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Traditions as simple as cheerful Christmas letters, hand-stitched stockings or sugar-drop cookies are the stuff of legends -- the ingredients that help bond families, generation after generation. This holiday season, keep the traditions you love and consider adding some new ones for your young family. To jump-start things, you might want to make your own greeting cards or wrapping paper. Try the Stampin' Fun kits (Francis Family Toys, ages 5-12; $20). You and your child choose a theme, such as nature, or hearts and flowers. The instructions are plentiful and easy to follow.When it comes to your household decorations, give the youngsters a true hands-on role. One no-fuss idea is to make place settings, which always add a festive element to table decorations. For the personal touch, dig out favorite pictures of family members, make photocopies, glue the copies to a piece of cardboard or foam board, and voilà, you have place cards. The kids can decorate to the hilt, and guests will enjoy both locating "themselves" and seating themselves at your holiday table.
Photo place cards can also be a springboard for stories about family holidays past. Flora Joy, professor emeritus of storytelling at East Tennessee State University, suggests that the kids start with simple questions. Did you travel during the holidays? What was your favorite food? Which gift meant the most to you? Just like that, you've started a story-telling tradition. Sarah A. Williamson, author of Bake the Best-Ever Cookies! (Williamson Publishing, ages 8 and up; $7.95), says her grandmother, Golde, taught her all about holiday cookies. "And as much fun as it was to help with the baking, it was even more fun to sit around the kitchen table devouring our freshly made cookies along with tall glasses of milk," she says.
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