Week 48: My Tradition (Member Photos)
Cai Vail - This is the first year I’m really considering our holiday traditions as a family, and I realize that it’s up to us (mostly me, if we’re being honest, right?) to decide what our family’s holiday traditions will be, what our children will grow up with and remember fondly when they are adults themselves, and perhaps pass on to their kids.
My own family, and my partner’s, as it turns out, very much buy into the commercial concept of Christmas, and spend way too much on a ton of stuff for everyone. As I grow older I’ve become more and more disillusioned by the overcommercialization of holidays (including birthdays). I’m not a Christian, but I agree that the meaning of Christmas and all holidays are being lost in a pile of cheap plastic gizmos nobody really needs. Since we’re starting out as a new family of 3, at least within our little tribe, we can create new traditions that don’t involve the “Hottest Gift” of the year or guilt one another for not being able to afford more than a couple of small things.
I have been enjoying creating new, simple traditions (like creating a cranberry garland for our tree, pictured). Our families tease me and say, “Just wait til (my son’s) a few years older, you’ll be buying all that crap too.” Maybe, but I really don’t like that mindset. There’s nothing that says we have to buy into our society’s overconsumption as part of holidays that are meant to celebrate the beauty of new beginnings, humility, and the miracle of having a little and making the most of it.
Ivana Claudio - My grandma used to knit sweaters for my mom. Then my mom used to knit sweaters for my sisters and me. I am now continuing the tradition by knitting my first sweater for my daughter.
Emily Ingalls - Trying to get one decent family photo. It's attempted every year. One day I'll look back and love how goofy and silly every one was and how everyone was just being themselves. That's why I continue to make the attempt. I want the kids to have the memories of all of us together even when it's less than perfect.
Loren Haar - I decided to post a picture of a new tradition since I've been married. It means a lot more to my husband than to me, because he grew up with it, but it has become a strong part of me and ours as well -- my 7 year old now looks forward to it. We call it the Pyramid thing, I'm not even sure what it's called! We unpacked it together a few days ago and she helped me put it together. Once all the plates were on we set up the candles, lit them, dimmed the lights, and watched the three wise men and baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph, and all the animals and shepards and angels go round and round, perpetually.
Manjula Prabhu - We don't celebrate Christmas, but I love all the lights and festive look the city has. We try to visit as many places that have a light show. We also love to drive around several neighborhoods and enjoy all the decorations people have put outside their house.
I seem to have created a tradition of our own, without really trying to create one. Every year just before my son's birthday, I get very nostalgic. I start reading the book I made while I was pregnant. I love to read all the details right until the day he was born. It makes me all warm and fuzzy to remember that little bundle they placed in my arms for the very first time.
Invariably, my son always joins me while I am reading and he loves it when I tell him "stories". He enjoys looking at pictures of when we did his room or when I was picking out his clothes. He loves looking at pictures of our family dog {who is now no more} while we were doing up his room. He is amazed at how big my belly got by the end of the book.
But then he also feels bad that they had to cut open my belly to get him out. He always asks if it hurt and then he says he is sorry! I tell him that it did not hurt at all and I was happy to have him in my belly all to myself.
This has become a tradition of some sort and every year I seem to remember something different to tell him. I hope we can hold on to sharing this special memory for at least a couple more years. www.urbanhuesphotography.com
Briar Marie - There is so much to say. (I know you're not surprised by that!) The year that I was born, my Mom started an ornament tradition. Every year there is a new design and we make them for all of our family and many of the children of our friends. Every single one of them is unique and specially made for the person who receives it. There are anywhere from around 50 to well over 200 this year. Maybe even closer to 300. Yes, I have a little factory (TV Table and craft organizer) in my living room where I work furiously every minute that my babies are sleeping for the month of November.
Why do we do this? Seriously, it's a lot of work. ;) Well a few reasons. The ornaments are from the kids. So when I was little, I remember it being something that I could GIVE at Christmas. It's hard to teach little ones the joy of giving when they are just getting, getting, getting! It was also something special I had that was just mine to put on the tree each year. It's a way to keep in touch with friends along the way. It's a way to share all of those joys with the ones we love.
Somehow we have managed to keep up this tradition for 36 Christmases now. Some years I didn't help at all and my sisters carried me, and some years I have done the same for them. I live in a different state now and we still manage (mostly via text) to work on these little works of love "together". Even though we're apart, it brings me back to my Mom.
This year was something special though because this year my Mom was here with me and we got to make them together in front of a football game again. I tried desperately to get a few pictures of the beautiful love that they truly represent, but it seems impossible to hold it all in one image so I gave us a real documentary photo session that I will treasure forever.
And then the real surprise. For the first year my boys have shown real interest. The two older boys made their own and their teachers' ornaments. I'll take any help I can get - my share was 96 ornaments this year! And even when I make most of them, the boys help choose colors and they do still get to share in the joy of giving them at Christmas time. Because now the ornaments are all from the next generation.
Jenny Parker - We never had special stockings when I was little. I have no idea what stocking I used as a child, but some years ago, my mom ordered us all our own personalized stockings and holders to keep at her house. Every year, we hang them on the entertainment center (why not the mantle, I have no idea!). Everett fell in love with these stockings last year, and he was absolutely delighted to see them again this year. He takes them off and on the holders over and over and over.
Jennifer L. Bruce - In the many years before my husband and I were finally able to have a child, we engaged in holiday traditions we brought from our own childhoods, like opening gifts on Christmas Eve and stockings on Christmas morning (mine) or watching It's A Wonderful Life (his). One year, I bought a copy of The Night Before Christmas and I read it aloud to my husband, our cat, and two dogs. It stuck. Now we get to share the magic with our daughter, who is more interested in the magic of the camera with its blinking light.
