{"id":17455,"date":"2024-11-29T09:03:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T10:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17455"},"modified":"2024-11-29T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T10:29:10","slug":"readers-share-their-offbeat-holiday-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17455","title":{"rendered":"Readers Share Their Offbeat Holiday Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Families with holiday rituals are more likely to gather. So here\u2019s to \u201cRibsgiving,\u201d stinky gifts and fried oysters for Christmas breakfast.<\/p>\n

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When I was growing up, we had a family tradition that I didn\u2019t know was weird. For regular meals, we folded our paper napkins in half in a rectangular shape. But for holiday dinners, we folded them diagonally \u2014 which, for reasons that have never been made clear, my parents viewed as more formal.<\/p>\n

I think about this quirky little tradition every holiday. Our Thanksgiving table has changed a bit over the years, but the napkins were still neat triangles this year, as always. It warmed my heart, for some reason, and it always comforts me to hear about other people\u2019s holiday rituals, too.<\/p>\n

One friend of mine, a New Yorker, celebrates what she calls Greenland New Year\u2019s Eve. \u201cI can never make it to midnight,\u201d she told me. \u201cSo I ring in the New Year at 9 p.m. Eastern time, when it\u2019s midnight in Greenland. Then I go to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another friend always attends Yo La Tengo\u2019s annual \u201c8 Nights of Hanukkah\u201d concert residency in New York City. (As he put it, \u201cGifts for the kids; a show for me.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Traditions don\u2019t need the weight of history to be meaningful<\/a>, said Michael Norton, a professor of business administration at Harvard and the author of \u201cThe Ritual Effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Norton, who has researched family holidays, told me that families who have rituals \u201creport being more likely to brave the hectic travel and traffic to actually gather.\u201d Those who don\u2019t have such rituals, he found, are less likely to come together.<\/p>\n

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Families with holiday rituals are more likely to gather. So here\u2019s to \u201cRibsgiving,\u201d stinky gifts and fried oysters for Christmas breakfast.When I was growing up, we had a family tradition that I didn\u2019t know was weird. For regular meals, we folded our paper napkins in half in a rectangular shape. But for holiday dinners, we folded them diagonally \u2014 which, for reasons that have never been made clear, my parents viewed as more formal.I think about this quirky little tradition every holiday. Our Thanksgiving table has changed a bit over the years, but the napkins were still neat triangles this year, as always. It warmed my heart, for some reason, and it always comforts me to hear about other people\u2019s holiday rituals, too.One friend of mine, a New Yorker, celebrates what she calls Greenland New Year\u2019s Eve. \u201cI can never make it to midnight,\u201d she told me. \u201cSo I ring in the New Year at 9 p.m. Eastern time, when it\u2019s midnight in Greenland. Then I go to bed.\u201dAnother friend always attends Yo La Tengo\u2019s annual \u201c8 Nights of Hanukkah\u201d concert residency in New York City. (As he put it, \u201cGifts for the kids; a show for me.\u201d)Traditions don\u2019t need the weight of history to be meaningful, said Michael Norton, a professor of business administration at Harvard and the author of \u201cThe Ritual Effect.\u201dDr. Norton, who has researched family holidays, told me that families who have rituals \u201creport being more likely to brave the hectic travel and traffic to actually gather.\u201d Those who don\u2019t have such rituals, he found, are less likely to come together.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17457,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17458,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17455\/revisions\/17458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}