Strategy Number 6: Beat the Holiday Blues by Honoring Rituals

Honor important old rituals and develop new ones. Rituals help promote a sense of well-being.  Old ones can provide a sense of continuity through times of transition while developing new ones aids in accommodating to new situations.

Evaluate which rituals you want to keep and consider developing any new ones that might mark the positive things about you or your life right now.

Connect Through Rituals Over The Holidays

Holidays provide times for connection with multiple generations.

Grandparents have the opportunity to share some of the family history with their grandchildren.

This is a wonderful time to get out family holiday photos, play games that parents and grandparents played as children, for grandparents to share stories of their Christmases “long ago” and to make traditional holiday treats.

Some families have food that they only prepare at holiday times …  egg nog, a special cookie or coffee cake, or an ethnic dish from the oldest generation’s heritage.

Use this time to enrich family connection, even if you do not see as much of each other through the year as you would like.

Consider finding ways to include family members that live away and will not be home for the holidays.  Send old photos in ornaments, wrap up an old childhood memento, journal in a grandparent’s book.  Creatively think about ways to stay connected with each other.

The Richardsons pass the same holiday cards back and forth to each other every year, adding a short note about their lives.  It has become a record of family events for 23 years now.

Elaine and her sister have one silver holiday ball that they pass back and forth every year.  This ball is the kind in which you put some small gift.  Each tries to find something different and unique … and it is a nice tradition to show that they care about each other.

George and Jill send their grandchildren photos taken over the year of them all together.  Their mother helps them to keep them in a book so that they have a record of history with their grandparents.

Have you found ideas to stay connected with your family that you can share with us here?

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