The Holiday Tradition Your Birth Month Should Bring Back
Somewhere along the way, a holiday tradition can disappear without anyone deciding to stop it. The cards don’t get sent one year. The game stays in the closet. Everyone assumes someone else will suggest it next time. Here’s one your birth month might enjoy bringing back—or trying for the first time.
January: The Annual Holiday Photo
January, bring back the picture everyone pretends is a terrible inconvenience, then asks you to send them. Same couch, same doorway, whatever spot you can fit into together. You like being able to put one year beside another and notice what’s changed: a new face, a child who suddenly reaches someone’s shoulder, the dog finally looking at the camera. Take the photograph before people start leaving. In a few years, even the person caught holding a dinner roll may be glad you insisted.
February: Homemade Decorations
A paper snowflake with an alarming number of holes. A lopsided felt animal. Something made from a toilet paper tube that nobody can identify anymore. February, you’re more interested in what someone dreamed up than whether it matches the rest of the room. Set out paper, scissors, glue, and whatever scraps you have, then see what everyone invents. You have a soft spot for the things that would never make it into a coordinated display. Give the strange little creation a prominent place. Its maker will check for it next year.
March: Reading A Holiday Story Aloud
March, you love a story you can disappear into, especially one that already feels familiar. Bring back reading a holiday story aloud, with whoever wants to listen. Choose an old favorite or something new, and let someone volunteer for the dramatic parts.
Someone interrupts to inspect an illustration. Someone else remembers the next line before it’s read. Then a familiar person attempts a very unfamiliar voice, and you have to wait for everyone to stop laughing before the story can continue.
April: After-Dinner Games
April, you’re the person who can get a room interested by suggesting that the reigning champion might be beatable. Bring out the cards or start a round of charades after the dishes are cleared. Suddenly the quiet cousin has a strategy, the adults are losing, and somebody is making a very passionate argument about the rules. You enjoy discovering who people become when there’s a small, utterly meaningless victory available. The prize can be first choice of leftovers. You’ll still want to win.
May: A Special Holiday Breakfast
Before the shoes go on and the first “What time are we leaving?” comes from the hallway, May, there should be breakfast. Bring back the pancakes, the warm rolls, or the dish your household only made when nobody had to rush out. You appreciate a celebration you can actually settle into. Put the jam on the table, pour something hot, and leave time for seconds. Your favorite part might be the stretch after you’ve finished eating, when everyone is still sitting there in their socks.
June: Handwritten Holiday Cards
June, you have more to say than a printed greeting leaves room for. Bring back the card with a real note inside: the joke only that friend understands, the small update you keep meaning to share, the question you actually want answered. A handful is enough. You can write to someone you saw last week and still give them something they didn’t know. Somewhere between their bills and grocery flyers, there will be an envelope with your handwriting on it. They’ll know who it’s from before they turn it over.
July: Making The Family Recipe Together
July, bring back the afternoon when someone showed you how the holiday dish was made. Ask the person who knows it best to cook with you, whether that’s a relative or the friend whose kitchen you always end up in. The written recipe might say “until done.” Standing beside them, you get to see what done looks like.
You’ll also hear the opinions that never made it onto the card: which pan works, who insists on extra onions, why the original amount of butter was quietly increased. Write those parts down, too. Especially the butter.
August: The Living-Room Talent Show
August, you enjoy giving people their moment, and you’re usually willing to take a turn yourself. Bring back the living-room talent show: a song, a magic trick, an impression, or whatever someone insists they can do if everyone will just be quiet for a second.
Half the fun is in the introductions and applause. You can make a three-minute performance feel like the evening’s main event. By the time you’ve finished your own contribution, the person who said they were only watching has thought of something they’d like to try.
September: Wrapping Presents Together
September, you enjoy making something look good almost as much as choosing it. Bring back an evening of wrapping presents together, with a clear table and someone to hold the paper while you reach for the tape. One person cuts ribbon while the other holds the paper in place. The scissors disappear underneath something every seven minutes. As the pile gets smaller, the conversation wanders into things you probably wouldn’t have scheduled a call to discuss. Keep gifts for each other out of the pile, unless you’d like to spend the evening pretending not to recognize a very familiar box.
October: Walking Around To See The Lights
October, bring back the evening when the whole outing was simply looking at everybody’s decorations. Pick a few nearby streets and take a walk with someone who also enjoys stopping to admire a window. You can have favorites. The tiny balcony deserves consideration alongside the house visible from three blocks away. Part of the pleasure is seeing how differently people celebrate, all along the same street. On the way home, you’ll find yourselves debating whether to take the longer route past that one house again.
November: Watching Old Home Movies
The holiday footage doesn’t have to contain a major event to hold your attention, November. You might be more interested in the few seconds before everyone notices the camera: someone adjusting a sleeve, calling from the kitchen, or laughing in a way you’d forgotten. Bring back an evening of watching those recordings with people who want to remember alongside you. Leave room for the ordinary stretches. A slow pan across the room can bring back the exact pattern of a sofa you haven’t thought about in twenty years.
December: A Holiday Singalong
December, you don’t need to locate the best singer before this can begin. Bring back the singalong with whoever remembers the chorus. Pick the songs your group actually loves, pull up the words if necessary, and let people join from their chairs. Someone will come in early with absolute confidence. Someone else will know a verse the rest of you have never heard. Your favorite moment comes later, when the official singing is over and a person carrying plates into the kitchen starts the chorus again. From the other room, somebody answers.