Holiday Traditions for a New Generation

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The Holidays: some fear them, and some can’t wait for the next year to come.  What Holidays do well is create a sense of time and tradition within families & friend groups, and create memories that keep us connected.  The types of families we have now may look siginificantly different from families of the past, but it doesn’t mean that traditions that have bonded generations won’t work just as well with step-families or chosen families.

Baking, decorating, and doing real, physical activities together are what memories are made of.  Turn off the screens when the weather gets colder, and take out some board games, or set up to make some cookies with a recipe passed down to you.  Teach someone how to make a wreath, trim a Christmas Tree into the perfect shape, knit a winter hat, or snowshoe.  Tell stories about the people in your family – the good and the bad.  Telling these stories can actually enhance a child’s sense of emotional wellness and resilience if the stories are about hardships overcome, or challenges met with success.

And don’t be afraid to try something new – all traditions begin somewhere.  Have you always wanted to paint your windows but don’t feel like you have the “talent”?  Enlist a friend or relative to help you, and try it out.  Worst case scenario, you can just wash it off.  Burnt cookies can be thrown out and started over, and mistakes in knitting can be corrected or even frogged.  Mistakes are just the stepping stones to mastery – and they can be a lot of fun when we make them together.

To make great connections with our family, we must remember that life is more than the screen, the phone, and work.  Memories that were never made are just regrets.  So don’t have any regrets this year – start making new memories early.  Make your own traditions.

What do you think? Are you going to renew old traditions, or create new ones this year? Let me know on Facebook.