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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"40051","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"Tree Jolly Days"}}]]By Melissa Trumpey, Director of Public Events and Family Programs
Drinking hot chocolate, cooking and eating favorite foods, enjoying holiday lights and decorations…are all things families do around the holidays.
Think about your most special holiday moments. What traditions are important to your family and why? Most likely, they revolve around something you do with your family each year like taking a trip down the Yule Slide at The Children's Museum or singing carols together. Traditions with loved ones are what make the holiday season so special and provide reasons to look forward to the holidays each year.
Create your own Holiday Traditions memory book and it will become a wonderful place to record everyone's favorite holiday tradition! The book will be something each member of the family treasures as children get older and traditions change.
Holiday Traditions Memory Book
- Visit your Local craft or hobby store and pick out a scrapbook, photo album, notebook, decorative box or anything where you can keep pictures, notes, lists or stories of your family traditions. Get your children involved in choosing how to preserve those memories and traditions.
- After you have chosen where you will put your memories, have everyone in the family help decorate the album.
- Each family member writes or draws a picture or uses a family photo to represent their favorite holiday tradition. Be sure to write down the ages of your children so you can keep track of their favorites from year to year.
- Each year, include a list of things the family will do during the holiday season and add pages as your family celebrates the holidays!
You can visit Santa in the Jolly Days exhibit through December 24 at 2 p.m. Jolly Days remains open until January 5 (with the exception of Christmas Day, when the museum is closed.) Come visit Santa, "skate" in your socks, brush Santa's reindeer, "bake" goodies in the Cookie Café and create new holiday traditions of your own.
The celebration continues through New Year's Eve. Join the museum for a family-friendly Countdown to Noon on December 31st. Participate in the countdown, enjoy activities and ride the Yule Slide.
This article originally appeared in the December 2013 issue of Indy's Child.
