Creating a New Holiday Tradition

by Myra Turner | More from this Blogger

04 Sep 2007 06:51 PM

I've always been the traditional kind of girl when it came to holidays. I like my turkey on Christmas and my ham on Easter. July 4th always meant barbeque. As I have gotten older, I have found that some traditions are worth changing. I always thought that having a little one in the house would make the holidays more festive and don't get me wrong it does but I have also found that when you have kids holidays can sometimes mean more work and less time to enjoy the day.

So this past Labor Day I decided to start my own tradition by doing the untraditional. Normally, Labor Day meant barbeque. But I found myself questioning if I really wanted barbeque. See here in Mobile, barbeque is what we do. It's not unusual on any given weekend to stop by someone's house and see that they have the grill fired up. I had forgotten about this living in New Orleans for twenty odd years but after being back home for two years I'm kind of fed up with barbeque. So Monday I decided we would have chili dogs for lunch and I would fry fish for dinner because that was what I wanted. My nephew still barbequed and boy it was HOT outside and when he finished he was beat. What's the point of all that good food if you're too pooped to enjoy it?

This got me to thinking about other holidays. Christmas for instance. Yes, I like my turkey as I said earlier but I can cook turkey any day. Would it kill me if I didn't make turkey for Christmas. Why not make a simple meal so that I can enjoy the day with my son. Or better yet, go out to eat or have the meal catered. Normally for Christmas I start cooking a day or two in advance and still end up having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen on Christmas day. Maybe I'm just getting too old but I don't want to waste half of my life in the kitchen anymore. I'd rather spend the holidays as they were meant to be spent--- with family and friends.

See also:

Handling the Holidays as a Single Parent

When Its Time To Let the Holiday Traditions Go

Start a Family Tradition: Community Service

Learn more about Myra Turner

I'm a proud mid-life single mom with an active seven-year-old son, Tyler.

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