A popular Christmas tune celebrates hearing “tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago,” and that is just participants can expect during the Front Porch Storytellers annual historic Christmas Walks.
Each year the Front Porch Storytellers — Mary Jane Kennedy and Chad Bogart — host a series of walks through historic downtown Elizabethton and invite others to step back in time with them to get in the spirit of the season.
“We go through the amazing and unique ways people in this area celebrated Christmas,” Kennedy said.  “Many of those traditions were brought over from the Old Country. Some of the traditions are kind of funny”
“Not only do we talk about the traditions but we also talk about the supersitions,” she added. “There are tons of superstitions brougt over from the Old Country that deal with Christmas.”
In addition to the tales and legends surrounding Christmas celebrations on the frontier, Kennedy said they also discuss what Christmases were like in downtown Elizabethton during the early 20th Century.
“We talk about some of the old businesses that used to be here and one of the old movie theaters,” Kennedy said, adding they also talk about things such as what kinds of things were bought as Christmas presents over the years.
Kennedy and Bogart also dress in period costume to add to the Christmas spirit of the walks. Kennedy dons traditional colonial garb while Bogart dresses in the Victorian era style
This year the walks are scheduled for the first three Thursdays in December — Dec. 1, Dec. 8, and Dec. 15. The walks will begin at 6 p.m. each evening at the front entrance to the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library. Tickets for the walk are $12 per person, $10 for children age 8 to 17, $11 for those age 60 and older, and $10 for all veterans. Kennedy said the walk is recommended for ages 10 and up.
Tickets for the walk are limited to 20 persons per walk and advance reservations are required. For more information or to make reservations, contact Mary Jane Kennedy at 423-542-9360. If no answer, leave a message and she will return your call.