Growing up, I was lucky enough to have amazing holiday traditions with a fantastic immediate and extended family to spend them with. Christmas and Easter were always my favorite. There are a lot of traditions that I don’t think will ever fade. My grandma’s cut-out cookies, awkward yet obligatory family hugs, too many types of pie at Thanksgiving, strawberry shortcake at Easter, games of Pit and Spoons after dinner, etc.
However, some traditions we all grow out of overtime, and this was always something that broke my sentimental heart.
I have younger cousins which means a lot of those traditions got extended past the time when my brother and I grew out of them. It was just in the last couple of years that Santa’s legitimacy was declassified, and Easter egg hunts were dispanded.
However, in the last COVID-19 free Easter, my family celebrated. I decided that even as we all got older an Easter egg hunt could still be fun. With that, I invented the extreme Easter egg hunt. What makes it extreme? There is only one egg.
This last-minute, hastily thrown-together idea made for one of my favorite holiday memories. I split my family into teams of two, trying to pair the people I thought would most enjoy spending some quality time together, and I sent them on a quest for the egg. while the egg was buried not three feet from the front door of my Grandma’s house where we were all spending Easter, the clues everyone was given to find it took my family all over the neighborhood. While some family members were not quite prepared for the physical activity I was to make them exert, I think they all enjoyed the experience I more or less forced them into. Even though it ended with my brother uncovering and then promptly lifting the ceramic egg in a victorious stance only to drop and shatter it seconds later, it was a very fun way for a group of late teens and adults to spend Easter.
My point with this story? Try not to grow out of your favorite childhood holiday traditions, instead, grow into them. Maybe decorating a gingerbread house for fun doesn’t make a ton of sense for your family anymore, so instead have a gingerbread house-making competition. Make rules, have strict requirements, and make it mentally engaging while also festive.
As social distancing and COVID-19 caution basically fade out of existence, we can finally start to enjoy the holidays again without the sadness of being separated from family or the fear of getting our loved ones sick. Enjoy every second of the holiday joy that has been lost over the last two years. If you don’t have little kids to hang with anymore, think back to your favorite childhood Easter traditions and turn them into something older kids and adults will enjoy.
You might just find yourself with some new favorite holiday memories.