Every January we invite friends over and burn Christmas trees on our frozen lake (we live in MN). A dry evergreen tree will often shoot flames over 20 feet in the air for a moment, and we all stand on frozen water and drink a warm beverage. It’s an incredibly bright spot in a very dark, cold season. Anyway, we haven’t gotten a tree this year and I was thinking maybe it was time to just let this tradition go, but it’s SUCH a special night with friends. I just texted my husband and told him we need to get a tree tonight. Thanks for this!
I really enjoyed this post. Remembering old traditions is a way to remember the people we shared them with. Most of those people have since died, but the memory of them lives with us the rest of our lives. Thank you for sharing your family traditions.
Your post was very meaningful. Beginning sometime in the 60's, on New Years Day my grandfather would invite a dozen men (adult men only!) from the extended family to drink watch football, bet on the games, and have a New York Strip at halftime of the Rose Bowl. He worked for a meat company and would cut the steaks himself that morning. I remember being 9, 10, 11 and being denied an invitation because my cousin and I wouldn't behave and watch the games, and around 12 or 13 I was elated to get my first invitation. Like your tradition, many of those uncles and cousins moved away, and my grandfather died in 2008 on New Year's Eve of all days. By then I had taken over the tradition and I've kept it alive, despite moving out of state myself. My father and my son will fly from Colorado to Florida to be with my other son, me and my son in law, but we now include the women and kids. It's my favorite day of the year.
Our family has a number of Christmas traditions. Some are handed down from generation to generation - I bake kifli (traditional Hungarian cookies) just like my mother and grandmother did before me, and I've taught my daughters to bake it and made them promise that they will pass the recipe down to their children and keep the tradition alive. No matter what may happen in the future, we've all agreed that Christmas cannot occur until the kifli has been baked. As it happens, my mother's birthday was the week before Christmas, so I always bake kifli that day in remembrance of her. My birthday is also the week before Christmas so my daughters will someday do the same in remembrance of me. They all have summer birthdays, so that part of the tradition will probably change - but maybe it will endure for future generations in memory of the grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
Others are highly specific to our family - back in the early 2000s, faced with a house full of young children whose preferred activity over Christmas break seemed to be fighting and screaming, I attempted to create a distraction by purchasing a half-priced gingerbread house kit. The children agreed to put aside their differences long enough to assemble the house, and then were bribed to pose for an adorable photo with the promise of being allowed to eat stale, heavily discounted candy. The photo was indeed adorable - so cute, in fact, that we decided to recreate it in subsequent years. The rule is that the gingerbread kit must be discounted at least 50% from its list price; and I document the assembly and decorating procedure in photos known as "Gingerbread Outtakes" and are completely hilarious.
We also have a tradition of burning our Christmas tree in the firepit; which I think originally arose because my husband didn't want to haul it to the dump. I think the tradition kind of taps into the primeval human instinct to make a really big fire during the coldest, darkest days of the year - so it's sort of modern and ancient at the same time.
Every January we invite friends over and burn Christmas trees on our frozen lake (we live in MN). A dry evergreen tree will often shoot flames over 20 feet in the air for a moment, and we all stand on frozen water and drink a warm beverage. It’s an incredibly bright spot in a very dark, cold season. Anyway, we haven’t gotten a tree this year and I was thinking maybe it was time to just let this tradition go, but it’s SUCH a special night with friends. I just texted my husband and told him we need to get a tree tonight. Thanks for this!
I really enjoyed this post. Remembering old traditions is a way to remember the people we shared them with. Most of those people have since died, but the memory of them lives with us the rest of our lives. Thank you for sharing your family traditions.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Great essay!!! ❤️
Your post was very meaningful. Beginning sometime in the 60's, on New Years Day my grandfather would invite a dozen men (adult men only!) from the extended family to drink watch football, bet on the games, and have a New York Strip at halftime of the Rose Bowl. He worked for a meat company and would cut the steaks himself that morning. I remember being 9, 10, 11 and being denied an invitation because my cousin and I wouldn't behave and watch the games, and around 12 or 13 I was elated to get my first invitation. Like your tradition, many of those uncles and cousins moved away, and my grandfather died in 2008 on New Year's Eve of all days. By then I had taken over the tradition and I've kept it alive, despite moving out of state myself. My father and my son will fly from Colorado to Florida to be with my other son, me and my son in law, but we now include the women and kids. It's my favorite day of the year.
Merry Christmas!
Our family has a number of Christmas traditions. Some are handed down from generation to generation - I bake kifli (traditional Hungarian cookies) just like my mother and grandmother did before me, and I've taught my daughters to bake it and made them promise that they will pass the recipe down to their children and keep the tradition alive. No matter what may happen in the future, we've all agreed that Christmas cannot occur until the kifli has been baked. As it happens, my mother's birthday was the week before Christmas, so I always bake kifli that day in remembrance of her. My birthday is also the week before Christmas so my daughters will someday do the same in remembrance of me. They all have summer birthdays, so that part of the tradition will probably change - but maybe it will endure for future generations in memory of the grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
Others are highly specific to our family - back in the early 2000s, faced with a house full of young children whose preferred activity over Christmas break seemed to be fighting and screaming, I attempted to create a distraction by purchasing a half-priced gingerbread house kit. The children agreed to put aside their differences long enough to assemble the house, and then were bribed to pose for an adorable photo with the promise of being allowed to eat stale, heavily discounted candy. The photo was indeed adorable - so cute, in fact, that we decided to recreate it in subsequent years. The rule is that the gingerbread kit must be discounted at least 50% from its list price; and I document the assembly and decorating procedure in photos known as "Gingerbread Outtakes" and are completely hilarious.
We also have a tradition of burning our Christmas tree in the firepit; which I think originally arose because my husband didn't want to haul it to the dump. I think the tradition kind of taps into the primeval human instinct to make a really big fire during the coldest, darkest days of the year - so it's sort of modern and ancient at the same time.