Different families have different Christmas traditions and different geographic areas have varied holiday traditions.
This morning's Charlotte paper carried a reprint of an editorial page piece that runs annually in the Wilmington, NC paper telling of how folks in the Lower Cape Fear region of North Carolina made do during the Great Depression and what graced their table for Christmas dinner.
I don't know what our RR members like Bobby Williamson and Patsy Thompkins-Keisler who live in that area will have on their dinner tables this Christmas, but I thought you might all enjoy this recurring piece originating from the Wilmington, NC newspaper.
Behold the Christmas Flounder
From Dec. 24, 1998 editorial pages, and earlier:
If there is an old-timer in your house today, he probably is not reminiscing about the grand old tradition of The Christmas Flounder. It is practically forgotten.
The Christmas Flounder is a Yuletide custom unknown outside Southeastern North Carolina, according to Paul Jennewein, the veteran newsman who is the world's only authority on the matter.
As is the case with many traditions, the origin of The Christmas Flounder is obscured in the mists of memory, but it apparently began during the Great Depression, when people in this area were even poorer than usual.
Buying and stuffing a turkey for Christmas dinner was out of the question for many. Something else was needed, something that poor folks could procure in the days before food stamps. And so it came about that one Christmas Eve in the reign of Franklin the King of Four Terms, the merry glow of kerosene lanterns and for those who could afford the Ray-O-Vacs flashlights gleamed over the waters of the sound.
Next day, the unfortunate flounders, lovingly stuffed with native delicacies such as oysters, crabs, collards and grits, graced Christmas tables all over the area. Non-Baptists who knew a reliable bootlegger accompanied the humble dish with a jelly glass of high-octane cheer.
It was a tradition born of hardship, but it is unique and deserves to be remembered as part of the folklore of the Lower Cape Fear.
The editorial above is reprinted every Christmas Eve in the Wilmington (N.C.) Morning Star in, explain the editors, an effort to keep this grand tradition alive.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/12/23/4565956/behold-the-christmas-flounder.html#storylink=cpy
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updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
