January 5, 2015

Traditions are Front and Center This Time of Year.

Well the big bang is over, so to speak.  The holiday that most pine and prepare and premeditate over has come and gone. Perhaps more than anything else,  traditions abound and are front and center this time of year it would seem.  

While there are the standard mainstays such as figgy pudding, egg nog, and possibly even fruit cake, families the world over tend to devise their very own rites and rituals, some of which can be rather unique.   Whatever the case, it's somehow comforting to come together and revisit said traditions every year.

Holidays in my family, as in most others, have most often been a time to come together and celebrate.  Through the years there was however, nary a fruitcake in sight to my recollection.  Yet the ever present popcorn cake has always been a family favorite.  In fact, often my mom sometimes makes a separate cake for one or two lucky recipients.  Needless to say the treat doesn't last long in our house.

Christmas Eve is the time for Dad's annual reading of the beloved "Night Before Christmas", with its embellishments and flourishes that make it uniquely ours.  (..."With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a minute it must be Uncle Dick!....")  Every year we chortle at the lines we know so well and expect to hear. Sometimes there are even new delightful phrases to surprise us.  I'm sure that dad spends most of the few weeks before Christmas rehearsing,  rewriting  and personalizing the beloved text to our delight.   Next year the torch may well be handed to my brother who will carry on the beloved literary custom with honor.  And that's what makes it a tradition.

New Year's, for me, means the making of the fudge.  For some reason this delectable treat never appears any other time of the year in my kitchen and perhaps that is what makes it so special. It signals the start of a brand new year and does so in fine order.

 I've also developed the habit of baking my New Year's cutout cookies, usually in the shape of snowflakes, which is most often rather appropriate for the time of year hen a snowstorm can befall us at any given day.  This allows me to catch up after the hectic hub bub of holiday rush when cookie making was simply out of the question, and my snowflake cookies are a welcome sign prosperity for the new year.

Once it's all over, there are some who rush to remove the holiday clutter and are eager to return to a sense of decorum around the house.  Me, well let's just say that I'm not usually in a big hurry to put it all away.  The holidays come only once a year and why not let the residual cheer linger for a bit longer.  That's my motto, my belief, my credo.  So as January wains, I'll be digging out those ornament boxes and packing up the array of trees and lights that have adorned the house since early November.  

But to  each to their own.  It's important to establish and to pass on these traditions and customs from one generation to the next, and to to instill on our children the importance of observing these rituals as well as creating their own.  That's what it's all about anyway.

So if you do one thing this year, make it memorable.  And do it with pride.  Because in doing so, you may just establish a tradition to be observed and enjoyed for generations to come.