist.
And one woman from East Tennessee turned her family tradition
into a multi-million-dollar business.
You might even have her red clad creations in your house,
probably on a shelf somewhere.
[Whimsical music]
[Carol] When we started the Elf on the Shelf,
my main goal was just to have an elf on every shelf for every child who wanted one.
[Emily] Carol Aebersold grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
with a tradition that, at the time, not many families had.
[Carol] I grew up with an elf named Fisbee.
I thought I would see it move maybe a little
or blink its eye or something like that
and come to find out he was straight from Santa.
[Emily] Years later, she and her daughter wrote a book they call "Elf on the Shelf."
[Carol] We went to trade shows and to the Junior League
and to anybody who was having a mistletoe market of any type.
And we took all of our...
[Sighs]
all of our inventory.
And we practically would stop people in the aisles of the show
and say, "Have you ever heard of the Elf on the Shelf?"
[Whimsical winter music]
[Emily] Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone
who hasn't heard of Elf on the Shelf.
Aebersold's elves have been in the Macy's Day Parade,
on cereal boxes, TV, and recently, on stage in a new musical.
[Carol] I'm still realizing that it's a success.
Every day, I get surprised more and more by people saying things to me about it.
[Emily] For her, it's simply a family tradition that continues to grow.
[Soft piano music]
Just like another family's,
but theirs is older and a little further down the road.
[Music continues]
George Vanderbilt opened his Biltmore House in Asheville on Christmas Eve 1895.
Years after the Vanderbilts decked the halls...
[Lizzie] Yeah, that's good.
[Emily] floral manager Lizzie Borchers leads a team of designers...
[Lizzie] Kind of lower and parallel.
[Emily] to decorate the 250-room home
for their two-month-long Christmas celebration.
[Lizzie] We start decorating from the upstairs down.
By the time we get to the first floor of the house,
it's really, kind of, has taken over and Christmas is everywhere.
[Emily] The last tree to come in is a 35- foot-tall Frasier Fir for the banquet hall.
[Lizzie] I think that's kind of the special moment where it all really does feel real.
[Emily] It's the same size and type as the tree
George Vanderbilt decorated on that first Christmas Eve.
[Indistinct talking]
[Woman] Looks beautiful...
[Lizzie] All the decor, we're wanting to make sure either tells that story
or, you know, tells the story of the Vanderbilts
and the family and the lifestyle that they lived here.
[Wind blowing] [Birds chirping]
[Emily] On the other side of Knoxville, just a road trip away in Nashville,
is Gaylord Opryland
[Upbeat rock Christmas music]
[Rob] This is the Music City, home of country music,
and so that's kind of what we pulled in from
for our 36-year tradition here of a Country Christmas.
[Emily] The resort is decorated in thousands of poinsettias
and millions of lights, both inside and out,
where horses and carriages stand by to take guests on a tour of the grounds.
[Rob] The one attraction that keeps people coming back,
and every time I see somebody,
they're always just so blown away by this attraction,
it's our ICE attraction.
["Deck the Halls" plays]
[Emily] This year's theme is the movie "A Christmas Story."
[Rob] So you're walking through the movie, essentially,
and seeing the different iconic scenes.
And it's all carved in ice.
[Emily] Two months before opening day,
40 artisans flew from Harbin, China
to transform 2 million pounds of solid ice into art.
[Rob] In Harbin, the average temperature is about 6 degrees.
In our ICE attraction, our temperature is 9 degrees.
Now, don't worry.
We give you a parka
so you can enjoy the attraction without getting too cold.
But that's all part of the experience.
But these artisans are incredible at what they do.
[Emily] While the sculptures took several weeks to carve,
the planning started in July.
[Music continues]
By then, employees at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge
were already decorating for Smoky Mountain Christmas.
[Whimsical Christmas music] [Beeping]
[Thunking] [Music continues]
[Matt] Christmas lights actually start going up around June,
[Thud]
around mid-June, when you actually start seeing Christmas lights come in the park.
[Emily] Dollywood's signature look covers almost every building
in millions of multicolored lights
that employees spend months stapling.
[Andrea] It's like a puzzle figuring these out, how to go with them
so you don't double back and you don't have a whole bunch left.
We take such detail into all of this.
[Cheering] [Fireworks popping]
[Emily] When the lights turn on in November,
they don't turn off again until January.
And a Christmas parade of many colors rolls through the park every night.
[Rob] All the time and blood, sweat, and tears it takes for crunch week,
we're exhausted when we open but...
it makes every bit of it worth it
when we see the experience that the guests get to see and feel
when they come into the park
and it makes every bit of it worth it.
[Emily] Further east in Bristol...
[Claudia] It's a wonderful show, but there's a lot of heart in it.
[Emily] ...Bristol Motor Speedway celebrates with a light display of its own.
[Claudia] There are over 250 displays.
