It is important to remind ourselves that the holiday season is not always defined by who isn’t there, but by who is. So whether you’re developing new traditions or redefining what home means during the holidays, it helps to surround yourself with the people you love most, the people who brighten your day and holiday season.
Though Christmas can get lost in the search for the perfect gifts, Christmas music, flashing lights, and Hallmark movies, at the center of Christmas has always been the desire to spend time at home with the ones we love. During the holidays, we often replay songs like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” or “White Christmas,” which speak to that deep yearning for home. Environmental psychologists believe that the word “home” clearly refers to more than just a house, but encompasses people, places, objects, and memories.
During this season, many people travel home for the holidays enduring endless connecting flights and delays. For many, their home is a bridge between their past and present and the predictable and secure place that keeps them oriented in space and time. Holiday traditions include eating with their family, decorating the tree, exchanging gifts, catching up with old friends, and visiting some of your favorite places.
Hand in hand with going home are the holiday traditions that each family develops over time. These holiday traditions include decorating the gingerbread house, ice skating, putting the ornaments on the tree, baking Christmas cookies, and watching holiday movies. These Christmas traditions help nurture our family bonds, ensuring that each year during the holidays we truly feel at home. Holiday traditions are often passed down, connecting generations of a family and giving us a sense of belonging.
Though some families may not yet have holiday traditions, it’s never too late to develop them. Since the holiday season is here, it is the perfect excuse to try something new and build your own family traditions. Once you develop these new traditions you may be surprised to find that they are passed down and cemented in your family’s future history.
For some people, developing new family traditions is not just an option but a requirement. As we age, many of the people we spent our most memorable holidays with pass away so we are forced to redefine what home for the holidays and holiday traditions means. In these cases, it’s important to carve out new traditions and make new memories. It is also important to remind ourselves that the holiday season isn’t defined only by who isn’t there, but by who is. So whether you’re developing new traditions or redefining what home means during the holidays, it helps to surround yourself with the people you love most, who brighten your day and add to our life experiences.
This season, whether you stay local or travel home for the holidays, listen to popular Christmas songs or find a new classic like “Please Come Home for Christmas”, written by a mustard gas worker at the Pine Bluff Arsenal named Charles Brown, be sure to spend time with those you love enjoying the atmosphere of being home, celebrating old family traditions, and creating new ones.
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Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard
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