The importance of holiday traditions

Do you have holiday traditions that you follow each year? Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever is your celebration, you likely have some traditions. These traditions may be more important than we all realize.

We wanted to share what research shows about the importance of maintaining traditions. First, traditions are important because they are a way to pass along cultural and family values and give each person a sense of identity and belonging. Traditions strengthen the bonds with family and friends and are a bridge between the past, the present and the future. Often family members started the traditions long ago and those people and happy times are being remembered in the present. As each generation continues the traditions, there are stories of enjoyable times spent together and activities shared that can be carried forward to the future with more stories being added. Traditions have many ways they are celebrated and often they involve decorations, food and activities.

Decorations with memories attached to them become part of traditions and that’s what makes them meaningful. For us, there are some bears and reindeer that the children loved, and little elves that come out at Christmas time to sit on the bookshelves. Years ago, the children gave us poinsettia potholders that get hung up each year. And, of course, we enjoy the musical snow globe. My parents shared that, when Dad was in the Air Force, their first Christmas tree was decorated with tiny airplane lights painted with red nail polish. So decorations don’t have to be elaborate nor expensive, but hopefully, they add something special to the occasion.

Food also plays an important part in traditions. In Doug’s Norwegian family, favorite foods include lutefisk (cod fish with the consistency of jello that has many stories about it), lefse and kringle, a bread-like cookie. There are often lots of cookies.

Recently Doug sang at a Christmas banquet – no lutefisk and lefse, instead a traditional holiday turkey dinner was enjoyed. There, an exchange student from Romania shared that in his country, they eat cake at Christmas time and cookies are eaten at Easter. Think about what foods you and your family enjoy in the holidays and how these have meaning and memories connected to them. Each nationality and family have their traditional meals with the special foods they enjoy.

Activities become part of traditions, too. We enjoy entertaining, watching some holiday movies, such as It’s a Wonderful Life, going to concerts and playing board games like Scrabble. These are simple, fun and repeatable traditions.

We talked to some people to see what traditions they have and what makes them meaningful. We met Melissa Kreuser who told us about her family’s traditions and why they are important to her. She shared, “One of my favorite family traditions, that I helped start, is that we gather with some of my cousins at my aunt’s house and we bake traditional holiday cookies every year. We pick a Saturday and we bake all day. We dress up for it, too. We helped my aunt and it’s something she learned as a young girl, with certain recipes, so we learned how to make them and we carry them on for the family. Then we all share them on Christmas Eve when we celebrate Christmas together.” We thought that was a “yummy” tradition to have for a family.

Then we met Jennifer Barrett from Victoria who was doing some shopping in Chanhassen. Jennifer told us, “I have a very difficult time keeping any traditions because my husband travels around the world quite a bit so it’s difficult for us to make any plans and implement any traditions. But, every year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we try to get together with my family and his family. We’ll either be with my family on Christmas Eve and his on Christmas Day or the opposite. Then after Christmas we like to go to Lutsen and spend time there with our children, skiing and having a really nice time.” These traditions sound like lots of fun, family times.

We shared the importance of holiday traditions and some ways to have traditions. We wonder about you and what traditions you follow.

Here’s a challenge: We invite you to enjoy the traditions of the past and also to develop some new traditions that are a fit for you, your family and your lifestyle. As you experience the fun and meaning of traditions, we wish you a season of joy and holiday cheer, and most of all, a wonderful year!

Chanhassen residents Doug and Lynn Nodland are Success Coaches and owners of The Balance Center. They can be contacted at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2017 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.