S/0 Thanksgiving: Are holiday traditions important to your family?

[MEmama]

Have they always been?

[Anne]

Yes - and also, No.

 

We have things that we "always" do for various holidays - but sometimes, we do something different b/c that's what works best that year.

 

So, I guess I would say we hold our traditions lightly, ready to do something different and new, but enjoying the old also.

 

Anne

[maize]

Yes; I think traditions have a grounding effect on families and individuals.

 

They have to be traditions that fit the needs of your particular family and season of life though, no sense in holding on to a tradition for the sake of the tradition of it has become more of an encumbrance than a joy.

[J-rap]

I'm a yes/no person too.  I grew up with very specific holiday traditions, and I loved them.  But I married someone from a very different background and view on traditions.  It got me thinking that although some traditions are good and meaningful, it's also okay to let go of some of them or change things around a bit.

[regentrude]

Yes and no.

As immigrants, we were trying to retain some traditions from our home culture while at the same time building new traditions in a new country.

Being several thousand miles from extended family and never being able to spend any holiday with them means changing traditions to fit our small nuclear family and expanding to friends.

Now having children grown up, DD living away and only coming home for short periods, traditions change again, because lives evolve. 

[Alice]

Yes, I think traditions are important but not just for the sake of being a tradition. I value the traditions that are specific to our family more than traditions that are what everyone else does. And I think it's ok for traditions to change and morph as kids get older and families change. 

[Guest]

They were, until we found out that the majority wanted to abandon them. We no longer do the traditional extended family meal and gift giving because my children are the youngest, and the majority wanted an 'adult' holiday. We celebrate with just our children and any friends who take us up on the invite. The last few years, my son has been visiting his friends and helping them cook while their parents work a double shift.

[littlebug42]

To my family, the most important tradition is just making time to be together.  We always had the same tradition for years but life circumstances have changed for all of us so we are adjusting to a new normal.  We make the time for each other though.  

[HomeAgain]

Yes..........ish.  There are some traditions our family has developed that the holidays wouldn't feel right without.  They're not the traditions either my husband or I grew up with, though.

[JenneinCA]

It didn't start that way but it seems to have become very important to my kids.

 

We moved away from Arizona about eight years ago. We had spent the day with my parents on thanksgiving when we were there but it wasn't a huge deal we saw them on most major holidays and just spent the day and came home. But after we moved it took far more effort to visit my parents that are now 14 hours away by car. So going just once made more sense. While we were strictly do it yourself homeschoolers we just took the week of thanksgiving and went.

 

But my older kids are now at the community college and things are more difficult. It turns out that they really really think thanksgiving at my parents and spending the week there is important. So the first year they took only Tuesday/Thursday classes and made arrangements with the teachers to miss only that one class. This year my daughter was able to do the Tuesday/Thursday schedule but my son wasn't. He still made special arrangements with all the teachers that were affected and is going to Arizona for the week.

 

It is important to them. I am both happy and kind of amused by it. The thanksgiving trip to Arizona was never supposed to be this big of a deal. Thanksgiving was never that big of a holiday for me or my husband growing up. It wasn't even that big of a deal when we lived in Arizona. But it is now.

 

I don't know how this will shake out when they are away from home and away from the local community college. I guess we will figure it out when we get there.

[lynn]

We changed and adjusted over the years. I am surprised at what the kids expect for the holidays. I never knew they cared so much. So I keep some.

[MEmama]

It didn't start that way but it seems to have become very important to my kids.

 

We moved away from Arizona about eight years ago. We had spent the day with my parents on thanksgiving when we were there but it wasn't a huge deal we saw them on most major holidays and just spent the day and came home. But after we moved it took far more effort to visit my parents that are now 14 hours away by car. So going just once made more sense. While we were strictly do it yourself homeschoolers we just took the week of thanksgiving and went.

 

But my older kids are now at the community college and things are more difficult. It turns out that they really really think thanksgiving at my parents and spending the week there is important. So the first year they took only Tuesday/Thursday classes and made arrangements with the teachers to miss only that one class. This year my daughter was able to do the Tuesday/Thursday schedule but my son wasn't. He still made special arrangements with all the teachers that were affected and is going to Arizona for the week.

 

It is important to them. I am both happy and kind of amused by it. The thanksgiving trip to Arizona was never supposed to be this big of a deal. Thanksgiving was never that big of a holiday for me or my husband growing up. It wasn't even that big of a deal when we lived in Arizona. But it is now.

 

I don't know how this will shake out when they are away from home and away from the local community college. I guess we will figure it out when we get there.

That sounds like a nice surprise. :)

 

I'm always interested in how traditions begin, and at what point they become important.

[Sherry in OH]

I read somewhere that to children anything you do two years in a row becomes tradition.  I'm not sure it is two years with my children, it is more we did something fun last year, we'll do it again this year and every year until we outgrow it.

 

They outgrew reading Gingerbread Friends last year.   :sad: They still like decorating gingerbread houses and men though.

[MrsMommy]

Yes they are, but some things have changed. We have especially added some new traditions that reflect our family as our children have gotten older. And I used to think that the traditions were all about me and what I like, but I've come to realize that they're even more important to the young people in our house.

[Bluegoat]

Yes, I think traditions are important.  They don't need to be complicated.  I think traditions are an important way to connect with others, in our family but also with others outside the family.