There are millions of lights.
It's just a fun night to come out and enjoy
and then, of course, end up in the infield.
[Emily] The annual tradition shines a light on a need in the community.
It's why Claudia Byrd says families come back year after year.
[Claudia] We decided this is something that every family could support.
So every family in the area could come out and support this,
bring their entire family through,
and feel like they're making a difference.
[Emily] The money goes to more than 100 nonprofits
through Speedway Children's Charities.
They've raised nearly $16 million over 22 years,
more than $900,000 last year alone.
[Claudia] We want people come out and see Speedway in lights
and really enjoy it and have a great time.
But we want them to remember that by doing that,
you're making a difference in thousands of children's life.
[Emily] Helping others is one tradition that's stood the test of time.
And while nonprofits rely on this boost in compassion
that spikes around the holidays,
there is one thing they wish others knew
that would truly make an impact
[Singing] Jesus Christ is born...
[Soft piano music]
[Bell ringing] [Indistinct singing]
[Cheering]
[Emily] Of all the traditions in Appalachia...
[Girl Scout] I know that I'm helping other people.
[Indistinct talking] [Music continues]
[Emily] ...you could argue one of the greatest is giving back.
[Alyson] It's the time of year when people want to give back.
It makes sense and it feels good during the holiday season.
[Emily] Perhaps it's a need to count your blessings
or a desire to help someone less fortunate.
Whatever the drive is,
nonprofits see more donations and more volunteers during the holidays.
[Alyson] Any nonprofit or community organization
would say that volunteers are always welcome.
There is a significant increase,
and they can't always keep up with that demand.
[Cheering]
[Emily] There's Mission of Hope
that delivers Christmas gifts to children living in impoverished Appalachian counties.
[Brian] There are a lot of students that...
that will have Christmas.
There are some that I believe,
if it were not for organizations like this and events like this,
probably would not.
[Shuffling]
[Emily] The Love Kitchen...
[Woman] Are these the gift baskets?
[Emily] ...and Mobile Meals ensure no one goes hungry.
[Mary Ann] It means a lot.
The food is good.
I couldn't do without them.
[Alyson] When they find something,
a volunteer opportunity that works for them,
they will be on fire about it.
[Emily] Alyson Gallaher, executive director of Volunteer East Tennessee,
will tell you, though, the need isn't just there during the holidays.
[Alyson] Maybe it's something you start during the holiday season,
but it's a tradition that you keep for the rest of the year into the new year.
[Terry] Good morning, lamplighters.
[Kids] Good morning.
[Emily] Terry Mosley...
[Terry] Everybody doing okay?
[Emily] and his fraternity brothers in Omega Psi Phi are proof of that.
[Terry] People don't stop needing help and uplift, you know, after the holidays.
And they don't just need it during the holidays.
These are the things that's gonna make your future.
[Emily] They began visiting Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy last school year
to mentor 5th grade boys.
[Terry] We started after I had a discussion with a school teacher
about what we could do to help out.
[Emily] The issue of attendance is already improving,
as the boys meet every month with their volunteer mentors.
They learn everything from core principles...
[Terry] Do you have to be old to be wise?
[Kids] No.
[Terry] That's exactly right.
[Emily] to the lively art...
[Kid] Line speak!
[Kids] Integrity!
[Call and response continues]
[Emily] ...of stepping.
[Man] And everybody's gonna say, "Hi!"
[Kids] Hi!
[Terry] Stepping has been an Omega Psi Phi tradition since the beginning of time.
[Singing] All of my love...
[Terry] And while it's entertaining for those who watch,
it's fun for those who participate.
There's messages there...
[Kid] Integrity!
[Taps]
Line speak!
[Terry] that are geared towards teamwork.
[Indistinct singing]
I look at volunteering as part of...
it's part of who we are as a human being.
[Camera shutter clicks]
It's...it's an extension of our humanity.
[Camera shutter beeps and clicks]
[Emily] And while the holidays might spark a desire to help someone else,
it's one Christmas tradition that doesn't have to end
when the decorations are put away.
[Guitar rendition of "We Wish You a Marry Christmas" plays]
[Alyson] We are the home of the Volunteers, truly.
I think that that spirit is very much alive and well in our communities.
[Rob] It's just that special time of year.
[Natalie] Appalachia was very community-based.
[Elaine] The way we grew up is always taking care of our neighbors.
[Ted] People have a need to belong to the place
in which they are connected in some way.
That's why people feel a need to go back to the mountains during the Christmas holidays.
[Carol] I still get teary-eyed when I think about the Smoky Mountains.
[Claudia] This community and this area,
probably, is the most giving and caring area,
I've ever lived in in my life.
I'm proud to call it home.
[Carol] The song says, "I know there's more snow in Colorado than my roof will ever see,"
"but a tender Tennessee Christmas is the only one for me."
[Music continues]
[Music ends]