Developing New Holiday Traditions After Divorce
General Concepts and Approaches to Developing New Holiday Traditions for You and Your Family Rewrite your story with new holiday traditions and how you want it to play out. Have a strategy-whatever that strategy may be. Don’t be attached to the Holiday being only a specific day – spread the wealth of holiday spirit over multiple days and even weeks. Make plans early. Be happy to accept an invitation. Create your own connections with neighbors, and new friends in your community. Be sure to ask others you include in meals and parties if they have dietary restrictions. Traditions start by doing something more than once. Anything can become a tradition. Input from the kids in terms of developing new traditions they want to create. Talk with kids about what traditions they want to keep and those they don’t care about. Also be able to say “no” and protect your energy levels during the holidays. And don’t try to outdo the ex or Grandparents. Have a backup plan in case those who said they would be there get sick or something comes up. 28 Specific Ideas Host a Party and invite others who are in your situation Do holidays a week early so that you can avoid the demand on that one day. Invite other family members because you know they won’t be otherwise engaged on the “un-holiday”. If you won’t have your child(ren) with you on Christmas, make with your Jewish friends to go to the movies and have Chinese (or any other non-holiday tradition- food. This could become your new tradition to look forward to. Start a gratitude journal in mid-November, writing at least one thing each day that you can be grateful for. Choose one day in November or December to spend a couple of hours helping others