Family Traditions

During my first year of college, I learned something very interesting during one of my psychology classes. Childhood family traditions can sometimes be a source of confusion when you become an adult.

The example the professor used was that he and his wife would often walk around little shops in town. As they would walk by the windows, his wife would peak in and point out all of the items that she wanted. Weeks later, during one of their outings my professor’s wife commented on something she wanted from one of the stores. With growing frustration, my professor snapped and told his wife that there was no way they could afford all of the things she wanted. With a shocked look, the wife told my professor that she did not expect to actually own any of the items.

After a short conversation, the pair realized that when the wife was a young girl, she and her family would go window shopping through the streets of a small town. They would pick out all of the things they “wanted” fully understanding that they would never actually purchase the items. On the other hand, my professor’s family was a bit different. When he was young, if he and his family went to a store that meant they were going to buy something. They never walked around to browse stores just for the fun of it.

Therefore, during my professor and wife’s little walks through town each adult was reacting the way their family traditions had taught them to react. However, since their traditions were so different, mass confusion ensued.

Now that I have a child I am eager to begin our own family traditions. After conversing with my partner-in-crime, we have come to realize that our individual family traditions differ a bit. You see, Santa was always an important figure in my house around the holidays. In hubby’s house—not so much. So now it is our job to meld our two traditions into one for our beautiful daughter. Whatever we decide to do for our new family tradition there will be no confusing the fact that no gift Santa brings could ever compare to the original gift that began this glorious season. God gave us the greatest gift of all when he sent His Son, our Savior, JESUS CHRIST to this world.