December 10, 2025
Becki Smith
As our children have grown older, I’ve started to wonder if I will lose some of my treasured traditions. But I’ve come to realize that our traditions can take a different shape as our season of life changes.
One of our favorite family traditions during the Christmas season has been doing something for advent in the evenings of December. Each night, we would light candles on an advent wreath and read parts of the Christmas story or a Christmas devotion and sing a Christmas song and finish with fun Christmas trivia. When the children were very young, my husband and I took turns leading everything. As the children grew, they each got to have a turn lighting the candles, reading the devotions, and picking the song. But then, the kids got to their teen years and had jobs or sports during December, and it became more difficult to get everyone together in the evening to do the advent devotions. Many nights we wouldn’t do anything because someone wasn’t there. Until one year, we realized we had missed more nights than we had done of our advent tradition. I was disappointed that we had let things slide and suggested we change how we were doing things.
So, the following year we decided that whoever was home that night would participate in the devotions, and we would do them as consistently as possible. We also added some other things in and changed the books we use. I’ve come to realize that traditions are fun, but I don’t have to be pressured that they remain exactly the same all the time, year after year. They will change with the season of life that you are in. Your traditions will look different than mine, but they will be just as special to you. Remember while the tradition itself can change, it is the preciousness of family that you are creating together that will last forever!
There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven—Ecclesiastes 3:1(AMP)
