Rethinking holiday traditions: The balance between change and continuity

The way traditions evolve has been on my mind this holiday season. Tradition is often seen as something static and unchanging, but that isn’t really true. You can carry forward the essence or foundation of something important while still allowing it to grow and change to meet new needs.
I had a recent conversation with a mother who was preparing Christmas presents for her older children. She wants to keep the mystery and magic of Christmas morning alive for them, even though they’ve outgrown some beliefs. Her idea was to select a wrapping paper for each child, but they wouldn’t find out which one until Christmas morning. Some years, she picks a pattern she believes they’ll gravitate to more, and other years, she does the opposite. It makes it harder for them to unravel the puzzle, she said.
I have a co-worker whose family experienced a loss. Her family wanted to shake up their holiday traditions altogether and now bypasses Thanksgiving turkey at home for Chinese food.
My sister and I started organizing Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers for our family as we grew into adulthood. In our 20s, that meant experimenting with new recipes and making everything, right down to the pie crusts, from scratch.
Now we have added a new generation to those holidays. Family meals are more about keeping things simple and easy to maximize the time we have to spend together doing activities the mix of children will enjoy.
The traditions here — the truly important part — weren’t the activities. They were what those moments meant, a gathering together of people who wanted to be with those they love. That tradition remains strong no matter where or what activity is chosen.
Some in our community may have felt the Daily American Republic broke with tradition this year. We dropped print days, now having five digital editions and three print editions.
However, the way we deliver community news isn’t the tradition that the DAR’s 156 years of service are built on. Our tradition is serving our community by keeping residents informed on local news, from city government to school Christmas programs.
Technology is not tradition. That has changed many times for newspapers, going from the offset, hot lead press of our earliest days to the mixed benefits being discussed today of how artificial intelligence impacts our world.
Tradition is carried in the hands and minds that labor over how best to tell the stories of their community.
That tradition is alive in our newsroom, our circulation and composing departments, our advertising reps and our delivery drivers, from the people who build the website to those who make sure our bills get paid on time.
We look forward to carrying this tradition into 2025 and our 157th year serving you.
Donna Farley is editor of the Daily American Republic and Dexter Statesman. She can be reached at dfarley@darnews.com.