The first steps of carving out new traditions can feel a little bit awkward (after all, they aren’t tradition yet), but with time and repetition, they become like slipping into a pair of well-broken boots. Though the word “tradition” brings to mind something inherited, they don’t need to be. Traditions can be chosen, created or reshaped to fill the holes we need them in, in a way that makes sense for the lives we lead.

My family of origin is small and iconoclastic, and we had only a few holiday rituals growing up. My mom, like many freethinkers of her generation, butted heads against anything that reinforced the status quo, and let us children grow like wild weeds into our own individuals. I’m grateful for that childhood in so many ways, but onceI had my own kids, I started feeling the la

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