Mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull shares her fondest Christmas memory.

I can’t believe how quickly Christmas seems to come and go each year, and of course, each year always brings along some sort of new memory for me. One, however, that I’m kinda fond of, is the Christmas that I first got an instrument. My family has always been into music ever since I can think of. I remember singing along with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver gospel tapes in the car ever since I could talk. My dad always played guitar for my brother Cody and I when we would sing in church, and my mom also sang. When my dad began learning to play the mandolin I really began to get interested in wanting to play an instrument too.

So… when my Granny Delk found out that I wanted to learn to play the fiddle, that’s what she and a few of my other family members chipped in together to buy me for Christmas. The fiddle they ended up getting, unfortunately, at that time was a full sized, and I was a small eight year old. I started learning to play the mandolin because of that – thinking it would help when I finally got a smaller fiddle, but I kinda stuck to mandolin after that. haha

That Christmas is a sweet thought to me because it reminds me of when I first started to play music, and it’s been such a special part of my life ever since. This time of year always makes me so thankful to God for everything he’s done for me, and to celebrate his birth is something we should all be excited to do.

I hope everyone out there has a very Merry Christmas filled with lots of love and cheer, and may God Bless you all!

Here are two more Christmas memories from The Grascals. First up is fiddler Jimmy Mattingly.

One of my fondest memories at Christmas as a teenager was waking up and spending the morning with my family, and then calling my best buddy to see what he got for Christmas. We would usually get together later and pick some music or hunt, and we would pretend we were recording records and crazy stuff like that.

Well, this year at Christmas I am recording my third CD on Rounder Records with The Grascals and that buddy, Danny Roberts. How cool is that!

Next, we hear from mandolinist, Danny Roberts.

A Christmas memory that stands out in my mind was the tradition of going to my Grandma’s house on Christmas day after Santa Claus had come to my house. As soon as you walked in the door you would smell the great food she would have cooking: ham, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, chocolate pie – just so many great country dishes I can’t name them all.

Papaw would be outside gathering wood or messing around with something in the barn and I really loved to be with him out on the farm. After we had eaten what was to me the best meal in the world, the excitement would build while we waited for Mom and Grandma to finish up the dishes and then we all would all get to open our presents. What a great time and what a mess!!

After everything was opened it looked like a wrapping paper bomb had gone off, and then Dad and Papaw would gather all the paper and boxes up and I would get to go out back of the house with them and burn all of it. I really loved doing that…stirring the fire with a tree limb… how could a kid ask for anything more fun that that?

Well, Grandma has gone on to Heaven now and things definitely are not the like the used to be. But now as I watch my 6 year old daughter, Jaelee, experience Christmas and see her excitement with everything that goes on, it helps me re-live my old memories as I see her making new ones. Now when she is grown she will be able to look back and enjoy her Christmas memories like I do. I really miss the times I had at Christmas as a kid but I will always have my memories and some times a memory is even better than what actually happened.

James Allen Shelton, guitarist with Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, shares memories of getting music for Christmas.

Somewhere I have a picture of me as a teenager at my grandparent’s house in the early ’70’s on Christmas Eve proudly holding up copies of two Bill Monroe albums that I had gotten for Christmas. I remember that the albums were Kentucky Mandolin and Bluegrass Instrumentals. I listened to those records a lot when I was growing up and learned to play some of the tunes.

My grandaddy on Mom’s side of the family was named Bordie Porter and he was the one who first taught me to play the guitar. He lived just long enough to see the release of the first record album that I ever played on by a local group called The Bluegrass Travelers. He died just before Christmas in 1976 and I remember that as being such a sad Christmas for us all.

Then there was the time my wife totally surprised me by getting me the first two Bear Family Flatt & Scruggs boxed sets for Christmas. She put them in this huge box that a vacuum cleaner came in so I wouldn’t know what they were. I had no idea I was getting those and it was a wonderful surprise!

Here is a Christmas memory from master mandolinist Alan Bibey, who performs with Grasstowne.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of great Christmas memories, but here are some of my earliest recollections.

Every Christmas as a kid was spent at my Grandparent’s. My Dad, my cousins and I would sit around jamming until time to eat, which ended up being hours if we got there early enough. I always pushed to get there as early as possible because we’d get previews of dinner while we played if we were real cool about it. Which I doubt I ever was BUT‚Ķ

Occasionally Papa or Granny would come in and ask us to play a particular tune but mainly we were playing because it was just so much fun!

Christmas always brings back memories of why I play to start with, and reminds me of what a great time we had back then, as well as what a great family I’ve been blessed with.