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Finding Hope During the Holidays: Creating New Traditions

Writer's picture: Anita ArrunateguiAnita Arrunategui

Updated: Nov 4, 2024






Creating new traditions after the loss of a loved one can be a powerful way to honor their

memory while also allowing you and your family to move forward. These new traditions provide a sense of continuity and healing, offering a way to blend the past with the present.


They can help ease the pain of loss by giving you something positive to focus on during a time that might otherwise be filled with sorrow.


What Creating New Traditions Can Do for You and Your Family


1. Preserve the Memory of Your Loved One: New traditions can incorporate elements that

remind you of your loved one, ensuring that their presence is still felt. This can be comforting and help keep their memory alive in a meaningful way.

2. Provide a Sense of Control: Grief can make you feel powerless. Creating new traditions gives you an opportunity to make choices that bring joy and meaning back into your life. It’s a way to reclaim the holiday season and shape it in a way that feels right for your current emotional state.

3. Strengthen Family Bonds: Establishing new traditions can bring family members together, providing a sense of unity and support. It encourages everyone to participate in the grieving and healing process, fostering open communication and shared experiences.

4. Facilitate Healing: New traditions can help you find a balance between grieving and

celebrating. They offer a way to acknowledge the loss while also embracing life and the future. This can ease the transition from sorrow to acceptance and even joy.


Sarah’s Experience

After losing her mother, Sarah found the holidays particularly difficult. The traditions they once shared now felt empty without her mother’s presence. But rather than avoiding the holidays altogether, Sarah decided to create new traditions that honored her mother while also allowing her and her family to move forward.


One of the traditions Sarah started was hanging a special ornament on the Christmas tree in memory of her mother. This ornament wasn’t just any decoration—it was one that her mother had always loved, and it had become a symbol of her mother’s spirit during the holidays. Every year, Sarah and her family now gather together to place this ornament on the tree, sharing memories of her mother as they do.


Additionally, Sarah introduced a new tradition of baking her mother’s favorite holiday cookies with her children. It became a time for her to share stories about her mother, passing down the recipes and the memories to the next generation. This tradition brought comfort and joy, transforming a painful time into one of connection and remembrance.

By creating these new traditions, Sarah was able to keep her mother’s memory alive while also creating a positive and nurturing environment for her family. It helped her find a way to celebrate the holidays again, not in spite of her grief, but in a way that honored it.


As we continue this journey together, consider how you might create new traditions that can help you and your family move forward while keeping the memory of your loved one close. Let’s walk through this time together, and as always, please share how this journey is ministering to you.


 

Get More Support with Our Free Guide to Navigating Grief During the Holidays.


This free e-book is filled with deeper insights and actionable strategies to help you find moments of peace and healing during these tough times.


Dealing with grief during the holidays can feel overwhelming and isolating, but you don't have to go through it alone. Download your copy now (no registration required).



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