TRADITION!

Grant County Journal
December 6, 2010
Janet Warren
TRADITION!

In one of my favorite musicals, Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye says tradition has helped him keep his balance for many, many years. TRADITION! TRADITION! Now I’ll be humming that song all day.
Family traditions are important for a number of reasons. When you think back on your childhood, it’s usually the traditions that bring back pleasant memories. In this age of divorce, children hang on to those traditions because they can represent stability and continuity. A wise parent keeps these traditions going even when life seems anything but stable.
My family traditions when I was growing up most often revolved around food. My mom always baked sugar cookies. On the Santa cookies, she made a coconut beard and used colored sugar to painstakingly paint his eyes blue and his cheeks and mouth red. They were works of art. I keep this tradition in a way. I collect cookie cutters and always feel the need to bake a batch of sugar cookies during the holidays. But, on the other hand…a can of frosting and some sprinkles suffice for me. One of the newer traditions in our family came about 10 years ago when my sister, Sara, made some pear and sausage stuffing for Thanksgiving. She sent the recipe to her siblings, children, nieces and nephews and most of us still use that stuffing recipe. I had to change it when I married Mike since he is allergic to pork. I started using turkey sausage which isn’t quite as tasty, but I can keep the tradition alive without making my husband sick. Tevye learned to be flexible and change with the times too.
I nosed around a little bit in Ephrata and on Facebook asking people to share some of their traditions with me. I was not disappointed by the response.
Andrea Larsen remembers a time when she was young and her parents couldn’t afford Christmas presents. One very cold Christmas Eve in Seattle, a Secret Santa started a tradition that he/she/they may not even be aware of. A box of Christmas dinner fixings and gifts for the whole family was left on the doorstep. All these years later, Andrea remembers the Yahtzee game she received from a stranger. On years where her parents could afford it, they started paying it forward, providing Christmas gifts for a less fortunate family. Andrea wanted her children to be raised with this legacy, so they have made it a tradition in their family to give gifts and food to a family who otherwise might not have much under the Christmas tree.
Connie Balciar comes from a Danish background. Her paternal grandmother made Christmas mush to eat on Christmas Eve. It was a nice creamy mush made of flour, cream and butter. She would put a ladleful on each plate, butter was then put on the top and spread as it melted. It was topped with cinnamon and sugar. As Connie and her siblings married, the spouses were initiated into the Christmas Eve tradition. Some liked the mush, others didn’t, so other items were added into the night’s meal. Connie remembers Christmas Eve being a wonderful night full of singing, poem reading, and to top off the festivities—a visit from Santa!
My cute hairdresser, Mandolin Hope told me that she and her brothers and sisters were allowed to play with the unwrapped gifts that Santa had left on Christmas morning, but they had breakfast before any of them could unwrap any gifts. Mandolin said, “It was super cool because it dragged it out all day.”
Penny Quist’s favorite tradition is “Drawing Pixies.” The family draws names and does kind things for that person leading up to Christmas. They take turns on Christmas Eve guessing who their pixie was. Once the pixie is guessed, the pixie gives one last small gift.
Lyn Exeter’s children loved it when the elves would come and check on them. As Christmas neared, the kids would find lights suddenly swaying, little candies appearing, unexpected knocks on the door or windows and little footprints in the snow. The kids would beg to go to bed early on Christmas Eve. One year, Santa got a lungful of smoke from calling “Ho, ho, ho” down the chimney. A newer tradition the Exeters started is connecting to their grandson in upstate New York by way of webcam on Christmas morning. That way Grandma and Grandpa don’t miss out on seeing the joy in their grandson’s face as he opens his gifts.
Carol Snapp was my roommate in college 33 years ago. She has been teaching school in Alpine, Utah, since graduation. Her Christmas as a kid happened on Christmas Eve. They went for a drive to see the Christmas lights around town and when they got back, Santa had miraculously been there. No one ever questioned how he always knew when they had left the house. All these years later, Carol wonders why every year they had to beg to open their gifts on Christmas Eve, especially since her father commented years later that opening gifts at night was so much better than in the morning because people could sleep in and they weren’t so grouchy. Oh, the games we parents play!
My sister, Diane, reminded me of how many gingerbread houses my mom made during the holidays. Also, she and my brother Dave would sneak downstairs and unwrap, then rewrap, all the gifts under the tree to find out what they were getting for Christmas. This went on for years, even into their teens. One Christmas they were in quite a hurry and mistakenly mixed up the tags on the gifts. When the rest of the family opened up presents in the morning, we were surprised with some unusual gift choices.
My nephew’s wife, Brittany, told me every Christmas morning they made a trip to a nearby orphanage to give away one of the toys they had unwrapped that morning. “It really made us feel good,” she said.
My sister, Sara, said her kids filed downstairs Christmas morning youngest to oldest. When the married kids came home for Christmas, they insisted on following “tradition” and came down the stairs in order. Sara said they were only able to come down after she had showered, dressed, and put on her makeup because she didn’t want to be caught in the Christmas pictures with bedhead and no makeup. In my family, I made sure I was the one behind the camera.
It’s never too late to start a tradition. Just tell your family, “This year we’re going to try something new…” If it works out and you do it next year, it’s TRADITION!