Smells have a way of taking us back to a time and place, however far away and long ago they may be. The holidays come with a rich palate of delightful aromas that trigger some of our best memories. Close your eyes for a moment and just smell the scent of fresh bread baking, a turkey roasting, a holiday candle burning, or the pine smell of a Christmas tree that is freshly cut and filling the room with its fragrance.  Wonderful, isn’t it?  Well, the holidays are almost upon us, and with them come the importance of taking time to reflect upon what really matters and what we can to do make meaningful memories with our families.

            What do you remember about what your family did to make the holidays a special time? Reflect on those memories as you use them to inspire and create your own traditions.  You may want to take time to ask grandparents about traditions from when they were children. Or perhaps, what they did for you, to make the holidays a meaningful and fun time.  And if there were some holiday memories you wish you had, use this as a motivation to make memories for your children – the kind of moments you wish you could have experienced as a child.  After all, it truly is in the giving that we receive.  So take time this holiday season to build in a legacy of traditions for your family. These traditions become meaningful memories that create building blocks of security for your children.

            Reflecting back with our family, our children grew up experiencing two completely different traditions from each set of grandparents. I have seven siblings and we had twenty children between us – so Christmas was loud and boisterous.  Growing up, my parents didn’t have much money and we always had ‘red’ and ‘green’ soup for Christmas, which I later learned was simply tomato and pea soup.  But as children we thought it was the best! My parents were amazing at making $10 per child magically become multiple presents wrapped under the tree. Later with all the grandchildren opening their heaps of presents and whooping for joy, the children never guessed that the gifts didn’t cost much, but they did feel the wealth of love in the gifts.  Our favorite memory is when we all walked to the midnight service in the snow singing at the top of our lungs, then coming home for hot chocolate and cookies. It was that pure joy that comes with sharing Christmas with family.  

            On the other hand, my husband’s family members were all involved in professional ministry. For them, Christmas was a time of sacred reflection on the real meaning of the holiday.  Our gatherings were quiet, we sang Christmas hymns, read the scriptures, and each child received one small gift from each respective family.  And of course, we were all in church for the services.

            When our own children were young, they preferred a MinneSNOWta Christmas with my family and all their cousins. As they got older, they began to see the value in the contrast of traditions that were a rich part of their heritage.  While the one Christmas tradition may have been more “fun”, they learned to appreciate the value of the different holiday experiences.  For our own children, we developed a blend of both so that our family would have its own traditions.  Today each of our children create their own unique family traditions that are a composite of ones they experienced when they were younger. 

            In the end, each family has to evaluate what they want their children to receive from the holidays. With so many blended families, it becomes harder to establish traditions, but also becomes even more imperative to do so in order for our children to feel that something has permanence.

            Be creative as you plan the holidays. Find ways to build meaning in the way that you spend time together, whether in person or long distance. Presents are transient and fade away, but the gift of our time and traditions lives on – hopefully for many generations. Let’s give more of our presence and focus less on the presents as we seek to make meaningful memories for our families.