Christmas in North Carolina

I must admit that I get fed up with Christmas-time in the Atlanta area. The traffic, noise, confusion, attitudes and general mayhem tend to set my teeth on edge, so I am truly thankful that my wife and I have a respite in the North Carolina mountains to break-away to. This week-end was no exception and I was glad to escape the madness.

As we were getting ready to leave on Friday evening, my mountain friend called to inform me that there was no electricity on our mountain! It seems that the winds of Thursday evening had caused a few tree limbs to fall over some power lines and Duke power could not promise an exact time to restore our power. Because it's cold in the mountains, my wife and I decided it was better to wait and make an early Saturday morning drive than to risk getting to Bryson City in the night with no heat.

We arrived Saturday morning to find a beautiful day upon us and that our home had been restored to full power! We piddled for a while and then decided to visit a local restaurant for lunch. The cafe was packed and we quickly learned that the Annual Bryson City Christmas Parade was about to begin. Why not? We haven't been to a Christmas parade since who knows when. Let me tell you, these people take their Christmas parades ( and every other holiday parade) seriously. We stood right outside the restaurant door for at least an hour for the entire procession to pass. It was really great to see so much pride on display in this little town. We saw representatives from local businesses, high school bands, elementary school bands, youth league football teams and their cheerleaders, girl scouts, brownie scouts, fireman, rescue squads, motorcycle riders, horses (along with the poop), dignitaries, The Christmas Queen a.k.a. Miss Merry Christmas, the local high school homecoming queen and her court and floats from almost every church in town and one with the pastor at the pulpit with a congregation in the back of a truck. The most fun of all was to hear all the kids squeal with excitement as candy was thrown to them from the floats. It was truly a great parade and I was struck dumb with awe at the pride this little mountain town displays to each other and the many tourists who pass through.

My wife had informed me that she wanted to make the short trip over to Dillsboro that evening to see the Luminaries. I had no idea what the Luminaries were, but being a good husband, I was certainly going to find out! After darkness fell, we drove into the little town of Dillsboro only to find it packed full of visitors. You see, a few years ago, someone in this little town got the idea to line the streets of Dillsboro with little white bags with lighted candles inside. The idea is to have visitors walk along the sidewalks and visit the many shops and restaurants. Each store offers free cookies and cider. We even found out that there is a sort-of competition among the shopowners as to who has the best cookies. I would hate to be a judge! We didn't stay too long, but we visited bookstores, a Christmas decoration shop, art-stores, restaurants including the Jarrett House and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There were no "thugs" to be found. Without exception, everyone we met was thoroughly delightful and made us feel that they were genuinely happy we were there.

Living in the big city has soured me! I need more Christmas in the mountains and less big city mess. It really did me so much good to have this experience.

A big thank-you to all you mountain folk who have held on to the real Christmas. May God bless you all and Merry Christmas!