The holiday season is marked by tradition: enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, hanging Christmas ornaments, singing Christmas carols. What truly makes Thanksgiving and Christmas memorable are those traditions and rituals that families celebrate together.
“Traditions strengthen our identity as a family,” said Dr. Carole Wallach, a McMurray psychologist.
Rituals, Wallach said, help make families and friends feel closer and more connected.
Washington County residents have established their own special ways to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, and many were happy to share their traditions with the Observer-Reporter on our Facebook page and in phone conversations.
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– Linda Adkins
Christmas dinner, no drinks
“Our family celebrates a traditional Slovenian Christmas meal with no meat, lots of fish, pierogies, mashed potatoes, creamed corn. A lot of starchy food. We say a prayer and we eat blessed host with a bit of garlic and honey on it. It symbolizes something, but I don’t know what. And during the meal, we’re not allowed to drink anything. I don’t know why we can’t drink anything, either. Isn’t that typical. We have traditions and we don’t know why we do them?”
– Joyce Robinson
‘Thankmas’
“My family celebrates ‘Thankmas,’ an agreed-upon date between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With two min-isters in the family and cousins who live around the world, this allows us a family celebration that does not interfere with other families’ events.”
– Pastor Linda Jaberg, Thomas Presbyterian Church
Serving others at Thanksgiving
“Our favorite tradition is helping out at our church’s annual Thanksgiving Day dinner, and then dining with our friends, who invited our family to eat with them the first year (we volunteered at the church) and every year since, to share what we call ‘Our Walton Thanksgiving.’ 17
– Heidi Crupe
Light show
“We always attend Canonsburg United Presbyterian’s laser light show by local Washingtonian George Dodworth. George is world-famous for his laser light shows for all the top entertainers! He combines his laser light show with beautiful Christmas music. It always puts my daughter and me in the Christmas spirit! We encourage paper product donations to our food bank.”
– Jodie McKahan Gallagher
Thanks and predictions
“Every Thanksgiving, starting when the kids were really young, we cut out paper leaves and write on them one thing we are thankful for. They have to be specific, not just something like, ‘My family.’ And then we put them on a special tree. After dinner, we read the answers and try to guess who wrote it. On New Year’s Eve, we fill out prediction sheets early in the evening, with questions like, ‘Who will win the Super Bowl?’ Then, right around midnight, we go over last year’s prediction sheet to see how many we got right, and read our predictions for the next year. We also have a sheet where we write what’s the best thing and worst thing that happened to you last year. My son Ben wrote one year the worst thing was when he almost drowned, and I never knew about it.”
– Lisa Higie
