Wondering what sort of family traditions – holiday and otherwise – that some of your friends and family have? I asked Christi Center members, friends, and family to share their traditions with me. Many of these traditions pay tribute to loved ones, and some traditions were in fact created to pay tribute to loved ones. If you are trying to find a new tradition that will remember and honor your loved one, take a look at some of these! Have other ideas? Please share them in the comments section below, so that everyone can enjoy hearing about what you do to honor lost loved ones!
“Our winter tradition is xmas music and decorating the tree together as a family and drinking hot chocolate We also help our church wit the Angel Tree ministry giving gifts to children that have parents and loved ones in prison.” – Serena T.
“I wanted to offer my story on how we honor my husband (now deceased) on his birthday. We always play some of his favorite songs and buy or make a birthday cake put the candles on and allow the kids to blow them out making their wishes. Afterwards, we get out magazines and crafts supplies and we each make a memory board (similar to a vision board) dedicated to the things we love and remember about our time spent with him. We then each talk about our board and get to tell about why we chose the things we did (which helps with acceptance and letting go).” – Anita R.
“This is a new tradition we started the year Charlie died. We have a small table-top tree that my oldest daughter gave us that first year. She said it is Charlie’s tree, and each ornament we put on it will be a reminder of Charlie. We now have it pretty full of decorations, and we can tell a Charlie story about each ornament on the tree. It helps our young grandsons get to know the uncle they never got to meet, and allows the rest of us to remember the fun times we had with Charlie.” -From the Seideman family
“The first Christmas after my son, David, went to heaven we changed the color scheme of all our decorations to blue, which was HIS color. We also got lots of snowflake ornaments that remind of all the sweet memories of snow skiing together. Now when it’s time to decorate I love it, because it is so much about David! Now, blue and snowflakes are popular Christmas themes- It is like kisses from heaven! I get to see him everywhere!” – Jana G.