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Breaking Up Christmas
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. Western North Carolina, Western Va.
ARTIST: Fuzzy Mountain String Band;
Listen: Tommy Jarrell & Fred Cockerham- Breakin' Up Christmas
Listen: Norman Edmonds- Breakin' Up Christmas
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Early 1900’s
RECORDING INFO: Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday: The Breaking Up Christmas Story (County); County 713, Tommy Jarrell. County 723, Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins- "Back Home in the Blue Ridge." County 790, Leftwich & Higginbotham - "No One to Bring Home Tonight" (1984). County CD 2702, "Tommy & Fred." Davis Unlimited 33002, Norman Edmonds (southwest Va.). Front Hall 017, Micheal and McCreesh- "Dance, Like a Wave of the Sea" (1978) {learned from Tommy Jarrell}. Kicking Mule 213, Fred Cockerham- "Southern Clawhammer Banjo." Rounder 0057, The Kimble Family- "Old Originals, Vol. I." Rounder 0035, The Fuzzy Mountain String Band- "Summer Oaks and Porch" (1973. Learned from Tommy Jarrell, Mt. Airy, N.C.). Rounder 0192, John McCutcheon- "Winter Solstice" (1984).Camp Creek Boys. Original Camp Creek Boys Through the Years, Mountain 312, LP (197?), cut# 1 Cockerham, Fred. Southern Clawhammer, Kicking Mule KM 213, Cas (1978), cut#B.04 Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins. Back Home in the Blue Ridge, County 723, LP, cut# 2. Edmonds, Norman. Train on the Island, Davis Unlimited DU 33002, LP (197?), cut# 5. Edmonds, Norman. Southern Journey. Vol. 2: Ballads and Breakdowns, Rounder 1702, CD (1997), cut#24. Flippen, Benton. Old Times, New Times, Rounder 0326, Cas, cut# 13. Fuzzy Mountain String Band. Summer Oaks and Porch, Rounder 0035, LP (197?), cut# 2b. Hooven, Greg. Tribute to Fred Cockerham, Heritage (Galax) 079C, Cas (1993), cut#A.01. Jarrell, B. F.. Tribute to Tommy Jarrell, Heritage (Galax) 063, LP (1986), cut# 8. Jarrell, Tommy; and Kyle Creed. June Apple, Mountain 302, LP (1972), cut# 10. Jarrell, Tommy. Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald OTH, Ser (1987-), 2/6, p30. Kimble, Taylor. Old Originals, Vol. 1, Rounder 0057, LP (1978), cut# 11. Last Straw String Band. Last Straw String Band, Jack Rabbit 001, LP (197?), cut#A.05b. Leftwich, Brad; and Linda Higginbotham. No One to Bring Home Tonight, County 790, LP (1984), cut# 2. McCutcheon, John. Winter Solstice, Rounder 0192, LP (1984), cut# 7a Melton, Isaac. Old Five String, Vol 2, Heritage (Galax) 052, Cas (1991), cut# 3 Michael, Walt; & McCreesh, Tom. Dance Like a Wave on the Sea, Front Hall FHR-017, LP (1978), cut# 6. Powell, Dirk. Hand Me Down, Rounder 0444, CD (1999), cut# 9. Seeger Family. American Folk Songs for Christmas, Rounder 0268/0269, LP (1989), cut# 53. Slate Mountain Ramblers. 49th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention, Heritage (Galax) 700, LP (1985), cut# 1. Smokey Valley Boys. Smokey Valley Boys, Rounder 0029, LP (1974), cut# 5
OTHER NAMES: "Old Breaking Up Christmas"
SOURCES: The Fuzzy Mountain String Band (N.C.) [Brody]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 55; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: I remember when the Bluegrass Messengers did a program at Reynolda House in Winston -Salem a week before Christmas and Debbie Gitlan our fiddler mentioned playing "Breaking Up Christmas" a song I also knew. We played it in the second half and I sang two verses, which were all I could remember:
Hoo-ray Jake and Hoo-ray John,
Breakin' up Christmas all night long.
Santa Claus come, Santa Claus gone,
Breaking up Chrismas all night long.
Here are some additional lyrics to ones Jarrell sings:
Way down yonder alongside the creek
I seen Santy Claus washin' his feet.
Santa Claus come, done and gone,
Breaking up Chrismas right along.
See Version 2 (Leftwich) for more lyrics.
Notes From Kuntz: "A Major. AEAE or DGDG. AABB. "A popular tune in the Galax/Meadows of Dan/Mt. Airy triangle," say Tom Carter and Blanton Owen (1978), who quote 82 yr. old Meadows of Dan fiddler Lawrence Bolt on the origin of the title: “Through this country here, they'd go from house to house almost - have a dance at one house, then go off to the next one the following night and all such as that. The week before Christmas and the week after, that's when the big time was. About a two-week period, usually winding up about New Year. I wasn't into any of this, but used to laugh about it. They'd play a tune called BREAKIN' UP CHRISTMAS, that was the last dance they'd have on Christmas, they'd have Wallace Spanger play BREAKIN' UP CHRISTMAS. There's an old feller by the name of Bozwell, he'd cry every time”.TEACHERS AT CEDAR RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in NC decided to explore a local holiday tradition with students. The school is located in the Round Peak community. In the 1920s, residents gathered in homes for all day "house parties" during the two weeks after Christmas. Furniture was moved out of the house to make way for players and dancers. This tradition, called "Breaking Up Christmas," waned in the days of World War II and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during the 1970s. Teachers used the CD Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday: The Breaking Up Christmas Story to introduce students to the history of the tradition and as a springboard for exploring the students' own family traditions." The Smokey Valley Boys, featuring Verlen Clifton, Paul Sutphin, Benton Flippen, and Frank Bode, came to the school to talk with the students about their remembrances of Breaking Up Christmas parties in their childhoods. Questions from students were interspersed with the band playing tunes for fourth graders who jumped up to flat foot dance."(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Breaking Up Christmas- Tommy Jarrell
Listen: Tommy Jarrell & Fred Cockerham- Breakin' Up Christmas
[Fiddle & banjo]
Hoo-ray Jake and Hoo-ray John,
Breakin' up Christmas all night long.
Way back yonder a long time ago
The old folks danced the do-si-do
[Fiddle & banjo]
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