by Michele Mccullough

Created on: November 10, 2009

Creating new traditions is essential to keeping family traditions. By adding new and interesting activities to the traditions we have known and held onto for years, we are giving our own children traditions to pass on to their children, while still keeping the most important ones from childhood.

A new tradition within a family unit is not at all hard to create. By adding a new recipe to the dinner menu, you can create a dessert, appetizer, or side dish that is loved by many people and then requested every year after, and there, a new tradition is born! The way things were done when we grew up, such as the traditional meat for Christmas was ham, may be one that you want to hold onto. Also, the traditional pies of apple, lemon meringue,squash, and mincemeat were eagerly looked forward to on our Christmas table. However, over the years, the mincemeat has been replaced with the more modern cheesecakes that are whipped up with cream cheese and Cool Whip. Regardless of the traditions you create, the important thing is that they are yours and family members come to rely on them to be there each holiday season.

In these tough economical times, the tradition of gift giving is taking on some different faces as well. When once we scoured the stores and stood in the lines for the Black Friday deals and the greatest toy of the year, people are generally looking for better ways to give gifts that have more meaning for less money. As a nation, we have bought ourselves to death and now that the funds no longer permit us to do so, creative ways to handle the gift giving process has reached new levels. In this house, we have turned to having a "Dirty Santa" event instead of being under the obligation to buy each individual person a gift. With the addition of two daughter in laws and a grandson, the gift giving list was getting out of hand. Hence, in comes the Dirty Santa routine, and the problem is solved and new tradition is born. The cost was $10.00 per person and a great time was had by all. In the end, everyone gets something, and that's enough to make them happy. I do recommend having a couple of "reasonable, useful" gifts stored aside. That way, if someone ends up with a "gag" gift, they can trade it for something more useful in the end.

Regardless of how you choose to have your Christmas, it is important to have traditions. Combining new and old is the best way to make everlasting memories. Holding onto older ones allows you to keep the memories of your own childhood, while creating new one gives your own children traditions to carry on.

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