How to Create New Family Holiday Traditions

The holidays are all about traditions. Maybe you always have to make Grandma's cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving. Or perhaps your family always tops the Christmas tree with an angel, rather than a star. Those traditions that you perform year after year are a thread that binds your family closer together.

But if your family dynamics have changed - for example, you are newlyweds celebrating your first holiday season together; you have become a blended family; or because of divorce your children will be celebrating the holidays in two places - why not consider creating some new holiday traditions to better connect your changing family? Following are some ideas for holiday traditions that your family might want to call their own.

For Thanksgiving, purchase a new (or used) plain white fabric tablecloth. Place some permanent laundry markers around the table, but out of the reach of littler hands! In the middle of the tablecloth, write Thanksgiving 200_ (fill in the year). Have everyone write about something they are thankful for. Tuck the tablecloth away after Thanksgiving, and buy a new one every year. Bring out cloths from past years to read together. It is fun to remember who was there on a given year, and the visible changes will move you. The writings of a departed grandparent as well as the childish scribbles of your grown offspring will be cherished, and the tablecloths will likely become family heirlooms.

Serve others together. Nothing binds a family more than the realization of how blessed they are to have each other. Start a holiday tradition of serving others in need. Serve food to the homeless on Thanksgiving Day. Shop for gifts for children in foster care, or who have a parent in prison. Go caroling together in a pediatric ward of your local hospital. Send a package to troops overseas.

Create a holiday tradition that is anything but traditional! For Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, come together as a family to fashion a feast of foods you love. Perhaps your new tradition will be Thanksgiving spaghetti or Christmas cheeseburgers and scrambled eggs. Sound odd? That's the point. It will be unique to your family and bring you all closer together.

Blending a family? Have a special family night. Create a comfortable, inviting atmosphere: perhaps hot cocoa around a fire; or pizza eaten sitting together on the living room floor. Ask everyone what one holiday tradition is most important to them and find a way to incorporate those. Talk about why that holiday tradition means so much to them, and ask them to recall memories around that tradition. This is a way for you to all know and understand each other better, and the evening will promote family bonding.

Decorating your first "new family" Christmas tree? Have everyone choose one or two favorite ornaments from their "old" collections, and then pack the rest away. Then grab your coats and scarves and head out on a family decoration shopping trip. Together you'll have a blast choosing garland or tinsel, blinking lights or chasers, and a special tree topper. When you're all finished, put on some classic Christmas tunes, pop some popcorn, and decorate your new tree together.

No matter what you come up with, your new holiday traditions will bind your family together, forever.