There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the holidays. Cookie baking, holiday movies, tree decorating, and soulful renditions of “I’ll be home for Christmas” become the norm, and it becomes completely fine to wear hideous holiday themed clothing during work hours (I’m wearing this one as I type this…). However, one of the most important reasons our team looks forward to the holidays with so much excitement is the opportunity we have to participate in holiday traditions.
Traditions are the best. Not only do they make your holiday celebrations unique, but they allow you to create stronger connections with the people you care about year after year. Plus, they’re pretty fun. For example: My family likes to be creative, so our favorite Christmas tradition is putting together a holiday movie. Each person has to dress up and lip sync to a Christmas song (the funnier the better), and we watch the whole thing on Christmas. Seeing my grandma dressed up like Brunhilda the opera singer or my dad in lederhosen definitely adds spice to the holiday.
Despite the variance in holiday traditions, at DonorLynk we all use the holidays to make memories with the people we care about. So in the spirit of the holidays this year, I asked some of our staff to share their favorite holiday traditions. The results were definitely festive!
Will Cleary (Senior Account Manager & Strategist): The Cleary Christmas tradition was to cut down a real tree as a family. Most years, that tree would stay up till Valentine’s Day. We Clearys are not very timely.
Evans Knowles (graphic designer): A couple years ago, my mom started having us do a family talent show (inspired by the movie Dan In Real Life). Talents have included such hits as: two-person diaper changing, excel spreadsheet wizardry, toddler piano “playing”, and whipping hair back and forth.
Heather Guthrie (marketing coordinator): I recently got married, and my husband and I have started the tradition of a Christmas Eve seafood dinner. It’s a delicious start to our Christmas celebration.
Finley Knowles (nonprofit advisor): The tradition that if omitted would cause family outrage would be to leave sweet potato casserole off the menu. A newer tradition is the one where the extended family gathers in the family room with each person focusing on his/her laptop or mobile device strategizing a shopping plan for the next day. Food and consumerism. That just about covers it.
Cyndi Eaton (Client Success Manager): At our house, we sprinkle reindeer food on the grass on Christmas Eve so Santa’s reindeer can have a snack while he is in our house. We also leave a Santa key at our door for Santa since we don’t have a chimney!
Marianna Woodruff (nonprofit advisor): My favorite holiday tradition is caroling with my church. We dress up in hats and antlers and visit houses of church members, their families, and a few nursing homes. We always end each caroling visit with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,”and celebrate afterwards with a Christmas party!
Joe Traughber (Senior Software Engineer): My family always gathers around the piano to sing Christmas carols, but each year we make a new parody of a particular carol. The parody involves everyone, and at the end of the night, we get everybody in one room with the piano and record our new hit!
Our traditions reinforce the idea that we believe in creating meaningful experiences, both with our clients and around the holidays. Whatever way you celebrate the holidays, we hope that you enjoy your holiday traditions as much as we love ours. On behalf of our entire team, we’d like to wish you a fantastic holiday season and best wishes for the coming new year.