Holidays Your Way

Lady Santa Claus

As an engaged couple or as newlyweds, it is important that you establish your own holiday traditions early on in your relationship. Waiting and just going along with what your families have always done, without any thought or input of your own, will just mean that those things will always be expected of you. Creating your own holiday traditions will give you special time, where you can continue to learn and grow together. Those special traditions will increase in importance if or when you decide to start a family of your own.

Young couples are usually expected to become a part of the traditions already in place, but that can be difficult for the couple. Being at two Thanksgiving or Christmas or Hanukkah celebrations can be difficult, if not impossible, especially if families are in different locales. Some couples choose to spend Thanksgiving with one family and Christmas with the other, rotating the order every year. If families are at such a distance that traveling is a time or financial hardship, some couples choose to trek on back home only every other year. You will want a united front on any such decision.

Even if your families live in the same city, it is often expected that you will spend time with each. If you are lucky, one family will eat earlier than the other and you will be able to be a part of each family’s celebration.

Once those decisions are made and you agree, it is still important that you think about developing your own traditions. Even if Thanksgiving is always celebrated at Grandma’s house, you could decide to provide a particular dish each year, and work together to make it. Or you could design cards for each relative in attendance explaining why you are thankful. The important thing is that you find some way to make the holiday your own as well as one shared with loved ones.

Volunteering is an excellent holiday tradition. Most larger cities have soup kitchens that provide holiday fare for the homeless. Helping to serve the homeless might be your choice of a holiday giving tradition. There is always a need for Salvation Army bell ringers, and doing that as a couple might be something you would enjoy. And many communities have giving trees where one can select a child for whom to provide gifts. Shopping for such a child and wrapping gifts together would make an excellent holiday time of your own.

Making cookies or holiday decorations should not be considered something just a woman is capable of doing. You might discover that this is a fun holiday tradition for the two of you.

Perhaps mapping out the city and driving around looking at holiday decorations appeals to you as a tradition. Making homemade gifts might be your choice.

Really practicing your faith and following those traditions is a great way to begin a marriage.

What is exciting is that you can establish a new tradition right now that you can follow for the next 50 years. In fact, the traditions you establish now might just be the glue that keeps you together for those years.

Marilyn Mackenzie has been writing about home, family, faith and nature for over 40 years. This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.Prye.Com/ which is a site for Wedding Invitations.