Harvest and Heritage

This is the first holiday season in our new home. It’s a new home built with old family ties and I can’t help but feel overwhelming thankfulness, excitement at making it festive and special for the season, and I wonder what Thanksgiving and Christmas possibly looked like when my great-great grandparents lived here in the original home. In the 1920s, my great-great grandfather began building a home for his bride on the land that we are now stewards of. He worked on it for a period of six to seven years during the Great Depression, doing a lot of the work himself. The original structure, which was taken out by a tornado in the1990s, sat in almost the exact location we built our new home.

There are a lot of reminders here of those who have gone before us; mature camellias, azaleas, and magnolias that were planted decades ago, bricks and blocks left over from the original structure, old fat lighter fence posts and rails that once stood around the perimeter of the property. Apart from the inherit kinship, there is a connection to generations past that I feel so deeply here. This land has been in our family for one hundred years and I’ve heard fond stories from my grandmother, her siblings, and their cousins about holidays here. About how their grandmother would host huge gatherings for the family with tables of food, and the games all the cousins used to play in the yard. I want to carry on that legacy of hospitality today!

As a young bride in the late 1920s and early 1930s, how did my great-great grandmother make her home festive for Thanksgiving and Christmas? I would think that times would’ve been tough in rural Covington County during and right after the Great Depression, so maybe she kept things simple and used what she could find around her; tree branches with dried leaves, pinecones and acorns, grapevine (or muscadine vines) to make wreaths or garlands. Maybe she cut pine, magnolia and cedar for Christmas and adorned it with pretty satin ribbons.  Maybe they grew pumpkins, gourds, or squash that were set on the porch before using them for pies or other recipes. 

This year, I’ve incorporated a lot of natural elements in decorating for fall, both on the interior and exterior. In addition to the customary pumpkins and mums, I used muscadine vines that I cut from our property to create a garland around the front door. I tucked in dried oak and maple branches, and dried grasses to add more texture and interest. Cutting from vines and trees that might have been here when my great-great grandmother and great-grandmother lived here furthers the connection I feel to them.

I’d like to think that if I could sit on our front porch swing and have a cup of coffee with my great-great grandmother that she’d be pleased with what we’ve built here. Maybe she would remark on the muscadine garland or the pumpkins. Maybe she would tell me that she liked the use of the bushel baskets to house the mums. Maybe she’d say she loved seeing all of the different colors of pumpkins. But maybe, more importantly, she would be happy that someone in our family is still here to carry on a legacy of hospitality and love to friends and family.

By: Amanda Henderson