{"id":3201,"date":"2026-01-06T17:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=3201"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:58:21","slug":"how-do-you-celebrate-old-christmas-with-a-bang-or-a-whimper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=3201","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Celebrate Old Christmas \u2014 With a Bang or a Whimper?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RAHN ADAMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

BOONE, N.C. (Jan. 7, 2026) \u2013 So, how did you spend Old Christmas yesterday? Did you have a big feast or give someone special a gift? Did you take down your Christmas decorations and stow them away until next Halloween? You should have done that at least.<\/p>\n

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ANIMALS ARE SMART. My girl Scout likes to read the newspaper with me every morning after I’ve fed her.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No? Well, then, did you stay up past midnight on Tuesday to see if your pets would kneel and pray? That\u2019s an Appalachian tradition\u2014staying up late on Old Christmas Eve to hear animals talk. I mean, Balaam\u2019s ass actually speaks in the Bible (Numbers 22:28-30<\/a>). The mule doesn\u2019t exactly pray, but he does ask why his master is mistreating him. Animals can<\/i> talk, and they do<\/em> pray.<\/p>\n

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OUR BIG BOY Jem is the calmest and sweetest natured cat we’ve ever had.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We need no proof at our house, because Scout, our little Type-A Manx cat, has a word of prayer with me every blessed morning. She tells me\u2014not Timberley, mind you\u2014in no uncertain terms when it\u2019s time to get up and feed her. Her laid-back brother Jem, an orange tabby, knows to keep his mouth shut\u2014until I open the can of cat food. Then it\u2019s smack<\/i>, smack<\/i>, munch<\/i>, munch<\/i>.<\/p>\n

When Scout says, \u201cMuh-wow<\/i>,\u201d we know she\u2019s asking for water, and we let her jump up on the bathroom counter for a drink. When she\u2019s perturbed with me for wanting to stay in bed a minute longer, she says, \u201cRaw-run, Raw-run<\/i>,\u201d and I\u2019m not quite sure if that\u2019s my name or what I need to do to keep her from jumping up on me<\/i>. But she does\u2014with all four feet\u2014if I don\u2019t rise and shine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, anyway, are you telling me that you\u2019ve never heard of Old Christmas? How about Epiphany or Three Kings Day? Ring a bell? They all fall on Jan. 6 every blessed year.<\/p>\n

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RICHARD CHASE entertains kids at Valdese Elementary (Photo by Rahn Adams)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019d never heard of Old Christmas until December 1981 when I worked as the staff writer at The Valdese News<\/i>, a now-defunct weekly paper owned by The News Herald<\/i> (and, boy, was it ever funct; oh, the stories I could tell). Covering a pre-holiday event at Valdese Elementary School, I listened and took pictures as renowned folklorist Richard Chase entertained youngsters with old Appalachian tales and songs. Chase had compiled The Jack Tales<\/i> and The Grandfather Tales<\/i>, the two books that were his main claims to fame. He was teaching at Lenoir-Rhyne College then after a long career at other colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

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HERE’S MY ARTICLE on Page 3 of the Dec. 17, 1981, edition of The Valdese News, which can be found now only in bound volumes in the local history museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeez, that was 44 years ago. Almost half a century ago. But I do remember one thing well from my conversation with Mr. Chase away from the kids\u2014nothing profound, nothing life-changing, just his offhand comment about the way my first name is spelled. He wanted to jot down my name and the newspaper I worked for so that he could get a copy of my article when it ran the next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s not Ron<\/i>,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s Ra-a-h-h-h-n<\/i>.\u201d One long syllable, not two like what my little girl Scout says every morning when she’s fussing at me.<\/p>\n

Hmm. Fussing. I’ll bet that’s<\/em> how you spent Old Christmas yesterday \u2026 on Jan. 6 \u2026 on the fifth anniversary of, yeah, THAT Jan. 6, the one that had nothing to do with celebrating the birth of sweet baby Jesus but had everything to do with a jackass who talks too much.<\/p>\n

Since gambling on everything has been legalized and is even encouraged these days, I’ll wager that the average person\u2014granted, maybe not you\u2014spent more time yesterday, Jan. 6, perusing divisive or provocative or simply inane social media posts and videos than reading anything of true, lasting value\u2014for the sake of argument, let’s say the Bible, like maybe the stories or parables of the man that sweet baby Jesus grew up to be. Am I right?<\/p>\n

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SCOUT KEEPS WATCH outside for dogs, cats, squirrels, trash men, postal workers, meter readers, kids and other potential troublemakers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, you ask, what’s your point, Raw-run<\/em>?<\/p>\n

When I talked to Mr. Chase at Valdese Elementary way back in 1981, I asked if he actually celebrated Christmas on Jan. 6 instead of on Dec. 25 like most folks. He said he marked both days, adding that the earlier date was \u201cthe Christmas made for man\u201d and the latter date was \u201cthe Lord\u2019s Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, there were many\u2014too many\u2014signs and flags and banners proclaiming the Lord\u2019s name (and taking it in vain, in my opinion) on Jan. 6, 2021 at the Capitol attack in Washington, D.C.\u2014you know, at the Make America Great Again insurrection. How’s that for an oxymoron?<\/p>\n

My main point\u2014especially now, five years later\u2014is that if we still call ourselves Christians, we need to decide who our Lord actually is and act accordingly. Maybe the easy answer is to call ourselves something else. (No, not Balaam\u2019s Asses<\/i><\/a>, but if the horseshoe fits\u2026.) How’s that for an epiphany?<\/p>\n

As the old song by one of the Baby Boom generation’s major prophets goes, you’re gonna have to serve somebody<\/a>. So let’s make sure we don’t spend too much of our time and attention serving the wrong person or consuming too much of the wrong kind of tale, even if dancing Donald and his talking mule<\/a> are <\/i>entertaining.<\/p>\n

All we really do need is love\u2014and, well, some food and muh-wow<\/i>. It is<\/i> that simple. Just ask Scout.<\/p>\n

Merry Old Christmas, my friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By RAHN ADAMS BOONE, N.C. (Jan. 7, 2026) \u2013 So, how did you spend Old Christmas yesterday? Did you have a big feast or give someone special a gift? Did you take down your Christmas decorations and stow them away until next Halloween? You should have done that at least. No? Well, then, did you … Continue reading How Do You Celebrate Old Christmas \u2014 With a Bang or a Whimper?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3201"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3225,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}