Holiday Traditions and Symbols and Memories…

What makes your holiday come alive? Cooking? Celebrating? Gift-giving and receiving? Sports? Shopping? Or is it the memories of doing and experiencing and enjoying all of these things with loved ones and friends in the past…

Remembering anchors so much of who we were to who we are and want to be. Often, we want for things to have been better than they were or for them to become better than they are. But the best memories, the ones that define a time and place or person we’ve loved, can become the symbol of everything we want to achieve again. These kinds of traditions in place and time and relationships tend to come to us most strongly around the holidays.

Christmas gift and baubles on defocused lights background

I believe this so strongly, I naturally wrote a book about it. The book itself was alive long before I wrapped a holiday theme around it. But it was the holiday symbolism I added, complete with past images merging with the present and promising a better future, that made the characters and their story come to life in a way I’d never dreamed.

There’s promise in the past, even if before came with its share of heartache. Searching for the perfect symbols of a bright future (despite disappointments) was my challenge. And yours. All of us could let ourselves become mired in the darker nature memories can hold. Or we can find inspiration there, to want what we once had, or maybe what we’ve never had but still desire.

dream future

I challenged my characters (and I challenge you) to see life as an abundance always sought for, even if we feel deprived. A success just beyond our reach that we CAN attain, even if we’ve failed. A reality that will be ours, even if it’s alluded us for too long.

In Christmas on Mimosa Lane, I use colors and dreams and make-believe children’s stories and vintage jewelry to tie past and present and future together into a tapestry our protagonist, the little girl she’s trying to save and the struggling single father she’s falling in love with can see and touch and unravel until they understand their heart’s desire.

What do you need to experience or remember or relive this holiday season, so you, too, can reach for what you most long for and grasp it for your very own? I’d love to know. Just sound off in the comments. I’ll be listening…

And to continue (and share ;o) my obsession this season with holiday traditions and symbols and memories:

  • I’m adding images of some of my favorite Trifari vintage pins (one of the things Mallory and little Polly share in COML) out on my Pinterest page. Check these lovelies out!
  • Plus,  don’t forget that through the end of November, you can enter to win a vintage  Rudolf  Trifari pin of your own, complete with a cute red nose, by sharing a holiday memory or collection in the comments over at that blog post.
  • Stay tuned… I’ll be giving away a vintage Trifari Christmas tree in much the same way. Post to come very soon and run through the middle of December, so your tree will make its way to you before the holiday gets here!

Happy remembering and dreaming, everyone!

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2 Responses to “Holiday Traditions and Symbols and Memories…”

  1. Skye says:

    I don’t know what I’m longing to experience or relive this holiday season. Christmas changed with the death of my grandma a few years ago, which was okay because Mom and I could come up with new traditions. But with Mom’s death the following year, two years ago, there went all my family and my holidays.

    My closest friends live back in the Pacific Northwest, so I spent last Christmas with them (actual Christmas I spent with the friend who has teens, the only friend who has kids) and I was asked back for this year, so I’m going (the teens wanted to know that I was coming back, which is cool).

    I haven’t decorated for years and my apartment is a bit small and right now a bit too disorganized for decorations, but I find myself looking at the sparkly little tinsel trees I’ve been seeing in the craft stores. We never had a tinsel tree, but I kind of want one, something really retro and seen as kind of tacky by my family. Something I can put super-colorful decorations on.

    If I get one, it will have to be tabletop-small because there’s no room for a freestanding tree in this place. But I might do it, even though I’ll be gone for quite a few days around and during the holiday. If the characters in COML could make new holiday memories, I suppose there’s no reason I can’t. :)

    Good post!

  2. Pat Lieberman says:

    I enjoyed this blog post.

    As I am getting older Christmas is bittersweet; remembering and missing all the good times with loved ones no longer with us, celebrating and seeing the joy in our granddaughter’s eyes.

    I am lucky enuf to still have my mom who is 92 and cherishing every moment with her.

    Christmas is a time for hope and joy and am hoping our country improves in all facets and hope that someday soon our world will be filled with peace and cures for many illnesses.

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