Ritual creates family unity and memories that warm our hearts for a lifetime. We asked a panel of loyal Valley Parent readers to share their families’ traditions. Hopefully you will find a way to strengthen your family ties this holiday season with a new idea from our list or by resurrecting a custom from your own childhood.
Our Family Tradition:
I am an only child. When I was a little girl, my mom would make a breakfast on Christmas morning and invite my grandparents and uncle to come and eat. This was my chance to show off what Santa had brought me. Now that I have two children ages 6 and 4, I do the same for Stephen and Madison. I have the Christmas breakfast at my house and invite their grandparents to come. I even make the grits in the same bowl my mom used. The kids love to show off their toys.
– Julie Jackson
A family holiday tradition which I began in 1990 was to dedicate a portion of the day to working with a local charity. Since moving to Columbus, I have chosen to volunteer my time to the Valley Rescue Mission, serving dinners and to the Damascus Way Home for Women and Children by delivering meals to the residents.
This is a tradition which I am teaching to my daughter. Now that she is 2 1/2, she is able to help me carry the meals. We will load up my car and make meal deliveries together.
Every year for Christmas, I purchase a handmade personalized Christmas ornament for her tree which symbolizes a milestone she achieved the previous year. Every year we will be able to unwrap the ornaments and talk about each memory.
– Carol Ann Kaplan
Our favorite family tradition is to make dog biscuits for the dogs in our lives. Family dogs, friends’ dogs, all dogs !!
We make up a really big batch of dog biscuit dough, cut it into fun shapes with cookie cutters or make up our own designs. This is great fun, sometimes messy and very low cal for me! There is even one recipe that is very similar to a breadstick and we dare each other to try it.
We always get wagging tails and lolling tongues when we present our gifts to the very happy recipients.
– Jennifer Kapheim
We like to decorate while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot cocoa. I’m from Michigan so the hot cocoa used to be necessary. After we finish decorating we like to watch a Christmas themed movie.
Another tradition is to bake goodies and deliver them to the neighbors as a family.
– Michelle Lyon
My family and I have several different traditions but one my mom started was to bake all types of candy and cookies and give them out to co-workers, family and friends and also take a tray of baked goodies to our local fire department. A tradition I am going to start this year and continue through the years is to have a Christmas ornament made for my child so when he is older, I will be able to give them to him to have for his tree. My grandmother started this with my first Christmas and continued to do it until I was 18, and then gave me all of my ornaments and each year she had my name and the year put on them. They are very special to me and I want to share that with my child as well.
– Lindsay Rodriguez
For the month of December I wrap one book for each day of the month until Christmas for each child. These are just books that we have at home, some are Christmas books and some are just old favorites. Each night the kids get to pick one each from their piles to open and we read them together. When there is only one book left it is Christmas Eve. The kids love opening their “presents” even if they are books that already belong to them.
I try to buy Christmas books on clearance after the holidays for this purpose. It does take time to wrap that number of books, but it is worthwhile and the kids will always remember it and pass it down to their kids.
– Debbie Robertson
The most important thing about holiday traditions is to have one. Start your own, if need be, and remember you do not have to be Martha Stewart. That which is simple tends to remain more strongly in memory and will stand the test of time.
I grew up in a Polish family, my grandparents all were from the old country. Our extended family was large and close-knit. Family, faith, and of course, food were the center of our lives in ordinary and extraordinary times. My children today do not know that web, given the transient life our military family has led. And the ones who instilled the traditions for us are no longer on this earth. My children would neither recognize nor consume a golumbki. (I will spare you the stories, the memories of my childhood.)
A number of years ago, my son Joe requested that I make reindeer cookies for his classroom party. I was on the job! “Joe, do you mean the ones that are chocolate with pretzels for the antlers?” I asked. “No. Not those,” he said. “Oh, then, you mean the peanut butter ones with the gumdrop noses?” I ventured again. “No, that is not what I am talking about,” he replied. I racked my brain. “Well now, Joe, I have NO idea what you are talking about!” I was exasperated.
“Mom,” he said, “I mean the ones you slice and bake. The ones you get at the grocery store.”
Our parish priest, when we lived in California, once said that the most powerful Christmas memory he had was that of his mother taking him to the crèche at church, and just standing there with him.
Little things, simple things, mean a lot when they are done together with great love. I needed my son to remind me that once upon a cookie ago.
– Julie Hird
Our Family Holiday tradition is to hand make place mats for the table. I cut out holiday pictures from magazines, received in the month of November and December (Family Circle, Pier One ads, etc). The pictures can be of ornaments, trees, glassware, silverware, plates, cookies, stars, candles,
just anything that is pretty and holiday like. I put all of the cut out pictures in Zip lock bags and on Christmas Eve each family member sits around the table with a piece of construction paper, glue, and all of the cut-outs in the middle of the table. Each person gets to choose their own pictures to create their “personal place mat.” The kids think it is great. They love to glue, and they really enjoy doing projects with the adults. This allows you to change your place mats every year and not cost a lot of money. This adds a personal touch to your dinner table Christmas Day!
– Tina Fischer
I always allow Sarah to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It is always the one that has the pajamas that she wears that night to bed. She also makes cookies with my mother on Christmas Eve for Santa. The most important one is that before bed, we read the Christmas story from a book given to her as a baby and sing “Silent Night” together before she goes to bed.
– Marlisa Clark
On Thanksgiving day we always go to my grandmother’s house in Waverly Hall. My 83-year-old grandmother cooks most of the food and would not have it any other way. This was the second Thanksgiving without our grandfather and so for desert we remembered him by sitting down at the table for a big piece of coconut cake, made just like he liked it, and drank his favorite sweet, sweet tea.
After dinner, a few adults and all of the children go outside for a game of kickball or baseball. The others sit on the front country porch in rocking chairs, sipping sweet tea and savoring the peacefulness of the holiday season. That evening when my family and I return home, together, we put up the Christmas Tree and prepared for the greatest season of all: Christmas.
– Kristi Lott
