'Tis The Season For Traditions

With the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade behind us, the holiday season is clearly here. 

For most, this is a time filled with joy, cheer, and, to be honest, usually a whole lot of holiday uproar.

With a 1-year-old at home, I recently began thinking about how I plan to celebrate the holidays while implementing a few special family traditions.

Quickly, I became pleasantly confused with all the possibilities that came to mind ... baking cookies, singing Christmas carols, wrapping presents, watching the local Christmas parade, making a list for Santa, decorating the tree, hanging the lights, drinking hot cocoa, watching holiday movies … the list goes on and on!

Growing up, I always enjoyed the holidays and the time spent with family. A few memorable holiday traditions included opening just one special gift Christmas Eve, rocking out to the Charlie Brown Christmas album while hanging ornaments on the tree, and always having a stocking stuffed with an orange and yogurt-covered raisins (not really sure of why … my guess, it is what mom found in the pantry after a late night of present wrapping!). 

As I continue on my journey toward creating just the right holiday traditions for my growing family, the question I have for all of you is  “What traditions do you and your family look forward to each year?”

Thanks to Moms Council member Chigiy Binell for her Nov. 16 column dealing with how to prepare our children for stranger-danger.

Here are some suggestions from members of our Moms Council:

We share stories like this one with our children and talk about what they should do if a stranger approaches them. This stuff makes me crazy! I am so glad that girl fought back!

Yikes...scary that this story was close to home in our community. Stranger danger is an issue that I have yet to need to discuss with my 1 year old...however, this helps me realize that I better start prepping for this conversation in the future!

In my family, we've taught our children the secret "password," so that if they're approached or contacted by a stranger wanting them to join them in their car, or to an activity, or whatever, they can ask for that clue. The other thing we've done is practice. We practiced many times with the girls when they were little. My favorite one and most memorable was me telling them that if I let them play outside and I walked out to my driveway and I couldn't see them, they had gone too far. Tell your children they must be within eye view to avoid them going too far. Finally, when I'm with my children, even now that my oldest is 19, LOL, I still repeat the acronym: DTTS when I let them go to the bathroom by themselves or need to leave my immediate company. DTTS stands for Don't Talk To Strangers! Hope this helps. Thanks, Chigiy, for posing this important question to us parents. Much appreciated.