Did Little New Year Visit You?

             Happy New Year! Most people suffered through 2020 and hope for a better 2021. My thoughts tonight took me back to my childhood and family traditions. My parents started a holiday tradition more than 90 years ago that is still thrilling children five generations later. When my oldest brother was little, he wanted Santa to come again. Santa did not return, but Little New Year came and brought more candy and nuts.

            My oldest sister recently told the family about a time when she chased Little New Year but could never catch him. Our second oldest brother had the children running all over the neighborhood. They would turn a corner, and he would say, “I saw him turn that corner up there.” They would run to that corner and to discover that he was running around another corner. They never did catch Little New Year, but our family knows that he only comes to homes where an empty bowl is left on the porch.

            I continued this tradition with my children, and they are continuing it with their families. However, some of my siblings did not continue the tradition. Tonight, a nephew asked if Little New Year came to any homes. Some of his cousins replied that he had come, and other cousins wanted to know more about the tradition. Another nephew replied that Little New Year had come to his son’s home to leave treats for the fifth generation.

            My parents performed a simple act when they invented the Little New Year tradition of bringing treats. The event has morphed from a few nuts and candies to all kinds of treats and games. I received several pictures tonight of the treats brought by Little New Year to my children and their families. Despite the coronavirus causing people to hunker down at home, my grandchildren had an exciting New Year’s Eve because my parents started a new tradition 90 years ago.

Many little boys and girls have watched for Little New Year, but none of them have caught him. I realized tonight that Little New Year has not visited my home for many years. My daughter reminded me that he stops only at the homes where an empty bowl sits on the porch. What kind of traditions did you enjoy as a child? Have you continued them with your children?

Family Traditions

                    Families grow stronger as they establish and share uplifting and strengthening traditions.  Families form traditions as they repeat the same activities over and over.  Uplifting traditions strengthen families spiritually.  They strengthen love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and unify families, communities, and nations. 

                    Many young couples establish uplifting traditions for their new family even before their wedding day when they discuss which family traditions they will each bring to their union.  Uplifting traditions include family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, and attendance at church as a family.  Weekly date nights and regular visits to the temple are essential to maintaining that feeling of being an eternal couple.  New traditions are added to the treasury when children join the family.

                    I love traditions and particularly Christmas traditions.  For traditions in general,click here.  To read about some of my family Christmastraditions, click here.  Since this is the Christmas season, I want to share more ideas about Christmas traditions. 

                    One idea is to have traditions that tell the true meaning of Christmas.  In a previous article I shared some information about why Christmas colors are red and green and why the evergreen tree, star, bell, candle, gift bow, candy cane, and wreath are important items in Christmas traditions.  Teaching the reason why each item is part of Christmas can be included in other Christmas traditions.  Hanging the Christmas wreath and decorating the Christmas tree could include a lesson about why green is the second color of Christmas and why the evergreen tree is used for our Christmas trees.   A lesson about the tree, star, bell, etc. could be included while baking and decorating Christmas cookies.

                    Christmas traditions should always include the reading, telling or acting of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.  The first gift of Christmas was God's gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, to the world.  The second gift of Christmas is the life and mission of Jesus Christ.  God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live as man in order to give all of us an opportunity  

                    It is never too early to introduce new traditions.  An article by Shay Castle in Babytalk (December/January 2012) suggested several traditions for infants and toddlers.  Even though a baby will never remember his/her first Christmas, parents can still introduce traditions to their child by "…literally, by indulging her senses:  touch, sight, smell, taste and sound."  Parents can give their child the "feel" of Christmas by touching their hand to snow or letting them crinkle Christmas wrapping paper.  A cute suggestion was to "dip baby's palms in non-toxic finger paints, and place them gently on poster board or cardstock, leaving two tiny prints.  Your baby will have tons of fun squishing her chubby fingers in the paints. After her masterpiece dries, cut it out, date it and display on your tree or mantle."  You can "build the tradition" each year by making "the handprint project a part of your holiday tradition.  As your collection grows, string them together to form a garland.  Your child will get a kick out of seeing this annual reminder of how he's grown and remembering holidays past."   In families with several children, the individual garlands could be draped in the appropriate child's room rather than on the tree. 

                    Other ideas for helping your baby to "learn about his environment through his senses" were also given.  Introduce your child to the smell of an evergreen tree, warm Christmas cookies, and spiced cider.  The sense of smell is very strong and lasting; connecting wonderful smells with special times and people will be very powerful in your child's life.  The sense of smell can also be used by bringing your toddler into the kitchen and letting him/her help bake the cookies or other Christmas treats.

                    I learned about another fun tradition from my son's family.  A special delivery package arrived on the front steps on the first day of December, and inside the package was a special elf.  The elf is to watch the children and report to Santa whether they have been good or bad.  The elf hides in a different place each day, and part of the fun includes finding his daily hiding place.

