Tag: traditions

Well-wishers often bestow their marital advice on newlyweds, but statistics show most marriages, young or old, could use a little help. Even though divorce rates have been falling for decades, still between 40-50 percent of marriages in the U.S. still end in divorce.

Some practical tips can help couples happily stay together and take your marriage from surviving to thriving.

Whether you have to talk to your children about their disappointment as you tell them this year's holiday customs won't be the same as what they have been in the past (because of an in-progress divorce or the restrictions the Covid-19 pandemic has presented, or both), it’s often hard to know what to say to them. The appropriate approach largely depends on your child’s age. Disappointment is easier on the very young (a toddler) as opposed to a teenager who has learned to process some disappointment, hardship or rejection over their relatively short life.

The presents are all open. The living room is a wreck. The new trike is on its side in the hall. The tree is dropping pine needles on the wrapping that hasn’t been picked up. Two toys are already broken. Dad’s sweater is too scratchy. You’ve come to grips with the fact that your MasterCard bill totals four house payments. Your oldest daughter likes none of her new clothes. The whole family is exhausted and depressed and seemingly there’s no reason to be happy for another 363 days.

Don’t let the true magic of the holiday season get lost in the whirlwind and glitter of this busy time of year. Looking past the flurry of shopping days and mountains of gifts, holidays are a time of creating new memories and reflecting upon treasured moments of years gone by. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the season, we often take for granted the many exquisite traditions that quietly fill our holiday worlds. These traditions are very much worth tending to and passing on, for they carry within them the invaluable glue of love and family. It is our holiday traditions that are often most evocative of our heritage and the varied, rich histories passed down from prior generations. The word "tradition" is derived from the Latin verb traderere, which means to hand over, to transmit, or to give for safekeeping. And, so, it is our traditions that allow us to hold on to meaningful customs and rituals from the past that are deeply connective in nature.

The holidays are a time of rituals and traditions. As a newly married couple, it’s a time to examine your own expectations and attitudes about the holidays and begin to establish your own ways to celebrate.

Since each of you comes to the relationship with your own ideas about what the holidays mean and the "right" way to mark them, it’s an opportunity to merge traditions and create new ones of your own. Here are six steps to a merrier holiday season: