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Step in out of the cold and spend a festive evening at the museum learning about Christmas traditions of days past. Author and teacher Amy Tipton Cortner will intertwine personal recollections of childhood Christmases in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with an overview of Christmas traditions in different parts of Appalachia. She will start with the early European settlers and look at traditions through World War II. Cortner will try to answer questions such as, "What is the difference between Christmas and Old Christmas?" and "When did Santa Claus first come to the mountains?" After the talk, join us for some old-fashioned Christmas goodies, a stroll through the galleries, and some lovely music in the atrium from the Shorthand String Band.