If you’ve ever watched the fantastic Fiddler on the Roof movie, you will no doubt remember the scene where Tevye exuberantly sings about his family and their traditions. He is fearful that a modern way of life is coming to his Orthodox Jewish home.
Many of us have holiday traditions that make this time of year so nostalgic.
As a young boy, my grandmother served finnan haddie at her Christmas Eve Dinner – a Scottish “delicacy” that was revolting to me. My brother and I dreaded the meal! I was relieved when that particular meal was dropped from our holiday traditions!
More recently, a few years ago our family started a fun tradition of lighting the County’s Christmas tree with our granddaughters, Blair, Lucy and Maggie! The girls have a great time lighting the tree by pushing the big red button – don’t tell them we really do it with a remote control!
Sometimes it’s fun to be a guest in someone else’s traditions. I did that a week ago when I visited the 30th Annual International Tamale Festival in Indio, California. I traveled to support a buddy competing in a triathlon and we enjoyed post-race tamales from the award-winning tamale booths. Some 500,000 people attend the festival each year so you can imagine how many tamales were made by abuelas and their families in the region!
We asked employees to send in their photos of their favorite holiday traditions and I think you’ll enjoy the fun video below.
I now have an even better appreciation for tamales as holiday fare – far better than finnan haddie! And the engineer in me has some questions for Ben Ramsey about his unusual family tradition!
However you and yours celebrate at this time of year, I hope you make some wonderful memories with those you love over the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading,
Bruce