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Blending Family Traditions
3 Steps to a Terrific Holiday Season
By Sharon Waldrop
2. Blend Your BeliefsLaurie of Lake Arrowhead, Calif., grew up celebrating Hanukkah. Her husband grew up celebrating Christmas. They continue to celebrate both holidays, but in a religious manner, and both holidays are celebrated separately. In December, Laurie's home is decorated for both holidays. "Hanukkah is not a major holiday," she says. "The gifts are small and not lavish. To give a shiny new bike or something expensive would not be appropriate." Laurie is now the mother of two children, and she and her husband continue to welcome both holidays into their home.
Laurie wants her kids to focus on the real meaning of Hanukkah. The gifts are more of a token gesture. "Hanukkah is about the first religious war for religious freedom and that standing up for who you are is the only way to be free," says Laurie.
"Traditions are all about building special memory banks for your children, so that one day your traditions, old and new, may be passed on through future generations," Connie Nanasy of Lakewood, Calif., says. With that in mind, it makes sense to utilize holiday rituals to blend a part of your childhood with your partner's childhood into the memory bank of your own children.
3. Avoid Trouble
Barry G. Ginsberg, Ph.D., director of the Center of Relationship Enhancement in Doylestown, Pa., feels that traditions and rituals are important in family life s they provide an acknowledgment of and give meaning to our relationships with each other.
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