I’ve struggled finding meaningful traditions that it feels “worth the effort” to keep up with. I’m married, but childless, and my parents have both passed away. I have one sister who lives in Texas, and she has her own sons there and in Illinois. S.O.'s family is split and scattered across the globe (estranged dad in Panama, mom in Florida, closest Aunt/Uncle in KY, brother in DC, brother in Louisiana - we’re in Virginia… You get the idea). So every Yule since my Dad died, it is just the two of us with our two dogs. S.O. doesn’t care a bit about the holiday or decorating, and it feels like so much work to do it all by myself, for myself (and then take it all down a month later).
A few years ago I stumbled upon this Plum Pudding recipe and decided to try it. It came out delicious, so I’ve been making it every year since, as our one small “tradition”. I’m proud that I’ve managed to stay motivated to do it, and that it came out of the pan perfectly this time. Sorry for the horrible mess of glaze, I couldn’t be bothered to make it Instagram-perfect before we had some
Oooh, I love eating things that taste like Christmas!! Ahhhh. Click* the lightbulb just went off. I was about to say that I never would’ve expected a pudding to be a cake, but I just remembered from a mystery book series that I enjoy that the British often refer to dessert in general as pudding. Now it makes sense!
What a great way of creating your own tradition!!
You should enter this into the great LC Holiday baked goods challenge (or something like that)!
This is a great tradition! Every family finds their own way. I and TheMisterT are child-free and our families are not nearby so we often have holidays just the two of us (plus pets), too, but we find that soothing and cozy. I do all the decorating, but he enjoys having the house seasonally festive even if he is only a spectator! He does all the holiday meals.
That’s a great tradition! It sounds like it’s a bit similar to the traditional English Christmas pudding. And yes, @AudiobookLover the British call dessert “pudding” and so do we in my country! At least in the area where I grew up. You can totally have cake for pudding, or fruit. Reminds me of that Pink Floyd song where the teacher shouts "How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat? "
I know what you mean about finding new traditions. We are also a couple without children or nieces/nephews. I have my mother and two siblings + partners but they don’t live near us and we’re not super close, Mr. Imma’s side of the family is even more complicated. After 8 years together we’ve started to find our own, cosy traditions. Christmas is not as big of a deal in our country as it is in the US, but I love decorating and Mr. Imma says he loves how happy it makes me. And we both like cooking so it’s a great occasion to try out new dishes.
Another thing we have done is reach out to friends who are in the same situation. There are more people without tons of family than most people think. In non-pandemic times we have a couple that we often celebrate holidays and special occasions with (one half with no living family, the other half with family abroad).