New Years Traditions

For 2011, Style My Tree will participate in the weekly series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History. It’s a joint effort between GeneaBloggers and Amy Coffin at the We Tree blog. Each week a new topic is introduced as a prompt for blogging about our own past and family history.

Week One: Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

Being 3 sisters, and close in age, we share many of the same childhood memories surrounding New Year's Eve and Day. Our parents didn't go out much when we were kids but special occasions, such as New Year's Eve, were often one of the rare occasions that they did. For us, as kids, that meant a fun night with our cousins and our only real babysitters, our maternal grandparents. From a young age, we all knew that the life of any party was my grandfather. He was the source of most things fun - loud party favors, balloons, pop and the kinds of treats that we were not normally allowed to have (Hostess pies, candy bars, and ice cream floats). We played games (Charades was a favorite), watched TV, and generally got loud and crazy! My grandmother was there to keep things somewhat under control but when you have seven to eight kids 12 and under hyped up on sugar and able to stay up way past their normal bedtime, that's not an easy (or realistic) task!

Our grandparents, now in their 80s, continue to host New Year's Eve for any family who show up at their house. I believe that the party is considerably tamer these days though. This year our younger set of cousins (ones who missed out on the NYE parties mentioned earlier) spent the evening with my grandparents making homemade pizzas and playing cards.

No matter how the party changes over the years, we always appreciate New Year's Eve with family!