This time of year is a perfect time to observe and remember holiday traditions and stories. Be sure to use FHmedia and FHnotebook this season and record these memories. You won’t have to dig far to find that treasure trove of family history gems that you should save forever. We have a few suggestions to help you find traditions to record, either in the form of notes, pictures, audio recordings, or videos.
Events
Most families have an event or two that is standard during the holidays. These events could be in the form of Christmas dinner, a trip to get a Christmas tree together, baking together, etc. In my family, every year we have a Christmas Eve gathering with our extended family. It includes dinner, a talent show, and a Nativity Scene Reenactment. It is comforting to have a set event each year—something to rely on even when the rest of the year has been difficult. And when we gather together Christmas Eve, we remember what happened the year before—like when my six-year-old niece wrote a song about hot chocolate and performed it for us, or when we heard a performance from a mini-band consisting of a French horn, trombone, and clarinet. I definitely want to remember stories like these. What events does your family participate in every year?
Decorations
I was speaking with my mother-in-law, and she gets new Christmas decorations each year. What a novel idea! My family has had the same decorations since I was little. In fact, my mom tried to throw some away one year and we wouldn’t let her. How does your family decorate? Does everything have a theme? Does your mom trust the children to decorate the tree?
Cooking
During the holidays, cooking is a central theme of family activities, service, and events. I’m sure your family has a traditional treat you make. In my family, my mother always makes a delicious German sweet bread called Stollen. For me, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it—watching my mom make batch after batch, delivering bread to friends, and finally getting to eat our own slices on Christmas Eve at our family gathering.
Besides recording memories of cooking together, you can store your favorite holiday recipes in FHnotebook in the family notebooks they belong to. You can type the recipe into a note, or if you have a cherished recipe card, you can take a photo of it using FHmedia and then upload it to your FHnotebook, preserving the original card while ensuring you never lose the recipe! Cooking meals together can be a memorable experience. Take the time to either tell the stories you remember of cooking together, or gather your family around and tell them the story while you record the experience.
This year, I will write about our Christmas Eve party, include pictures and videos of the event, and write down the memories of previous years. I’ll save my mother’s Stollen recipe so I never lose it. My memories—my notes, pictures, and videos—will be organized into notebooks in FHnotebook with the correct category labels on each item. These treasured memories can then be shared with my family so we all have access to them now and in the years to come.
Image by Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
categoriesfamily historyFHmediaFHnotebook
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