5 Birth Months Who Should Start A New Tradition Before The Year Ends

A tradition can start with one good evening and the thought, “Let’s do this again.” It might be a meal, an afternoon spent trying something new, or a way of remembering someone. For these five birth months, there’s still time to begin something you’ll want to return to next year.

January

January, start a tradition of looking back at the good things you didn’t plan. Before making your resolutions, look through the year’s photographs and choose three moments you could not have put on a wish list last December. Perhaps you became close to someone you barely knew. Perhaps a canceled plan gave you an afternoon you still think about.

Save those three photographs together and write a line about why each moment mattered. Before you start listing what you want to change next year, you’ll have a reminder of what this year gave you. Some of its best moments may never have appeared on your list of goals.

June

There are people you love who know almost nothing about one another. June, you are the connection between them: the friend from your first job, the neighbor who became important, the person who has heard every version of a story the others are only now discovering. Invite a few of them to a simple meal before the year ends, and ask whether they would like to make it an annual occasion.

Ask everyone to bring something, and choose the next date together so you’re not responsible for keeping the tradition going alone. Your old coworker and your neighbor may discover they love the same books or share the same sense of humor. Part of the pleasure is watching people you care about become more than names in each other’s stories.

September

Set aside an afternoon each year to be a beginner, September. Make your first one happen before December ends. Choose something you’ve wanted to try without expecting yourself to be good at it: drawing a portrait, learning a dance, or making a small bowl from clay. Keep a photograph of the attempt, with the date. Next year, try something else. Over time, you’ll have a collection of first attempts and the afternoons that went with them. The crooked bowl belongs in the picture, too.

November

If this year has left you missing someone, November, you might begin a night of remembering them. Choose a date and one thing that brings them close: a song they loved, a meal they always ordered, a story you want to tell someone who never met them. You can share the evening or keep it private.

There can be a strange loneliness in having so much to say about a person after other people have stopped asking. A recurring evening gives those stories somewhere to go. You can remember their humor, their opinions, the little habits you still find yourself smiling about. Next year, you may want a different song or a different story. You do not have to recreate the same feeling every time the date returns.

December

Your birthday can get folded into a season already crowded with plans, December. If you have become accustomed to making it convenient for everyone else, choose one part of the day that you would like to repeat simply because you enjoy it. A birthday breakfast at your favorite place. A walk with the person who always lets you take your time. An hour spent reading a book you chose for yourself.

If your tradition includes someone else, tell them what you’d enjoy before the calendar fills. You don’t have to make your birthday an elaborate event to give it something that belongs to you. A familiar breakfast, walk, or quiet hour can become the part you look forward to every December.