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Christmas, tradition, making changes
Christmas is a time of traditions for every family, things are done a certain way year after year after year and there is much to love and find joy and comfort in about all of that.
I’m also musing, though, on the process of change and especially, right now, around this Christmas period.
After spending every Christmas with my children for the first 20+ years as a parent, this year marks the fifth year in a row I have been separated from them by thousands of miles. Yes, we did intend to change that rhythm starting with Christmas 2020, but, you know, Covid. Bah Humbug ;) However, it is with joy now that we have a new tradition, of Zoom calls on Christmas Day for my boys and their grandparents, often with uncles and others joining on screens. We have even got set times of the day set so that they happen after the Christmas meal for those in the UK and before it for the boys in Cayman. I very much hope we can flip this ritual at the end of 2022 with them being with me here, then they can zoom with Cayman family at those same times.
Now, this new tradition was a “forced” change, but without such impetus, how often do we change anything at Christmas at all?
I find that each family tends to believe that they keep all of their traditions every year, year after year, decade after decade, but if we really think…
