Some family traditions are passed down from one generation to the next. Others are started by a single generation. This post describes some of our meaningful family traditions.
Traditions become traditions because family members see value in repeating them.
Here “value” suggests things like enhancing relationships, pleasant reminders of the past, and carrying forward things we believe to be important to us.
Some family traditions are passed down from one generation to the next. Others are started by a single generation. Likewise, some traditions will cease to be observed because they’re no longer relevant to the children or grandchildren.
Some Holiday Traditions
We decorate some for Thanksgiving, but decorate much more for Christmas.
The Christmas decorations normally stay up late November to early January. Now we live in the mountains. Our home isn’t visible from the street. So, I no longer am required to hang lights outside. Truthfully, I certainly don’t miss that tradition!
Other Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions include pies, fudge, and party mix.
As expected, Christmas traditions are a bit different once there are no small children in the house. With kids there were always lots of gifts under the tree. Plus, gifts hidden in closets to put out on Christmas Eve. And reading of the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2. Some of the churches we attended would have a Christmas Eve service.
Unsurprisingly, Cyndi would occasionally forget some gifts as she would buy them throughout the year, hide the gifts, then forget where they were hidden! Hence, Christmas in February on occasion.
Family gatherings are a tradition, especially for Thanksgiving. It’s enjoyable as a parent to see the children, grandchildren, and in-laws all interacting with each other. Now that we have retired and downsized, it’s nice that our oldest has a large home for hosting all of the extended family.
Thanksgiving brings with it Black Friday. The females in our family tend to get up early and shop for hours that day. The guys stay home, eat leftovers, and take a nap, or two. Although online shopping is reducing the need for in-store shopping, as of this writing, they are still going to the stores on the day after Thanksgiving.
Our kids enjoy gathering at our youngest daughter’s house around the July 4 holiday. When the kids were small we would find a fireworks display to attend. Now that they are grown, finding fireworks is their responsibility!
My wife and I never were big on New Years Eve. We preferred to have a quiet evening at home instead of going out.
Summer Vacations
When I was growing up, summer vacation always meant a trip to see family in South Carolina. Once we were married, we would visit my wife’s family, and my family, during vacation times.
After our kids were older and out of the house vacation scheduling changed. For several years we would rent a large house in the mountains of North Georgia. Our kids and grandkids would be in and out as their schedules permitted.
It’s amazing how if you rent the cabin and buy much of the food the kids will come to see you!
Often those vacations in the mountains involved a trip to the Georgia Mountain Fair in July. We first visited there in 1989, during the time I was in graduate school at the University of Georgia. When schedules permitted, we revisited that fair as part of other summer vacations.
After retirement and downsizing we moved to the same general area in the mountains where we vacationed for years. Unfortunately, our smaller home with only one spare bedroom doesn’t allow for all the kids and grandkids to visit at the same time.
Gee, who planned that?!
Seasonal Traditions
My wife and I both enjoy college football. As a result, growing up our kids were fed a steady diet of all-day Saturday activities during college football season.
While at Miami University, we were season ticket holders for home football games. If there was no home game, Saturday was spent in front of the TV on pregame shows, then multiple games during the afternoon and evening. That pattern continues for the two of us, but less so for our children due to the constant Saturday activities of the grandchildren.
For us, football food is most often a crock pot of chili. Put it on first thing in the morning then start eating by mid-afternoon.
Some seasonal traditions are dependent on the ages of the children. For example, Halloween activities go away quickly when the kids get bigger. Or, when you live in a neighborhood that doesn’t get door-to-door traffic because the houses are too far apart.
Similarly, the kids quickly outgrow Valentines Day and Easter. However, when the kids were smaller we frequently had Easter egg hunts at the house or at the home of a relative.
For a short period of time we had an Easter egg tree in the front yard. Ugh!
Special Events
We tended to make a big deal of graduations from high school and college. That included a graduation party and family coming to our house from out of town. We would also travel out of state for graduations that involved extended family.
My wife’s family was active with family reunions, especially on her mom’s side of the family. As a result, every three years or so there was a summer trip where we all rented cabins or houses. Those trips involved locations such as the mountains or beside a lake.
It’s not clear that those reunions will continue because the great-grandparents generation that started them has now all passed away.
For my family, the Youngs would meet annually on a Sunday in September. I attended only a couple of those meetings as a child because of the required travel time. Similarly, it’s difficult for family who don’t live near South Carolina to participate in the Young Estate annual meeting in early December because of the travel involved.
For our family, birthdays were always important because my wife learned that from her family. Growing up the kids always had some type of party that involved family. There was a cake and decorations. Conversely, for me, growing up, birthdays were observed, but much less important.
What To Continue?
Our children will decided which family traditions they want to continue. That’s really their choice. For example, summer reunions are much more difficult to attend due to participation in team sports by our grandchildren.
I suspect the family holiday get-togethers around Thanksgiving and July 4 will continue with our children.
Our three oldest grandchildren have reached, or are very near, college age. It’s likely that older grandkids being away from home will impact some of the current family travel, as well as attendance at family events.