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What do you and your family celebrate?
When I was a little girl we celebrated Christmas at my grandparent’s humble farm in Belfalls, Texas. There was no running water and heat came from wood-burning stoves. Instead of stockings, we nine cousins would put out a father’s, grandfather’s or uncle’s cowboy boot to be filled with an apple, an orange, walnuts and perhaps a small toy. On Christmas Eve, one of my aunts would read, The Night Before Christmas—in Texas, That Is (Leon Harris, 1952). One of the adults would go outside and ring the huge bell Old Dad (my grandfather) used to call the cows in. They would tell us that it was Santa Claus, who wanted to come in but was waiting for the children to go to bed. What excitement we felt! My sister Sandy and I slept on a bed in the wide, unheated hall. We had so many blankets and quilts on us, we couldn’t move and only our noses were visible. Early the next morning we children talked cousin Mark into taking a look. What great memories!
What memories do you have of special holidays or cultural celebrations? Share those with your children and grandchildren. Create new ones to reflect your values and family character.
Make scrapbooks to express your traditions or try a new digital format. Some programs I have tried include the following:
- Scratch. (Free) Developed by the MIT Media Lab and easy to use by ages 8 and up. You can program your own multi-media (and interactive) presentations as easily as you snap together Lego blocks! http://scratch.mit.edu
- Storyboard That. (Free and subscription levels.) Tell your story in a comic strip format. http://www.storyboardthat.com
- Wevideo. This takes a little more time and effort but can produce lovely mini-movies of your own. https://www.wevideo.com
(The painting of my grandparent’s farmhouse is by my brother-in-law, Doug Moore.)