All in the Family: The Importance of Holiday Traditions

As the year comes to a close, it’s truly a time for celebration and feasting. This is the time of year when many people gather around family and friends to enjoy fellowship. For many people, it’s also a time to appreciate what blessings they experienced throughout the course of the year. Even though some people don’t really like the holidays, it’s important to reflect on the importance of holiday traditions. According to Our Family Tradition,^[1] traditions allow us to “create our own unique human experience, allow us something to look forward to, and give us peace of mind and make us happy.” By fostering meaningful traditions, you may change your perspective on why you should appreciate the holidays, all while making traditions for your future generations to keep for years to come.

1. Traditions foster unity in a family.

Whether your family consists of the traditional parents, grandparents, and siblings, or your family consists of the close friends in your life, it’s still a family. Maintaining a sense of tradition is good because it encourages unity. When people feel like they’re a part of a unit, they’re more likely to feel cared for and that they have people they can turn to.

Many people feel extremely lonely around the holidays. It can be very difficult to deal with strife and problematic family members during the holidays, too. If you can be a part of a unit where love and nostalgia are fostered, this can really improve your quality of life and your quality of relationships. A key part of our relationships with others is memories and inside jokes. When you have more pleasant memories to remember, you have hope for more fun memories with those same loved ones in the future. Traditions are a great source of bonding.

2. Traditions bring people closer together.

During the course of the year, it’s really easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of work and various responsibilities. During the holiday season, most people are able to experience time off from their jobs. During this break, they get the opportunity to rest and enjoy family and friends. If you maintain a yearly tradition, such as Christmas Eve brunch or roasting marshmallows and chestnuts over an open fire, it encourages people to come together and get close. What’s more, the memories from such gatherings will be much more meaningful than those from sitting around watching TV shows alone, no matter what you do together with your family.

3. Traditions provide good memories.

You never know what may happen to your loved ones in another year. This is why it’s important to seize these opportunities to get together and spread the love. It’s also nice to take lots of pictures and record plenty of video footage. Capturing these moments allows them to last forever. The next time your family decides to gather around the fireplace and sing Christmas carols, be sure to pick up the camera and record those moments. Happy memories are sweet to look back on, and these memories are also wonderful to cherish when you’re facing a rough patch in life. It helps to know that you have a family unit who loves you and looks forward to spending time with you.

If your family is new to the concept of keeping holiday traditions, consider coming up with some this year. Look up what others have done online. Think back to a fun time you had in holidays past and try to recreate it. You’ll become inspired to make important traditions that will last for generations. You might even find that you’ll want to continue fun traditions throughout the year!

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