Trading traditions

We all have our own treasured Christmas traditions. 

For the Swedish royal family, students from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences present their finest spruces to select and decorate. This is slightly different, but no less meaningful, than parting with $150 for a slightly sad looking Harris Farm fir tree. 

The Australian tradition of boarding a boat in 35 degree heat, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and stumbling off to continue that same activity on dry land may be fading. A recent survey found 47% of employees prefer casual Christmas party formats, such as BBQs or picnics. Bah humbug.

In Venezuela, Christmas church goers arrive on rollerskates. Ukrainians craft spiderwebs from paper and wire and wrap them around their tree like tinsel. 

Traditions sustain a shared history and a common bond, especially when - by distance or loss - those rituals bestow a much-missed connection. 

Each year also brings an opportunity to create, blend, and layer generations-old habits with something new. Something to hold to just as tight, and pass on with just as much reverence. 

This is, in The Cave’s opinion, one of the most underrated joys of Christmas. Of hardwired memory and new possibility coming together to create something that lives solely between a few, at a very particular time of year.

So to anyone who made it this far, thank you. And Merry Christmas.