Editing Traditions: Just because your family has myriad holiday traditions, doesn’t mean all of them need to be rolled out every year.
Growing up, my family had lots of traditions, like opening an advent calendar and making cookies. I especially recall Christmas Eve traditions – going to church, opening one present each and completing a 500 piece holiday themed puzzle. My husband’s family had their own traditions that were very different from those of my family. While we were dating, my husband willingly participated in my family’s traditions. After we married though he shared that he really didn’t enjoy doing the holiday puzzle or going to Christmas Eve services, because his family hadn’t done those things.
In time, we each acknowledged the holidays were about more than those traditions we each grew up with. Instead the holidays were an opportunity for our family to create our own traditions. Traditions that brought us all at least some degree of joy. As a result we’ve grown comfortable with mixing up our holiday traditions, to the point where some people would question whether we have any traditions at all.
Some years we attend a Christmas Eve service, while some years we spend Christmas Eve with family elsewhere. Some years I bake, some years I don’t. For a number of years we hosted a New Year’s Eve party that was becoming a tradition of sorts, but then last year we totally mixed things up and went to Florida during the holidays. It was a great trip, but we missed connecting with family and friends at home. This is how we’ve determined which traditions are worth coming back to – those that are truly missed. But, in order to figure out what you’ll miss, you sometimes need to let go and see what happens.
What holiday traditions might you be willing to edit this year? What might editing some of those traditions create opportunity for during your holiday season?