Creating Family Holiday Traditions

Having family traditions is one of the most important things you can do to maintain a healthy life. Every tradition is unique to each ethnicity, or even to each family. If you don’t have traditions already, the holiday season is the perfect time to start a ritual, celebration or habit of your own.

Families can celebrate the holidays in many ways, and here are a few examples of traditions that may work for you.

Celebrate your heritage – If your family has immigrant roots, prepare special foods that honor that heritage. Traditions based on your family’s ethnic and religious heritage. Families of African-American origin celebrate the Kwanzaa that commemorate the African values; while families from the Philippines take Christmas dinner once midnight of December 25 strikes, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Create at-home activities – Get everyone to involve in family activities indoors, such as decorating the house, making dinner, eating together (with the TV off), watching a favorite video, playing games or cards, singing carols.

Take a family outing – These outings can be as elaborate as a ski vacation or as simple as trips to a local museum or attraction.

Volunteer – Take your family to perform charity and volunteer work such as serving food at a soup kitchen or visiting residents of a nursing home.

Attend worship services – As a family, go outside and attend worship services. Give thanks for the blessings of the passing year.

Talk to your children about the celebration – Share to your child the values in commemorating the holidays as well as the specifics of your family celebration. Make sure your children help plan the celebration and assist with preparations, such as helping set the table or greeting guests. 

As your children grow older, you can provide more details about how your family traditions got started and why they’re important. These details will help your children understand the traditions so they can carry them on when they are adults or adapt them to their own lives as they get older, providing each generation with links to the past.

Try establishing new and different traditions – For some families, memories of a certain holiday and special events may not be pleasant. Put up new and different traditions to give new meaning to these special days.

HELPING Your Kids Learn the True Meaning of the Holidays

As your children grow into adolescence, they tend to spend more time outside the home and with friends, and are exposed to a lot more media messages beyond the influence of parents. These kids are bombarded with advertising, from the blatant to the subtle, especially during the busy shopping season.

Your growing children are beginning to search for an identity separate from parents and family, making them especially vulnerable to manipulative advertising that plays of their insecurities. Here are some ways that you can help in having your kids realize that the holidays are more than material gains.

Help your child separate the fact from marketing – A product endorsed by their favorite celebrity will not give them a better sense of who they are.

Make special holiday memories with your kids – Do things that they will enjoy and cherish, so that some day they might share those things with their own children.

Do volunteer work – Any community center or organization can advise your teen on how and where to begin, and the holidays are a great time not only to lend a helping hand, but also to reflect.

Have your kids provide gifts – Exchange gifts with each other that do not cost much money, such as hand-made cards, artwork, or crafts. Have your child provide a gift for you, a sibling, or a friend, teaching them the value of giving and sharing for the holidays.

Help your kids concentrate on improving their actions – Your kids should be guided in making improvements based on actions rather than consumerism. They will be happier and more productive, and will know real warmth this holiday season.