We have a lot of traditions that surround Christmas today, from decorating the tree to hanging stockings or mistletoe.

Kentucky history is rich with these customs, but where did they originate?

Well, we took a journey across the commonwealth and across time to Christmas past to learn about some familiar traditions and some... not so familiar.

[music playing] In the 1700s, Kentucky was at the edge of the frontier, wild, untamed, and full of promise.

Among the first settlements stood Fort Boonesborough, built by Daniel Boone and his companions in 1775.

Life was harsh, but at Christmas families celebrated quietly in their cabins, sharing simple meals, music, and moments of gratitude that kept hope alive.

Today, Fort Boonesborough keeps those traditions alive by inviting visitors to experience Christmas as the settlers once did.

We began with just a few volunteers, and we started by having different cultures that would have been represented on the frontier, represented in each of the cabins.

German, Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish.

Because the immigrants that came here would have brought their Christmas customs with them.

One such German tradition now mostly forgotten can be seen here.

This re-enactor may look like Santa at first, but he's actually Krampus who came for naughty children.

Half-goat and half-demon, Krampus rattled chains and carried switches to warn misbehaving children.

Though the custom has faded, echoes of Krampus still appear in festivals.

A reminder that Christmas once held both light and shadow.

Christmas wasn't celebrated in the same way we do today.

It wasn't very public, and so people did their personal celebrations in their own homes.

There's very little documentation of Christmas celebrations on the frontier.

One thing that they did do around that time was make mincemeat pies, which was a form of food preservation.

It was a way to save meat.

They would chop that up with dried fruits and berries and nuts, and then bathe it in rum and let it ferment and then bake it into a pie.

But tonight, we have various frontier foods represented that would have been left over from harvest or preserved for later in the year.

We don't know for sure if people gathered together, but we feel like that the early settlers would have pooled their resources maybe to have a special meal.

Moving forward to the Victorian era of the 1800s, our first stop is My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown.

Once home to the Rowan family and visited by distant cousin Stephen Foster, it's believed to have helped inspire Foster in the writing of our state's song.

Our Christmas exhibit, which is called Merry and Bright, runs from mid-November through the beginning of January, and it focuses on Christmas traditions that the Rowan family would have celebrated here at Federal Hill.

We have trees in just about every room in the house, which is something the Rowan family never would have had.

They would have had one tree in the house probably after the mid-1840s, which is when they became popular.

And it would have been a small tabletop type of fir tree.

We have one of those in the parlor, which is decorated with glass ornaments, hand-knitted or tatted ornaments, as well as candles, which would have been lit only on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for a very few minutes.

And there would have been buckets of sand and water standing by, because those candles were the source of untold thousands of house fires.

The way that the Rowan family would have decorated their home during Christmas wouldn't have varied a whole lot from the way that the ordinary families who were perhaps less well-off would have decorated theirs, because most of the things that you'll see around the house are things that come from outside.

A tree, pieces of holly, ivy, magnolia leaves, things that stay green for most of the year.

The idea of celebrating Christmas is something that everyone in Kentucky could have done on quite a slim budget.

Our final stop is Riverview at Hobson Grove, a historic mansion in Bowling Green.

Construction began on this estate in 1857 but was paused during the Civil War when Confederate forces used the basement for munitions.

It was later completed in 1872 and now preserves the elegance of the Victorian era.

Today, visitors can experience that history and the warmth and charm of a Victorian Christmas.

A lot of people are surprised when they come to not see a full-size Christmas tree.

And we have a tabletop tree in our front parlor from the Victorian period.

Prince Albert, who was married to Queen Victoria, was of German heritage, and he actually introduced the Christmas tree.

There's a very famous rendering of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Godey's Lady's Book with their tabletop Christmas tree.

We have a lot of the Hobson's original pieces on the table.

We have gilded walnuts on the table as well.

That was something the Victorians did.

They would either paint or gild walnuts, and those could be scattered across the table or they would hang those on the tree as ornaments.

And in the nursery upstairs, we actually have what's called a cobweb party set up.

Since there weren't as many gifts to make it a little more exciting, they would usually tie a piece of string to a present and then create a web with the strings, and you would give the child the ball of yarn at the end and they would have to follow that to find their present in the room.

Whether in frontier cabins or grand Victorian homes, Christmas has always been a time to come together.

Sharing stories, meals, and joy.

The heart of Christmas remains of hope, love, and togetherness that transcends time.

[music playing]