Festival of Christmas Past

Hub and I spent last week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We love going to the mountains in December, where we see old friends, all the festive lights, and sometimes snow. It was a good week.

One of the highlights of the week was attending the Festival of Christmas Past at the Sugarlands Visitor Center. We have attended this event several times, and we are never disappointed.

The Visitor's Center was beautifully decorated with natural wreaths. With the exception of the red bow, everything in the wreaths came out of the woods.

They had a workshop with raw materials where visitors could make their own wreaths using cedar, pine, holly, ivy, sumac, mistletoe, ferns, and other things.

Outside, rangers and volunteers talked about how toys were made and the rituals that were common to the area in the 1800s. Inside, there was singing, storytelling, and music all day long.

Boogertown Gap Band plays and sings Pre-Civil War music.

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker combines storytelling and music. They were at the very first storytelling festival at the University of North Alabama.

Bill Proffitt and the South of the River Boys entertained us with lively music and some of the old Christmas songs.

More tomorrow.

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Amish in Stantonville, Tennessee

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