Although the air isn’t quite turning colder yet, I’ve still got the holidays on my mind. My kids are excited about Halloween, we are having a new baby around Thanksgiving, and who doesn’t love Christmas? Most likely, you have a set of traditions for certain holidays. Maybe you have created those within your own little family, or maybe these traditions have been carried down for generations. Maybe you aren’t sure if some of the things you always did as a kid started with your parents, or started before that?
Creating a scrapbook layout of your holiday traditions that were carried down from generation to generation is a great way to remember your ancestors, and tie the past to the present. Kids love to hear about what you did as a child to celebrate certain holidays, and they will love it even more if they know that Grandma was a child long ago too, and she did the same thing!!
Consider creating a layout that has both the old and the new traditions on it. Find a picture of yourself from Christmas as a child, for example, and use that on the layout. Also, find a picture of your husband as a child as well. Take your family Christmas picture from this year to add to the other side. On strips of paper, write down each tradition that you celebrated as a child that you would like to continue with your own children. On separate strips, think of new traditions that you have already started with your spouse and your children that you would also like to continue. Arrange the strips of paper next to the old and new photos depending on if the tradition is old or new.
This will be a great way to document whether or not the traditions your children experience in their childhood were passed down from their grandparents, or if they were new ones that your family created.
Another idea is to interview your Mother, or even Grandmother, if still living, and find out what her holiday traditions were. Do this on both sides of the family. Maybe she had some traditions that you never knew about, because they ended with her. Create a scrapbook layout of her traditions. Future generations will love reading about these, and maybe choose to start them up again. What a great way to connect the generations!
Traditions are a very important part of any family heritage, but they can easily be lost. Documenting them on a scrapbook layout is a sure way to make sure that the old traditions carry on for generations, and that new ones can be created.
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here. < Return To Scrapbooking