Transporting Oneself Through Holiday Traditions -A Year of Discovery

As Christmas rounds the corner, I look about me and realize that there are those of us that relish holiday traditions and those that do not. I pity those who do not, for it’s not the traditions that matter but what lies behind them that gives them their specialness.

I moved so much in my life that traditions gave me a sense of home and belonging. But as I grew older, I realized the importance of repeating holiday traditions was more about the people who introduced them to me than the actual tradition. Each year, I teleport to my past, to another time when I was embraced and guided by someone special in my life. And it is these split seconds of memory that remind me how much I was and am loved. For these traditions are my past, and remind me, that they will be a part of my future as I encourage others to keep them alive.

I was thinking about traditions as I put my twenty-five-year-old artificial tree up for the last time. As I wound the lights onto each branch, making sure to tuck the wires in so as not to be seen, I could hear my father’s gentle instructions as he told me his secrets to the perfect lighting of the tree. I also smiled as I recalled our first golden retriever rearranging ornaments as a puppy and then remembering pictures with my children in front of the almost real-looking tree. With each ornament I placed on a branch, I could see my mother’s face as she gifted each of us new themed baubles each year. As the dry needles fell to the floor, I recalled another golden retriever helping me every year by carrying each branch from the box to me as I adjusted them on the tree. She was so cute, and after she passed, I continued to put the tree up even though it had seen better days. How could I not continue the tradition of putting up a tree with history when it has brought me such fond memories to last a lifetime?

There are so many traditions this time of year that I almost go overboard. Last night, as I baked to my favorite holiday music in my kitchen, I was transported back to years of singing Winter Wonderland with my dad and Jingle Bell Rock with my daughter. I felt my Grandma Lily by my side, instructing me how to roll dough into a ball properly. I heard the chatter of my mother-in-law, now with the angels, laughing as she showed me how to make her famous candy truffles. And come tomorrow night, I know I will feel my mother by my side as I prepare her famous fried bread. And when everyone arrives to bake with me on Christmas Eve, I will take a moment to look around me and cherish the memory we are making, yet take a moment to remind myself that my son and his family will carry on this event in their own home half-way around the world.

When the evening is over and everyone is sleeping, I will do what both my mom and mother-in-law once did and pull out all the hidden presents; I will stack the gifts in such a way as to shock the recipients in the morning! Silly, I know, but it’s these traditions that I look forward to each year.

I hadn’t realized the significance of family traditions until I got older, and perhaps this is why I write. I don’t want my friends, family, and readers to miss out on the true reason to carry on all these amazing holiday customs that have been passed down forever. I want you to remember those who shared their lives with you, their love with you… their traditions with you.

And should you have to change a tradition, like my having to give up my twenty-five-year-old tree, then don’t be afraid to discover something you have never done before… because I can guarantee you, there’s a whole great big world out there full of traditions just waiting for you to discover, but more importantly, there’s someone extraordinary out there waiting to make a memory with you, and isn’t that what makes holiday traditions worth celebrating?

 

~~~~~ps. The featured photo is a stuffed reindeer my children made me in Key West in 1999 – It sits near the top of the tree every year… a favorite tradition.