In her Chicago Sun-Times column, Mary Mitchell evaluates the importance of holiday traditions. She says that they have a valuable impact on the lives of children as they grow into adulthood.
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My traditions hold me together.
My children are adults raising their own children. Still, I expect them to fully participate in family celebrations and have never considered for a moment that I am being selfish.
For instance, when one of my daughters told me she wasn’t coming to the family’s Thanksgiving Dinner in Milwaukee because she wanted to take her children to the Thanksgiving parade downtown, I was upset.
It didn’t cross my mind that she was ready to start her own family’s traditions; just that she was ignoring mine.
But we all have lapses.
This year, I wasn’t feeling at all Christmassy. With only a week before the big day, I hadn’t set foot in a department store, or even brought the decorations up from the basement.
If my daughter and grandson hadn’t insisted on getting a Christmas tree, I would have been content to hang ornaments on a large houseplant.
Read Mary Mitchell's entire column at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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