This article extraction is only one of many found by googling Christmas Folkways. I have added a historical reference at the close of the article from David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed." Lee Ramsey December, 1993 HOLIDAY FIREBALL TRADITION REVISITED by Anne Kimzey A year ago Alabama Folkways featured a column by Doug Purcell describing the tradition of fireballing -- the practice of lighting kerosene-soaked balls of yarn or tightly-wound rags and tossing the fiery objects outdoors at night as a way of celebrating Christmas or the New Year... the practice once occurred in the Alabama counties of Henry, Houston, Dale and Russell and in Hancock County, Georgia. Our respondents indicated that fireballs have also flown through the skies of Chambers, Tallapoosa, Elmore, Bullock, Pike, Crenshaw, Geneva, Covington, Monroe, Dallas, Marengo, Perry, Bibb and Blount counties. While most respondents told of fireball memories dating back to the 1920s and '30s, Jeanette Gibson of Goodway in Monroe County, Alabama wrote that her family and friends began to gather on Christmas Eve a few years ago for "refreshments, fireworks, and fireballs," when she found it difficult to make the trip back to Blakely, Georgia, where her father's side of the family ha! s thrown fireballs at Christmas for generations. This Christmas folkways is most likely the extention of the "Old Christmas" from the boarder lands of Scotland and Northern England. "Old Christmas" was originally celebrated on January 6th. with a feast, bonfires, gunplay and fireworks. This custom continued in the Appalachia and the highlands of North Carolina as well. The January 6th date was traditional believed to be the real Christmas as the birth day of Christ. Lee Ramsey http://www.1n5free.com