Families honor their Christmas traditions
By PAMELA BRUST pbrust@newsandsentinel.comArticle Photos
PARKERSBURG - In these days of cell phones, video games and high-speed Internet, how do families take time to reconnect, to create and to continue traditions that have been passed down through the generations, or create new ones.
The West Virginia University Extension Service actually offers a lesson on keeping holiday traditions.
"We feel the holidays are a time families can get together, and children need those traditions as they grow; it's important," said Paula Strawder, extension educator/family and health.
Pat Dowler with the Cedar Grove Community Educational Outreach Service Club said her family enjoys gathering annually to have a cookie, candy party.
"We all get together and bake cookies and make candy. We make a day of it. All the family comes, then we all get to sample and take home the different treats we made. We do that every year 2-3 weeks before Christmas," Dowler said.
Dowler said her family used to have a family tradition of going to a tree farm for their tree.
"We got a live tree, then after the holidays, we'd plant it," she said, noting the family still enjoys sharing memories of Christmas past and their tree gathering adventures. "You just can't replicate the aroma of real pine," she said.
Strawder noted with many families having members living all over the country, to avoid being rushed and stressed out, plan activities before or after the holiday.
"Not all my family lives around here, so we all come in for Thanksgiving and that's when we put up my Grandmother's Christmas tree, while everyone is here together. It's a good time to share memories, putting up all the old ornaments and reminiscing about when they were made. Then we have Christmas at my house with my mom and other family and my mother makes the same Christmas breakfast dish every year. We look forward to that every year. It has bread, creamed cheese and eggs in it. We put it in the frig the night before and heat it up on Christmas morning. It's just not Christmas without mom's special dish," Strawder said.
"There were six of us children. As the family grew with grandchildren and great grandchildren, we started going out to a restaurant in Caldwell, a week or so before Christmas. We all look forward to that. We had 30 some this year," Dowler said. "Now it's a tradition. It's hard with the busy season. It's easy to overdo and get tired," she noted
Wood County Commissioner Blair Couch and his wife have two young sons. Couch said they spend the holidays making the rounds of family members homes.
"It's all about the kids, making sure they have fun and making it special for them," he said.
"We've started a new tradition of a gift exchange with cousins, aunts, uncles and my sister's family," he said, noting attending church service is also part of their family celebration.
Everyone agreed families should stress the holidays are not about getting the newest, most expensive toy and lessons of sharing and the importance of giving to others should be part of the season.
"Our CEOS club every year collects hats and mittens for a local HeadStart program,. We also visit a local nursing home to do a craft and sing, a little Christmas party. To me, these are more important than gifts," Dowler said.
Here are some other ideas for family traditions:
- Open one gift on Christmas Eve, and have it be pajamas. The kids always know what it is, but it's fun to see what kind of pajamas they'll don Christmas morning.
- The day before Christmas, deliver cookies or treats to those who have to work like firefighters, police, nurses.
- Attend a Christmas play or ballet together.
- Read a special book together.
- Sprinkle some special reindeer food (oatmeal mixed with glitter) on the lawn when you lay out cookies and milk for Santa.
- Start a traditions book to record special holiday traditions, ask guests to write a few lines in the book, record special gifts that were received.
- Make a special Christmas scrapbook together, adding to it each year, or make separate ones for each child.
- Draw on your heritage, research traditions. In Germany, for instance, children place a shoe or boot by the fireplace. If the child has been good St. Nick leaves a small treat in the shoe. If they haven't been good, the shoe is filled with twigs.
- Ask your grandparents what they did at Christmas and adopt some of their traditions.
- Make you own stockings.
