Holiday Rituals

It’s December already! Christmas is coming!

When I was growing up, the holidays started the week before Thanksgiving when we cleaned the silver and china. Later I realize it was fall house cleaning, but this frenzied activity was triggered not by autumn, but an upcoming holiday gathering at our house. We’d clean everything in the china cabinet, wash all the good dishes, polish the furniture, wash the linens and vacuum all the corners. Then we’d get out the cookie recipes and begin baking.

That holiday ritual still lives in my memory and my spirit. When holidays approach, I want to wash dishes, polish the silver and bake cookies.

Ritual has a power that reaches from the past to the present and extends a hand into the future. It provides continuity and predictability. And, it connects me to my mother who passed from this earth 10 years ago.

Mom seems more present at this time of the year. Christmas and Mom were always inextricably connected. When I was a kid my job was to wrap the gifts, even the ones for me. Mom would put on the LP of Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas", bring this mountain of gifts to me, and say, “Don’t open this one.” I remember wrapping right up to Christmas Eve!

When I grew up, Mom and I created another tradition -– we’d spend a whole day shopping together. My favorite now is the lefse making that we learned from my grandmother. This weekend I will be with my sister, daughter, granddaughter and nieces making enough lefse for Christmas Eve and each of our families.

Holiday rituals uplift the values of family, community, tradition, music and church, and even the simple rituals of cleaning, baking, shopping and wrapping all connect me to something bigger than my life.

What holiday traditions have become ritual for you? Which ones do you look forward to? What new rituals can you create to bring meaning and joy to your holiday season? We’d love to hear about your holiday rituals.