2020 is for creating new Golden Christmas & Hanukkah traditions

The holiday season is supposed to be the “most wonderful time of the year”, but this year the atmosphere is different.

Celebrations are being pared down to prevent the virus from spreading and “bubbles” now means less gorgeous MCC but rather a defined group of people. Nevertheless, it seems more important than ever to acknowledge the festive season – especially as we take small steps towards normality.

We will be spending the festivities in a more contained way. Out with the big parties, kisses and hugs, and in with Zoom celebrations, online shopping and pandemic -themed ornaments. Who is adding mini-masks and sequinned sanitiser bottles to their decor theme this year?

To create some semblance of the holiday spirit, families are redefining traditions and rituals that they might not ordinarily think of changing. One tradition that never gets old is the hanging of Christmas stockings, and there are some great stories about stockings.

This legend (from the olden days when things were very different) caught our fancy and is about a dad and his daughters, who lived in poverty. The father was worried that his daughters would never get married due to their financial situation. Santa just happened to catch wind of this and later that night, filled up the stockings of the daughters (the stockings were out drying by the fire) full of gold. When they woke up, their financial status wasn’t an issue any longer, and the dad no longer worried about them not finding a spouse.