                    I introduced a tradition to our family by accident one year when I found a small, soft-bodied Santa Claus and added him to our decorations.  Santa is now getting old and faded, but he can still be found under the tree, beside the manger, inside the basket of Christmas story books, etc.  I didn't realize that he was a tradition until I heard my youngest son explain to his wife about why this Santa Claus is a part of our Christmas.

                    Parents must be careful when they introduce new traditions.  They must understand that traditions become a part of the very fiber of the family so they must be sure that the tradition is uplifting and something they want to continue.  Sharing traditions unifies and strengthens family members because they are a bond that welds family members together.  Uplifting family traditions always lead the family to Jesus Christ.

                    

Teach Gratitude

                    Families grow stronger when parents teach their children to be grateful for what they receive - whether it is little or much.  Parents can be instrumental in determining the attitudes of children toward material goods as well as services received.  Parents can lovingly assist their children to move from a "gimme" attitude to a grateful attitude.

                    Gratitude has been described as "an uplifting, exalting attitude.  You can probably say from experience that you are happier when you have gratitude in your heart.  You cannot be bitter, resentful, or mean-spirited when you are grateful."  (See True to the Faith, pp 78-79.)

Ingratitude was part of the foundation of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Rich college students were not satisfied with what they had been given by their parents, and they thought the banks, government, or society should give them more.  One of their demands was for their thousands of dollars worth of student loans to be forgiven.  When they left their occupied parks and other places, they left messes for "someone else" to clean up.  They are selfish, self-centered people who will keep demanding more.  People who feel entitled to more and more simply cannot be satisfied with any amount.

                    When I was a newlywed, I worked at an Air Force base while my husband was finishing his engineering degree.  We lived in a small basement apartment in the home of one of the men in my office.  The family included four young children and belonged to our church.  Late on Christmas Eve, our landlady knocked on our door and asked us if we wanted to come up to see their Christmas before the children opened everything the next morning.  When my husband and I went upstairs, I was shocked at the amount of presents in the living room.  I saw in that room more Christmas gifts than I have ever seen in a home in my entire life!  In addition to the piles of wrapped gifts surrounding the tree, there were four different places on chairs/sofas where the mother had lovingly laid out numerous outfits for each child.  All I could think was "WOW!"  When I later asked the landlady about her Christmas, she indicated that there was unhappiness because some desired items were not there.

                    On my first day back at work after Christmas, the members of my carpool were discussing Christmas.  We all had wonderful Christmas experiences except one lady.  She named all the items that she had purchased and prepared for her teenage daughter.  I don't remember all that she listed, but I do remember that she named a complete ski outfit (skis, boots, poles, jacket, pants, sweater, hat, gloves, etc), many other clothing items, and several jewelry items including a watch.  In spite of all the gifts, the teenager was not happy because she didn't get something that she really wanted; because she was unhappy, she made her entire family miserable.

                    I remembered these two experiences when I had children of my own and determined that I was not going to turn my children into spoiled brats.  I wanted Christmas to be more of a spiritual experience than a material one so I emphasized Christ, His birth and His mission to earth.  I did not use Christmas as a time to fill all the needs for the year but provided items throughout the year as they were needed - soccer balls in the summer, hockey skates in the winter, school clothes in the fall, vacation clothes in the summer, etc.  I intentionally limited the gifts at Christmas to three basic items plus stocking stuffers:  a book, an item of clothing, and a toy or item appropriate for their ages.  I tried to make these gifts as special as I could.  One year I made Raggedy Ann type dolls for my two daughters, individualized to look like their owners.  Another year I made each child their favorite Care Bear. 

We limited gifts in other ways also.  Instead of having each child give gifts to all their siblings, I had them draw names, and each child became responsible to choose a gift for one sibling.  In addition to saving family funds (6 gifts compared to 36 gifts), this procedure also cut down on the amount of time needed to open gifts as well as the number of toys left lying around the house.  As the children grew older, they became aware that "Santa emptied his sleigh" at some houses but not at ours, but I didn't let other families' choices influence what we did.

To make Christmas morning even more meaningful, we each opened one gift at a time beginning with the youngest person in attendance and moving to the eldest.  This procedure was followed last year when 24 of us were together for Christmas.  By putting the limelight on one person at a time, we all had the opportunity to see the gifts given to each person, and we all received everyone's attention when it was our turn.  Knowing that some individual families could afford more expensive gifts than other families, we asked that all families limit the number of gifts they brought for their children, opening any other gifts in the privacy of their own homes.

Each family will have their own traditions and ways of doing things.  The important principle to remember is that children need to be taught to be grateful.  Gratitude is not an attribute that comes naturally; it must be taught and modeled.  Parents can best teach gratitude to their children in the home through family activities and traditions.  Parents will strengthen their families when they help their children to develop attitudes of gratitude.