(Check out my past posts about Halloween and All Souls Day using the search feature embedded on the sidebar of this Google Blogger!)
Did your family have any special holiday celebrations or traditions that were ethnic or their very own special invention?
I find that writing about this subject can really bring a kind of "warm and fuzzy" feeling to a family history writing project, along with all the genealogy data that you're compiling. You can even gather your family to have a little writing group and write as individuals together in the meeting on various events, read your writing to each other aloud, and include the writing in the MEMORIES part of your book.
For Halloween you might write about the first Halloween costume you ever wore. Could you breath through the mask? Did your mother sew it? Did you walk wearing it in a parade? Did your family celebrate this holiday in any special way? Is Halloween a holiday that is spiritual, funny, or spooky for you?
All Souls Day; Did you go to church? Did you pray for a relative that passed? How old were you when you understood what death was? What was the first funeral you remember attending like? How did it make you feel?
Thanksgiving: The best and worst Thanksgivings you've experienced. Favorite foods (be sure to credit the right cook!) The furthest you've ever traveled to attend a Thanksgiving Dinner.
Christmas: Your earliest memories of the holiday. How old were you? Pictures with Santa.
The year it didn't snow.
You get the idea.
As for me, I have some rich holiday memories such as:
That my aunt, in the days before you had to go through inspections at airports, actually took a cooked ham in a roaster pan on an airplane as her contribution to a meal in Florida. Reportedly at some point the ham beneath her seat moved and had passengers scrambling. (She proudly walked off the plane with the roaster pan before her.)
Being six years old and seeking my first body in a casket. It wasn't creepy exactly. The person appeared to be at peace - and waxy.
Wearing costumes that were made for me at dancing school for Halloween too - just with a simple mask. My neighbor who made home made candy apples - just a few for the closest neighbor kids - and gave out candy bars to the rest. Living in a suburb where one year several hundred kids came to the door.
The Christmas that my most treasured present was something small but yearned for that was in my stocking. The Christmas my cousin swore that she saw Santa and the reindeer from the window view from the top bunk bed. The Christmas a loved one died.
HAVE FUN!
