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Christmas in the South

Christmas Comes but Twice a Year: Old Christmas in the Outer Banks

Rodanthe, North Carolina

Visit North Carolina’s Outer Banks around the end of December, and you’ll find that Christmas comes not once a year, but twice

Christmas in Florida: Saint Augustine’s Festive Lights and Sights

Saint Augustine, Florida

Despite the lack of very conventional Christmas-y weather, Florida has plenty of Christmas traditions all its own

General Lee and Santa Claus

Lee was a shrewd general, yes, but also a kindhearted man with a love for children—as well as, apparently, a personal acquaintance with good ol’ St. Nick himself!

The Art of Southern Christmas: Part One

Ever wonder why we put citrus in our stockings? Why the Outer Banks celebrate Christmas twelve days late? Find the history behind five of the South’s most perplexing Christmas traditions here.

5 Southern Christmas Light Displays You Can’t Miss

Austin, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Richmond, Virginia; McAdenville, North Carolina; St. Augustine, Florida

From Texas to Florida, the South is all lit up with Christmas. Here are five of the Christmas-lights best!

The Poinsettia’s Southern Progenitor

Greenville, South Carolina

When Joel Roberts Poinsett, an American diplomat and botanist on assignment in Mexico, first sighted a roadside poinsettia in 1828, he immediately sent cuttings back to his greenhouse in Greenville. The rest is history.

The Homecoming: The Waltons’ Christmas Eve Story

Schuyler, Virginia

A whole generation of Americans grew to love the stories of a Virginia family during the Great Depression after the showing of this Christmas movie

Citrus Christmas: A Sweet Southern Tradition

For generations, stretching back further than our history books, we Southerners have filled our Christmas stockings with sweet, seasonal citrus. But why?

Give ’Em Food: Food Gifts for Christmas

Montgomery, Alabama

When you share the fruits of your labor with someone, it means so much more than anything you could have bought

Tradition and Taste: An Appalachian Christmas Breakfast

Flag Pond, Tennessee; Marshall, North Carolina

In 2013, my 82-year-old mother looked at her Christmas morning plate and said, “I’ve eaten this same meal on this same day for eighty consecutive years.”