Holiday Traditions

Cynical Sister

Cynical: contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives

Not going to sugar coat it, when it comes to Holiday Traditions I’m one cynical sister.
At least the ones that come with large consumeristic attachments…these ones often leave us wanting more before we’re even grateful for what’s set before us.
Holiday traditions can also carry an emotional weight when we’ve experienced something tragic in and or around a holiday.

Perhaps it’s a first holiday, with holiday traditions that someone isn’t there for.
Or perhaps it’s a love gone wrong that leaves us cynical about that holiday for years to come.
Maybe it’s a bit of a mixture of all of them.

There isn’t one holiday tradition that I’ve clinged to year after year.
I love putting up a Christmas tree don’t get me wrong. However we’ve yet to always get it from “the same place every year” or always set it up on a specific day. I love stockings and buying stocking stuffers even though I spoke of its consumeristic attachments. 

I guess if there is any one “tradition” of it all, we always set a budget for the holiday(s).
We keep presents to Something you Need, Something to read, Something you want. For gifts no matter if it’s Christmas, Easter, or your Birthday. 

Birthdays are about the only thing we do have a tradition for. The Birthday person gets to pick what they want for breakfast and dinner, they get the cake of their choice, and they get to pick the activity we do that day. 

We don’t bend over backwards to keep or make traditions, we just do what feels right in the season we are in. Some seasons may last a few rounds before we move on. Some may only make an appearance that year. 

Traditional Traditions 

Now these are the soul soothing winners to me. The ones that take no work, just presence.
Okay for some they take a little work – Thank You Church Workers!
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (LSB 357)
O little town of Bethlehem (LSB 361)
Silent Night, Holy Night (LSB 363) 

You get the drill. But it’s more than just the singing. It’s everything.
I just started with Christmas because it’s magical!
It celebrates the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now that is one birthday party I’ll never miss.
It’s a party where even those who haven’t been to church all year, get dressed up and go.
Because why? It’s “Tradition”. 

Side track Time.

Growing up Lutheran I couldn’t stand the Traditional service, I only ever wanted to take part in contemporary. So much so that when I got to college and the campus church only held traditional services I stopped attending.
Side track Time turned Honesty Hour
I call it my dark decade: 2000-2010. In hindsight I should have learned to love the traditional service.
If I had, a decade of growing pains would have turned out extremely different.
I don’t lose sleep over it because the Lord uses that time in my life. 

What’s your Point Emily

I love being Lutheran. It’s very comforting.
I love the LSB and the Divine Service settings (Worship Settings)
Each one holds Confession and Absolution, Hymn of Praise, Readings from the bible, a Hymn of day, a sermon, the Nicene Creed and Apostles Creed, Prayer of Thanksgiving, Lord’s Prayer, Communion, Benediction (and many other steps woven within). To many these are just words on a page.
Being in church saying these things together in unison with others who believe the same thing…it’s so powerfully moving. (Honest Hour returned: It used to creep me out as a kid, it felt “cult like” – if going on definition alone, it fits the mold)
We sing the doxology with our kids, we sing hymns, we love a good weekly matin service.
We don’t miss church unless we are sick.
These are our household traditions, and as far as traditions go, I’ll hold tight.

True Traditions are what hold a place in your heart. 

Check your heart this holiday season sweet friends.
Take note of what traditions ring through your house.
What do they say about you, about your family, who you are and who you want to be.

Tradition:  an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior.

Traditions aren’t meant for yearly holiday festivities: they’re inherited, established. They are a custom pattern, thought, action, or behavior. The definition of tradition seems like a daily thing to me. 

Holiday Traditions, Yearly Traditions, Daily Traditions, no matter the kind, focus on where the heart of the tradition stems from. Maybe we need to drop some traditions this year. Maybe we need to keep some, or tweak them a bit. Maybe we need to take a tradition and extend it to our community and strengthen it. 

A verse to chew on as I leave you today.

Colossians 2:6-8
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

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