Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

What Becomes Tradition?

This Halloween, I had no Jack-o-lantern, not even a pumpkin, no décor of any kind. I don’t think I’ve ever forgone a Jack-o-lantern before. In Chicago, when I was young and single and broke, I made a super-cool one out of an acorn squash, and then made soup. I feel weird and naked and guilty… but why?

This year, the kids didn’t seem to care. They didn’t dress up (although I think my daughter wore a cat-ear headband to school), and I thought, if they don’t care, why should I?

It’s not that they don’t care about anything. I just listened to my son’s three-minute speech about his family traditions (for homework), so I know what he does care about. He cares about Fourth of July in Cape May—which is funny because we’ve only been doing that for the last few years. He cares about seeing his cousins, which makes me happy. He cares the cinnamon buns I make for Christmas morning, and seeing the Macy’s windows, which is also funny because he never seems to want to go, even though I make him. He did not mention special memories of Halloween decorations, or the gorgeous table I set for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Carving a pumpkin is fun if you have kids who are into it. There are neighborhoods and families that go all out with spooky decor, or lights and wreaths and more at Christmas, and if that’s truly a meaningful tradition for you and yours, then do it.

But maybe it’s something you are just doing because Oriental Trading Company and Michaels make it so easy to go all-out without spending too much money (And Pottery Barn makes it so easy to go all-out and spend a lot of money.) Some of my clients (you know who you are) have massive storage dedicated to holiday and seasonal decorations of all kinds.

My mom used two dollars worth of cheap, colorful fabric underneath her good lace tablecloth—red for Christmas, orange for Thanksgiving—to set the mood. Her tablecloth is long gone, but I have red ribbon cut into short lengths to tie around white napkins at Christmas, and some orangey-gold ribbon for Thanksgiving. I like putting little pumpkins or holly berries on my table; they look festive and they can be composted after the holiday. Maybe your kids can make a construction-paper pumpkin or a holiday snowman for the door, and when the season is over, it can go into recycling.

As the season of overdoing and overspending is upon us, see what traditions you might be able to forgo, and how you can keep your decorating simple, environmentally friendly and stress-free.

Maybe next year my kids will want to do a Jack-o-lantern again, and then we will. In the meantime, I’ll set my seasonal tables, because I enjoy that, and I’ll make those cinnamon rolls, because I know my kids enjoy those.