The most meaningful part of the holidays for our family is celebrating with traditions. We have an advent calendar that my grandma made when I was a kid, and by some major amount of good karma it has managed to stay mostly intact and in the family (it's amazing we still have it - my mom had a habit of weeding things out on a regular basis). When I think of all the times we've moved and even lost some of the advent ornaments, then magically they've reappeared. So my kids are now placing an ornament on the tree each day, and I tell them about how I used to do the same with my brother each December, and how it was made by my grandma.
Another tradition I started was making one ornament a year for our real tree since my husband and I got married. Each year's ornament symbolizes the year in some way: 1996 - wedding bells; 2000 - the year we moved to SW Portland; 2001the pregnancy of our first born; and 2002 and 2004 the years of our daughters' births. Last year the theme was "musical beds" - as we spent much of the year weaning our kids from the family bed and rewarding them for sleeping independently in their shared bedroom. I am not the most crafty person in the world, but I do enjoy trying to figure out a year's theme then translating that into an ornament for our tree. Our tree never looks like one of those beautiful hotel lobby trees - all coordinated and elegant - but it does carry the memories of our lifetime together.
What holiday traditions does your family carry on from year to year?
I like the idea is so economical and also reminds someone of old good days.
Thanks for sharing the idea.
Posted by: Plumber San Antonio | 03 February 2010 at 06:43 AM