The following article was published in the December 2019 issue of Southern Living magazine.
“Christmas was not much of a celebration because Mommy and Daddy were so poor,” she explains.
“They didn’t have money to buy stuff.”
Lynn is known for wearing ball gowns and has hundreds in her collection.Credit: David McClister; Prop Styling: Brit Piller; Hair and Makeup Styling: Cali Jeffries Lightcap
But Lynn doesn’t want to forget about the hard times.
Paintsville, with a population of a similar size, was about 10 miles away.
If they wanted to visit either town, they walked.
It was in Van Lear that 12-year-old Lynn saw electric Christmas lights for the very first time.
Sometimes when it snowed, they would scoop some up and sprinkle it with milk and sugar.
She remembers that being the closest any of them ever came to eating ice cream.
But poverty didn’t stop the Webb family from celebrating in the holler.
Most years, Santa delivered a rag doll her mother handcrafted.
The one holiday that was particularly memorable was when she received a real doll.
Like her dolls, her clothes were repurposed.
Wearing their best, the family would congregate with their neighbors for holiday services.
“It was button-down to the waist in the front.”
Even popcorn, which was a holiday treat, served two purposes.
Popping it in a skillet helped to keep their little house warm while they sang carols.
“We’d eat our popcorn and look at our tree,” Lynn says.
“We waited all year for it.
That was our Christmas.
We loved it.”
