Family Traditions

In The House at Blackwater Pond, as Jillian is enjoying the holidays with her adult children, she thinks about some of her family traditions and the need to be flexible as situations change.

Traditions are important in creating a sense of family, no matter the makeup of the group. Whether passed down from previous generations or newly begun, traditions provide us with a sense of belonging and security.

One of the most popular traditions is singing “Happy Birthday” and blowing out candles on a cake. I once celebrated a birthday while visiting my daughter out of state. Her friends’ family unexpectedly sang the “Happy Birthday” song to me deliberately out of tune and oddly syncopated. That was not a tradition I adopted, but it worked for them.

Many traditions surround the holidays, of course. Favorite meals, games, activities, or family visits. Some traditions are inherited, some are deliberately adopted, and some just happen. One year I invited a recently divorced friend and her daughter to our house for Halloween. I prepared one of our mother’s favorite soups, a salad, and some crusty bread, which we shared before going Trick or Treating. The next year, my daughter asked for that Halloween soup. For the last eleven years, she’s made it for her own family.

Each Christmas my mother made a brown sugar candy that was her grandmother’s recipe. I still make it every year – slowly melting brown sugar and butter together before adding milk, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and walnuts. It’s a family favorite. This year when sharing the recipe with a friend, I realized I have been making this candy for fifty years!

Although I no longer experience the great tree lighting mentioned in the book, the memories still elicit a feeling of warmth and belonging. The following link will lead you to a short video about the Pink Pig and the Great Tree Lighting at Rich’s Department Store in downtown Atlanta.

https://www.pbs.org/video/richs-remembered-the-great-tree-and-the-pink-pig-05ba6r/

Traditions, whether observed weekly, seasonally, or annually, connect us to a shared history. What traditions do you share with your family?