by Trenna Sue Hiler

Created on: December 15, 2008

Serendipity is a happy accident and I believe that is how most great holiday traditions begin. They start with an idea and it turns out to be a happy accident that sticks. Examining a few of our holiday traditions may help illustrate the theory.

My sister was the oldest child in our family. She was two when Mom was setting up the ceramic nativity scene. Some how baby Jesus became misplaced. It was an accident. My sister, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, was the last one who had the figure. Mom spend the better part of December looking for baby Jesus and finally decided she need to find a replacement. She waited until the last minute and slipped the baby Jesus in after my sister had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. There began our family tradition of getting up early on Christmas and before checking to see what Santa had left, we always went to the Nativity to make sure that the baby had arrived.

Christmas Eve dinner at our house was always hot dogs, potato chips and dip. We were always out delivering gifts and it was quick and easy. As an adult now I can also see that it was very inexpensive. That probably had more to due with the menu than time. For us it was a treat because chips and chip dip were not common at our home. How smart my parents were to make us think we were having a special dinner because we ate on china and had chip dip and candlelight.

The gifts at our house that came from Santa were always wrapped in very special wrapping paper. He went to all the trouble of getting local newspapers to wrap our gifts in. There was always a newspaper from our birthday and other days that proved he had been watching all year long. The gifts were wrapped with our favorite color of yarn. I am guessing again, money may have been tight, but it really worked for us. We didn't know any different.

One of my nephews favorite activities is blowing the paper off of straws. He was four when this started. His favorite aunts really doesn't approve of the activity and so there is a compromise. This compromise turned into a fantastic tradition. One of the other aunts bought 2500 straws in a bulk style box. She carefully tore the end paper off every straw and put them back in the box and wrapped it. The aunt who hates the activity is never at Gram's house, so this was where the present was opened. I don't even know how to explain the glorious straw paper war that we had that very first time. Straw papers were sticking to the wall, in the tree, and generally all over the house. Everyone from age 78 to 17 days old had a straw or straw paper. I know not every household could handle the experience, but for us it's perfect. Every year at least one person gets the box and the war is on. Those are now some our favorite DVDs as well.

So if you want to start a new tradition, just do what comes naturally and see what sticks.

Learn more about this author, Trenna Sue Hiler.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.