Storytellers and a chili dinner warm hearts at Christmastime in Brundidge

Those who came to the We Piddle Around Theater Thursday night looking for Christmas found it. Or, maybe, it was as nationally acclaimed storyteller Dolores Hydock said, Christmas found them.

Hydock and master musician, Bobby Horton, were in concert at the Brundidge folklife theater for A Chili Country Christmas and left the audience limp with laughter and struggling to hold back tears.

“This is what Christmas is all about,” said Mary Ann Casey of Troy. “Sometimes we do go looking for Christmas and, instead, have it find us. Christmas found me tonight. I don’t know when I’ve laughed so much and been so moved. Transformed. I want to experience this again. It was that good. God has richly blessed these two people and they, in turn, richly blessed us.”

For Pam Rhodes of Ozark, the Hydock-Horton Christmas show, “Jingle All the Way,” took her from where she was to where there were magical places created in story and song.

“Oh, my goodness,” Rhodes said. “I left my seat. I was there with them. And what wonderful places to be. When Dorlores Hydock talked about her mother, it was with humor, but also with so much love and compassion.

“I didn’t know what I was going to see at the theater but it was a wonderful way to begin the Christmas season. I can’t explain what it meant, too. It was amazing.”

Chris Rich, associate professor of Theater Design and Technology, said the combination of Hydock’s stories and Horton’s music was wonderful.

“That combination was a different take on storytelling,” Rich said.

“And, the way they involved the audience with the singing of the carols brought to the performance a real sense of community. The familiar carols and Christmas songs bind communities and borders.”

Rich said the Hydock-Horton storytelling concert was what Christmas should be.

“It was a chance to slow down and do something together,” he said. “It was a gift. It was Christmas finding us.”