Opinion

Adults enjoy creating Christmas traditions

By Richard Reeder

This document was published online on Monday, December 01, 2008

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The holiday movie season is beginning and we're trying to get in as many as we can at our house.

Last weekend we saw “Four Christmases” at the theater.

I'm not much of a Vince Vaughn fan, but this one is pretty good.

He and Reese Witherspoon are a couple living together who try to avoid seeing their families at Christmas.

But they get caught and are forced to visit each divorced parent.

The movie plays on many dysfunctional family traits.

I'm convinced we can all relate to that because we all have some dysfunction in our family.

Strained relationships between divorced parents, continuing problems with siblings and a host of others seem to come up during the holidays.

The nomadic nature of some families adds to the strain because often siblings aren't a big part of each other's lives.

I know that if I suddenly had to have my brother and sister for the holidays it could be a reality show waiting to film.

But as much as Vaughn and Witherspoon try to avoid the mayhem, the more it pushes them apart and then finally draws them together.

We've already enjoyed one of our favorite movies in “Christmas Vacation.”

Again, the focus is the strains of family relationships.

Chevy Chase tries to create a perfect down home Christmas with two moody teenagers, warring in-laws, broke uninvited cousins and snotty neighbors.

The movie ends with some peace and bliss, but the craziness sends Chase over the edge at various points.

We will all enjoy the “Santa Clause” movies with Tim Allen.

He's hilarious as he assumes the role of St. Nick and deals with a son going from youth to teen years, an ex-wife and her psychiatrist husband and a new wife and in-laws.

Last year we discovered “The Polar Express” with Tom Hanks. It deals with a child's struggle with the Christmas spirit and his belief in Santa.

During the hustle and bustle of the season it's hard to squeeze in time to see the movies, but we find the time.

I believe we need to create holiday traditions the kids can carry on.

Not only do we try and watch as many movies as we can, we also try and find time to see the holiday lights.

A few years ago we began taking the kids on a “PJ” tour.

Everyone gets in their pajamas and we make hot chocolate and drive around to see the town's decorations.

My wife selects a night when she bakes Christmas cookies and makes sure the kids are there to help.

It's funny to see some of the ways they choose to decorate them.

Some of the colors that end up on the tree-shaped ones make you do a double take because the colors don't really look like trees.

With my mom gone I really miss some of the things she did that made Christmas special.

But those memories help me enjoy the holiday and I want my kids to have those same holiday traditions and memories.

Christmas is special and we all need to try and do those things to show the people around us how much we love them and enjoy being with them.

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