How to Make Your Own Traditions

As we grow older and become more of who we are meant to be, we find ourselves at a conflict between what we are taught, and what we learned and experienced on our own. This is especially true of certain holiday traditions, particularly holiday traditions. What may have seemed the norm within a family context may not quite fit in your new, more emancipated life. It is then that one must create one’s own traditions, those that fit with the person you are now. Read on to learn how to make your own traditions.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Yourself
• Traditional rituals
• Creativity

1. Identify your favorite traditions. Let’s face it, adopting boring, trying or otherwise imposing traditions would be counterproductive. After all, you re grown now and you have enough boring, trying and imposing situations and people in your life. Recall those traditions that you enjoyed, be it stringing up popcorn for the Christmas tree while drinking hot cider, or attending Kwanzaa services, or dressing up while you hand out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters.

2. Take stock of your lifestyle and adjust traditions accordingly. If you enjoyed a seven-foot live Christmas tree in the living room as a child, but you live in a tiny efficiency with a six-foot ceiling, then recreating your childhood experience would not only be impractical, but it would also be rather cramped. Instead, why not plant small pine trees in decorative pots and scatter them around your apartment, then decorate them as you see fit? That way you keep the tradition but in a way that fits your adult self, and not your childhood self.

3. Create new traditions. Maybe you never liked eating turkey on Thanksgiving. Perhaps you had an aversion to cranberry sauce in a can. Now that you have the power to choose, make your own traditions. Have a Thanksgiving steak. Volunteer at a local soup kitchen for Christmas. Form a neighborhood safety patrol for trick-or-treaters, instead of passing out candy. Create a tradition that reflects your values, beliefs, likes and dislikes.

4. Take the best and leave the rest. Whatever traditions you choose to keep or leave, or even remake, it’s important to keep the happy feelings at the core of them. That is the whole point of traditions--the comfort they bring through familiarity.

Tips & Warnings

• Tradition has its place, but there is always room for improvement. It’s important for you to make your own traditions as you grow and change. Recognizing that childhood was then, and adulthood is now, can go a long way toward changing one’s outlook on life. You may even break some patterns that need to be broken, which would aid in your personal growth. Change is good.