All of us here at BluegrassJournal.com are wishing you all a very merry Christmas this season. We want to thank all of you for stopping by the site and hope to bring you even more coverage, interviews and stories in 2009.

We’ve included links and excerpts to all of the Christmas Memories (plus last years) below that were written by some of Bluegrass’ finest people. We thank them for taking time to share their wonderful stories with us.

Merry Christmas and we’ll be back next Tuesday.

The BluegrassJournal.com Staff.
Dan Tackett
Rickey Lamb
Bob Dieterlen
Travis Tackett

2008 Christmas Memories

Eddie Adcock remembers socks & Mama’s homemade goodies
“The first new store-bought shirt I ever had of my very own, I got for Christmas when I was 10 years old. It was good flannel, white and dark gray and purple, really pretty. I really liked that shirt.

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Jamie Johnson’s Christmas memory then and now
“One of my favorite times in life was Christmas time when I was just a little fella… around 4 or 5 years old. I can remember getting in bed with my two brothers and my sister…we’d try and go to sleep waiting on Santa Claus to get there.

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Martha Adcock brews up special Christmas memory
“I think my favorite Christmas memory would simply be a composite of all my childhood Christmases in South Carolina. I remember them all as being wonderful. (…Even though I never did get that pony…)

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Larry Stephenson’s best gift: An F-5 from mom, dad
“All of my Christmases were great as a child, but the one that’s the best was in 1974. I was 17. My dad, who taught me how to play the mandolin when I was 5, always told me if learned how to play ‘Raw Hide’ he would buy me a Gibson F-5 mandolin.”

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Fiddler Marcy Cochran reflects on Christmas show for troops
One of my favorite Christmastime memories as a performer is of going to Fort Riley, Kan., in November 2005 with my band, Dead Men’s Hollow, to perform in a gala Christmas concert for the men and women of the 24th Infantry Division.

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Tim Shelton’s greatest Christmas gift ever
“My favorite Christmas memory is easy. One that will be the same year in and year out. It’s not about presents, lights or trees or any traditional memories associated with the season.

2007 Christmas Memories
Bill Monroe for Christmas by Tom T. Hall
One Christmas eve when I was nine years old, I lived with my parents and my eight brothers and sisters in the hills of Kentucky. This would have been 1945.

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Donna Hughes remembers her Dad, Thomas Edwin Hughes
My Dad was the best Dad in the world. He was always there for me in every way. If it weren’t for my Dad, I could have never gotten this far in music. I lost him to cancer December 11, 2005.

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Steve Gulley’s holiday adventure – on ice
My father, Don, and I were booked to play a Christmas party along with the rest of the Pinnacle Boys in Knoxville, Tenn., back in the ’80s.That sounds pretty harmless right? Wrong!

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Darrin Vincent’s Favorite Christmas Memories
I remember as a child waking up early, before dawn, knowing that Santa had come. We’d tear open the gifts and leave paper strewn all over the living room. Then we would all get dressed and head over to my grandparents’ house to have more Christmas. I remember having breakfast there. My Grandma Helen (Thompson) could really cook, and I loved her gravy and bacon.

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Greg Cahill Memories from the road
I will take a stab at recalling our last tour of the year back in the 1980s, heading into the Christmas break we take every year so we can have quality time with our families who put up with us being away from home all to frequently throughout the year.

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Jamie Dailey shares some Favorite Memories
One of my fondest memories of Christmas as a child was decorating our home the day after Thanksgiving. We would start on the outside. We lived on a hill above a beautiful lake, with surrounding hills and a huge bridge off in the distance that crossed the lake that fed into the Cumberland River.

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Bobby Osborne recalls rocky Christmas gift
“l would like to share a Christmas story that has meant more to me than any other story I could ever think of,” he said. “The song ‘Rocky Top’ was released on Christmas Day of 1967 on then-Decca Records (later MCA) by The Osborne Brothers.

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Miss Dixie shares favorite Christmas memories
Christmas at our house is always unusual to say the least. Some surprises for Tom T. have been gifts of five geese, two donkeys and (almost) a pair of bison (that’s buffalo). Fortunately for us, although unfortunate for them, the buffalo up and died a few days before the holiday.