At the Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site in Middle Georgia’s Monroe County this week, park ranger Bretta Perkins clipped some short lengths of wild grape vines from a thick tangle along an old farm fence.
She then twisted the leafless, woody vines together into a tight ring — the foundation of a Christmas wreath. To brighten it with greenery, she and fellow ranger Taylor Delia walked around the grounds and gathered sprigs of pine, red cedar, green brier, holly, Christmas fern, wax myrtle and other evergreens — all typically found in Georgia Piedmont woods.
The sprigs were inserted between the tightly wound vines and, within a few minutes, the park workers had a new Christmas wreath of fragrant, natural greenery. It will be one of the holiday decorations for the park’s two historic dwellings, one of which is the Jarrell family’s old farmhouse, built in 1847 of virgin heart pine.
To finish the decorating, more wild greenery, including mistletoe, was being gathered this week. The Christmas tree will be an Eastern red cedar, an evergreen that grows abundantly in Georgia.
The gathering of greenery was in keeping with an old Southern tradition. Until a few decades ago, Perkins explained, most of the holiday decorations in rural Southern homes “were natural.” Families would go out and gather the greens from the woods or yard and then come back in and strew the greens on fireplace mantels, furniture, window sills and just about anything else that would hold them.
The red cedar, she noted, was the Christmas tree of choice for most Georgians back then. Not only is it abundant, it also has a natural “Christmas tree” shape and fills a room with its pleasant aroma.
Churches also were decorated with cedar Christmas trees and garlands of holly, ivy, mountain laurel and mistletoe.
These traditional natural decorations will be on display 5-8 p.m. Dec. 12 at Jarrell when the park holds a special candlelight Christmas ceremony. More information: gastateparks.org/info/jarrell.
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be new Dec. 10. Mercury is low in the west at dusk. Venus rises out of the east about two hours before dawn and will appear near the moon Monday morning. Mars rises out of the east about four hours before sunrise and will appear near the moon Saturday night. Jupiter rises out of the east around midnight.
