December 7, 2002
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If you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, do you do maintain traditions in the same way your parents did or have you created your own?

Yes we put the Christmas tree up, the lights, we play the music the whole thing

Savannah, 17
Melbourne, FL USA

Yes.

Melissa, 20
PA USA

As long as my mom is alive, I will be spending Christmas at home and therefore the traditions I grew up with continue.

Cindy, 41
VA USA

My parents didn't have any special Christmas traditions. We created our own. We always play
Christmas music when we decorate the Christmas tree. We always play "The Sinatra Christmas Album", "Christmas With the California Raisins" (much, much better than it sounds from the title), and "Mannheim Steamroller Christmas". We buy or make a special ornament for each year that is marked with the year. After the tree is decorated, we take pictures of the family sitting in front of the tree. We always open the presents on Christmas morning, starting with the youngest and going to the oldest. Someone always says "Just what I wanted! Just the right size and my favorite color!"

Cathie, 53
Novi, MI USA

My family is in that in-between stage when all the kids are grown up, but there is no new generation. Our traditions have been slowly morphing for years. One constant is that my Aunt Margaret hosts Christmas Day dinner at her house.

Felicia, 36
Lowell, MA USA

Mostly, I maintian the old traditions. I think that's a big part of the holidays... to keep fond memories of days gone by. But my daughter and I have also created some of our very own traditions as well... makes it lots of fun!

Fisch, 47
Preston, CT USA

We (my husband & I) do our own. The kids get to open a gift after Christmas Eve mass. As a kid we went to church first on Christmas Day and then opened gifts. We eat our dinner later in the day. But reason for gathering with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Christ has not changed.

Janet, 45
E. Brunswick, NJ USA

Mostly in the same way. But my friends and I (who see each other almost every single week-end), get together and cook a big dinner. We eat and then we party together. There's only eight of us or so (including significant others), but it's a lot of fun.

Keri-Jade, 23
Brampton, Ontario CANADA

We maintain some of the traditions from my family, and we incorporate others as new members join the family or situations change.

Jane, 63
West Linn, OR USA

I don't know that my family had any traditions other than exchanging gifts and putting up a tree. And yes, we do those two things.

Reba, 57
Gaithersburg, MD USA

My solstice traditions are up-to-date and personally tailored for my times.

Jill, 61
Saylorsburg, PA USA

I still do it like my parents, but it's starting to mesh with my husband's traditions. It will change again I am sure when we have children. When we do though, I hope to keep traditions from both families while adding our own :)

Tracy, 24
Ocean City, NJ USA

Traditions were kept.

Stephanie, 25
TX USA

We celebrate pretty much like our parents did.

Judy, 62
Easton, KS USA

No, I don't maintain the Christmas traditions of my childhood. It's a long story. Suffice to say that my Christmas celebration is very low-key and focuses on church.

Laura, 37
Lowell, MA USA

We do a little of both. This will be my first married Christmas, and I think we're going to go to both our parents' houses again, although I'm not sure whether it will actually be ON Christmas this time. But I think, although it was a little weird splitting things up last year, that we came pretty close to maintaining our old traditions. This year we do have some new traditions starting, though. We went to the Christmas party in our new neighborhood last night. We have our very own Christmas tree and new stockings hanging from new stocking hangers on the mantle. My mom got us a
Christmas memories book, so we get to make entries in that every year. This is the first time I can remember not decorating my parents' tree, so I guess some old traditions might be ending, but we are making an effort not to give up all our traditions.

Karen, 23
Ames, IA USA

A mixture of both old traditions celebrated by my parents (and probably my grandparents) and new traditions that I started when my son was born.

Tam

I've mostly copied the way my parents celebrated the holidays. In fact, my family still goes to my parents house every year on Christmas to open presents and have dinner. I'm sure I will maintain that ritual my whole life.

Doug2, 30
Kansas City, KS USA

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