The Evolution of Tradition
Hygiene Chronicles | December 14A few weeks ago, a fellow blogger sent an email asking about family traditions. It got me thinking that we’ve never officially established ones in our current family.
Many times traditions begin in one generation and are passed down. As I reflected on my favorite traditions growing up, I realized how times have changed so much that what I held sacred as a part of the holidays, no longer exists for this generation.
My dad and I were always in charge of setting up the Christmas tree. Each year, we’d haul out the two giant boxes of green bristle brushes and magically construct our family tree. In those days, there was a green pole and you’d insert the metal tip from each branch into a corresponding hole. The tips of the branches were colored and we had to follow a chart to coordinate where each branch went into the tree. After the tree was complete, we’d struggle for 24 hours putting on the lights and ensuring each bulb worked properly. It wasn’t rocket science, but it was a fun task to do with your dad.
This year, my partner & I unfolded our tree like an umbrella and plugged it in. It took eight-minutes.
At the same time my dad & I had been putting together our fake tree, we’d play holiday music in the background. My brother and I would raid the record collection and pile as many Firestone 33’s onto the record player. We’d scour each side to see which songs we loved the most and then would giggle with joy as the needle would slide back after the record finished and the next would drop down on top of the previous. We learned that one could stack 7 records before the player couldn’t balance the heavy plastic albums any more.
This year, we put the Christmas playlist on random shuffle.
In late November, the TV Guide would put a list of all Christmas specials that were going to be television. My brother and I would cut it out and tape it on our bedroom door so that we didn’t miss our favorite holiday shows. Each morning we’d wake up excited because Rudolph or Frosty or the Heatmiser were going to be on that evening.
This year, my son was able to watch Santa Claus is Coming to Town in April…and June… and September because we own it on video.
My absolute favorite ghost of Christmas past was deciding what toys I wanted.
The best day in our house was day the Sears catalog arrived. That evening after dinner, we’d sit with my mom, one of us on each side. She’d grab her pad a paper and we’d go through the book, page-by-page, and shout out what we wanted. Mom would create a master list which actually included page numbers so that Santa could reference the specific make & model of the item.
This year, I received an email with links to the specific toys my niece and nephew wanted as gifts.
It saddens me a little as I watch what I valued as a child disappear; simplicity and a sense of wonder replaced by convenience and technology.
But somewhere, deep inside a holiday such as Christmas or Hanukkah, there lies some values and traditions that never change. It’s about giving, about caring and about loving. No matter how ‘convenient’ our lives become, those never go out of style.
I actually put up the tree this Sunday with the colored branches with my spouse and 2 kids… we put the satellite on French xmas songs… it took the whole night and it was lots of fun. So yeah the spirit is still intact here.
i.e. the colored-tree branches setup is a pain…so I stuff it every year in my golf club travel bag… It’s pretty convenient with the small wheels. Every year I say to my spouse there is no way I will use my golf travel bag… Yeah, I had to load/unload the tree again this year.
Laugh all you want, having fake pine all over your golf bag is a good converstation ice breaker.
Your childhood sounds like mine. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I remember getting those catalogs and circling half the stuff.
I just think back to when I was a kid and my parents and grandparents were always saying the same thing you’re talking about.
Every generation will have their own traditions.
We gave Kristin a catalogue and told her to circle what she wanted. Every single item in that catalogue was circled.
We had traditions when I was young, but we are creating new ones too. We now have a tradition of putting the tree up on Thanskgiving eve and of watching the Grinch and the Wizard of Oz.
For me, the holiday that has changed most and had the most tradition lost is Halloween. There is no way we can go door to door anymore begging for candy from strangers.
I know it sounds super mushy but one of our favorite traditions now is going out with my son and he has 30 dollars to spend on kids whose parents can’t buy presents. He has so much fun picking out just the right toys, deciding whether or not to get one really nice toy or a bunch of small ones so they have alot, it’s almost as exciting as going to see Santa at this point. I work in retail so Christmas traditions get squeezed in here and there now and that’s hard but getting to stay up late to wrap presents, putting all the specialty ornaments on the tree, and then helping cook on Christmas day are so important now. I think that things are too easy on the level of what kids want and get for Christmas but there so many other traditions that won’t ever go away and in some ways get better. Like driving around looking for the best decorated house, for all of us, my son who likes the big blow up thing, me who likes lots of lights and wooden figures, and my husband who likes the iceicles and traditional…
I used to love the Sears Catalog. It had everything in there.