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Our family celebrates many different family holiday traditions starting at the beginning of December into January when we celebrate Ukrainian Christmas on January 7th. We start off the holiday season the first week of December when we all put on matching family pajamas and a holiday movie to bake cookies and decorate the tree together. Then Christmas Eve, which was always celebrated at my Baba and Gidi’s growing up, we have our Christmas (Eve) meal that consists of the 12 traditional Ukrainian dishes which are all to be eaten in a specific order. It will always be such a special thing to me to celebrate a tradition that has been passed down for so many generations and to now be sharing our culture and traditions with my own husband and children.
My all time favourite family tradition that has come to be, likely came out of boredom. In the days between Christmas and New Years when there isn’t much to do and the out of town family are still here visiting, my entire extended family gets together to spend a day outside in the snow! We do activities such as tobogganing, snowmobiling, playing in the snow building snowmen and snow forts, outdoor skating with a family hockey or ringette game or two, and we end off the day with a bonfire roasting hot dogs, drinking hot chocolate, and making s’mores. I love that everyone participates and we do it all together from our 80 year old grandparents to uncles and aunts to all the cousins and now even the young kids and new babies which puts all four generations together!
Something I would like people, especially parents, to know about traditions in general is to not put too much pressure on them! Traditions do not have to be executed perfectly or exactly the same as they were in generations past; they can change and adapt to make them feasible for a changing and growing family. It is okay to continue to celebrate generational traditions while also creating and celebrating traditions of your own with your own partner and children. Because traditions are meant to be enjoyed with loved ones making memories and if we learned anything from my favorite family holiday tradition: you are never too old or too young to participate in holiday traditions (or to have some fun in the snow!)
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Our family celebrates Christmas followed by Kwanza.
We started incorporating Kwanzaa after our first child was born. I really feel like it helps to ground us and unite us as a family. Sometimes the holiday season can feel very materialistic and Kwanzaa reminds of the things that are truly important to us as a family going into the new year.
Umoji: Unity
Kujichagulia: Self determination
Ujima: Collective work and Responsibility
Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics
Nia: Purpose
Kuumba: Creativity
Imani: Faith
My favorite part of the month is the 7th day of Kwanzaa. We actually wait to open gifts on that day so the girls get super excited.
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We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas and love celebrating with our son, Teddy (23 months). We are so excited to celebrate Hanukkah for second time with him and see how he interacts with the Menorah this year.
I love lighting the Menorah because all of the family is gathered for that moment, which is really special to me. I’ll be very interested to see how Teddy reacts to the lit candles. Last year he seemed very interested. I look forward to seeing how his involvement grows each year!
I’d like people to know that Hanukkah is more than Menorahs and Dreidels. It’s about celebrating gratefulness with those you love. Hanukkah translates to ‘dedication’ in Hebrew—the holiday pays tribute to the dedication of a group of Jewish people who believed fervently in their right to religious freedom.
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The majority of our family’s holiday traditions center around the kitchen. Some are foods we eat year round and some that we eat only at Christmas. Everything from Christmas cookies to charcuterie. Growing up, my mom would stay up extra late or get up super early to make Santa Lucia saffron rolls. Christmas wouldn’t be the same with out them. As I’ve started my own family it is something that is on my non-negotiable list for how we will celebrate. I’ve also started doing more research into the origins of these sweet rolls. The Feast of Saint Lucy is generally celebrated on December 13 in recognition of St Lucy who, during a time of great religious turmoil in Ancient Rome, ventured into the catacombs with a crown of candles on her head to supply the hiding Catholics with food. She is a symbol of light and helping others, both of which we associate with the holiday season. In many Scandinavian cultures the eldest daughter wakes up early on December 13 to make the special rolls for their family. As we adjust traditions for what works for my young family, I have started making these rolls on December 13 to share with my kids and our local neighbors. Luckily, my mom still makes them on Christmas Day, so we get to enjoy them twice 😉
Besides the yummy taste, my favorite part of this tradition is sharing the sweet rolls with friends and neighbors. It is a great reminder of the holiday spirit and doing for others.
Traditions don’t have to be big. If there’s something that makes you happy, make it a tradition, and make that tradition work for you! Having the rolls on Christmas morning is what worked best for my family when I was a kid. For me know with my young family it’s easier to make them earlier in the month so we’ve moved it back to the historically correct timing.
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Two big traditions for Italian families are creating the nativity scene at their home and celebrating the “Befana” (an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve) Naples is famous for their hand made artisan shops of Presepios (nativity scenes) at Via San Gregorio Armeno also known as the Christmas Alley and this season will be the first time we are taking our youngest during the Holiday season and I can’t wait for her to help us pick up new pieces of holiday decorations for our home. Italian kids receive their stockings on epiphany and the Befana ( the Befana (pronounced [beˈfaːna]) is known for bringing coal to the misbehaved kids while bringing goodies to the well-behaved kids.
I love sharing my love for decorating the house with the kids during the holidays. We love to travel, so including ornaments from places we have visited into our Christmas tree is one of our traditions that we started before we got married 10 years ago. This helps remind us and the kids of a special place and moment we shared the years before. Just like photographs, ornaments can hold lots of sentiments.
The Holiday season is a time to share family traditions that have been passed on from generations to generations. As a matter of fact, the same stockings use for our kids for Befana, is the same one my mother-in-law started using in Italy for my husband 40 years ago. I love taking those two weeks at the end of the year to created memories with the kids and showing that while getting gifts from Santa is the icing on the cake, the moments we share mean a lot more.
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