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Holiday Beginnings
New Traditions for the Families of Today By Sharon Waldrop
"'Tis the season to be jolly..." Indeed it is! The holidays consist of cheer and contentment, warmth and togetherness, families and friends. Look at the holidays through your toddler's eyes: bright colors (ever notice how awesome pictures taken in December look?), bright lights and Christmas music replacing standard tunes in elevators and at the mall.
But even better than the hottest toy on the market is to offer your toddler family togetherness and memories. It is true that money cannot buy happiness but the gift of family traditions is priceless.
Special family traditions will be remembered long after a toy has shifted to the bottom of a toy box or after a trinket has been moved from the bottom shelf to the top shelf to collect even more dust. The holidays are an ideal time to start new traditions and begin a lifetime of memories.
"When I was growing up, my family used to alternate between buying a tree from a lot and buying it from a tree farm," Williams says. "My husband's family almost always bought a tree from the lot, as they lived in an urban area. When we moved to Montana, our oldest son was just a baby. We were introduced to a small tree farm near our town by my aunt and uncle. Ever since then, we've gotten our tree from this scotch pine farm.
"We make an event out of it by dressing the kids in warm winter clothes and traipsing around the farm looking for just the right tree. We always let the kids pick their favorite, then, standing in deep snow amongst the trees, we vote on the one we all like best. My husband cuts it down, and we haul it to the owner of the farm. We have vowed to always get our tree from the same farm every year, and now we have smaller trees mentally marked for the years to come. There's something about walking down the same paths, shouting to each other among the same trees and recognizing younger trees that have matured each year."