It occurred to me yesterday, after posting about our 2023 Halloween season, that some people may find that long list of festive(?) activities discouraging.

Most people probably won’t care, and will just add “way too focused on cemeteries” to their mental list of reasons I am both strange and interesting. But some people (in particular parents of young children) might look at that list and think “ugh, we didn’t even make it to a pumpkin patch this year and I barely remembered to order Halloween costumes in time; Casey is so much better at this than me.”

Casey is not better at this than you. Casey just really likes Halloween and pushed hard on it this year. Casey might not push as hard next year, and that’s okay.

I hate the pressure of annual family traditions, and I think we should all be more okay with skipping traditions, or just quitting the ones that aren’t working for us. This would also give us the freedom to experiment with new traditions without the pressure of doing them every year!

Example: A couple years ago I made gift bags of homemade cookies and treats for our neighbors and neighborhood friends. I did not enjoy doing this, and will not do it again.

This strategy is the whole reason I have a blog. I figured “What the hell, I’ll write in it until it’s not fun anymore but at least it will exist out in the world even if it’s defunct. It can still be a success even if it’s not forever.” And here we are all enjoying my solidly-on-its-way-to-being-defunct blog.

This is an important conversation to have, especially with Christmas coming up. It’s okay to drop traditions and try new ones, or just to do very little. I grew up with divorced parents who weren’t big gift givers and never did the Santa Claus lie; my childhood Christmases were still magical as hell. I promise you that your kids do not need to do or receive All The Things in order to make wonderful Christmas memories.