In a world faced with uncertainties, we crave our holiday traditions now more than ever. We want to embrace what is familiar. What is comforting is a table filled with family, friends, laughter, and food from recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.
I was in charge of the stuffing and Waldorf Salad this year. My mother gave me the stuffing recipe that she has used since her mother taught her to make it. Now I am taking up the tradition, and I will pass it on to my children. These recipes and traditions can be such a stabilizing part of our lives.
My mother recently moved, and it has not been the same this year. She said that she wasn’t going to decorate for Christmas this season, because it is so much trouble getting all the ornaments out, and then putting them away after the holidays.
It would have been so hard to imagine going to my mother’s home on Christmas morning without the Christmas tree and the festive decorations that she so lovingly put out every year of my life.
I suggested that we just change a few things this year and still make it work, and the traditions will grow and change with the times, and my mother agreed.
When my daughter asked my mother about the traditions we always had every year, she said that many years ago, she just decided that we were going to have some traditions, and she simply made them up as she went along.
After all these years of my mothers’ wonderful traditions, these are what her children and grandchildren now embrace and cherish so very much.
One of these traditions that my mother started years ago was to have a “Family Wassail Party” the weekend after Thanksgiving. The entire family goes over to my mother’s house, and drinks wassail (a hot mulled cider), eats, talks and helps decorate the tree.
There is a rule that you must put at least 10 ornaments on the tree before you can leave. This creates such fun and merriment, as everyone is part of the overall creation.
The tallest members of the family put the ornaments way up high, and the smaller ones decorate the lower hard-to-reach part of the tree.
The laughter and sharing of the evening together is a time when we all get to relax and just catch up with each others’ lives, since we are all running at lightning speed these days.
My family is very large, and even though most of us live in the same city, we don’t get to see each other all that often. It is the eye-to-eye contact, sharing and communication that truly bond us together.
These traditional events reconnect us and bring us closer together as a family.
I am going to make my grandmother’s recipe (that was handed down to my mother, and now to me), with loving care. I know that the energy and love that I will put into the making of this dish will be what makes it so good.
All the foods your grandmother made had her loving energy in it. The main ingredient was always love. That is why that familiar traditional food tastes so much better. That is also why we crave it when we are sad or lonely.
So as we continue our traditions, remember that we can create comforting, wonderful memories for our families and friends by just relaxing, and putting a lot of love into everything we do. It is the warm feelings in the traditions that we will always cherish.
It truly is about being present, and being here, right now. Slow down and savor the moment. It is food for our soul.
copyright@nancyaddison2014
Thank you Nancy, for talking about the importance of traditions. Traditions are so important for strengthening our family bonds, and are such a comfort and a way to slow down and connect in our fast-paced world. Young and old alike benefit from sharing time together and learning from each other, and children create memories from traditions that will stay with them forever.
That was a wonderful post! What a great story and it really is all about being in the moment!