Do you remember banging pots n’ pans on New Year’s Eve as a kid?
And eating Strata and imbibing in early mimosas for brunch as an adult for your first visit home for Christmas?
Waiting for Mom to read The Night Before Christmas? (and that other weird story about the train and the bell that you and your siblings STILL don’t know what it’s about.)

Do you serve food to the less fortunate?
Walk dogs and petting kitties at your local shelter?
How about joining your neighbors to sing carols?
Or playing Cards Against Humanity with fellow “orphans” who have no family in town?

Or sitting in front of the wood fire stove in your first home and watching the cats go crazy with their new bouncy cardboard castle? (seriously, I’m just waiting for these felines to go nuts over this new gift.)

Or baking a special kind of cookie, that reminds you of your Hungarian grandmother.
Or eating all of the pierogies because it reminds you of your long-divorced Polish step-family.

Whether you’re on your own or partnered up, it’s important to maintain some sort of tradition that makes you smile, warms your Grinchy heart, and reminds you of what’s important. These small acts attach us to the holiday (even when you’re not feeling it), connects us to Christmas memories (present, past and future) and to one another — be that a significant other, your children or pets, or extended family.

Keep mind of the little things this holiday.
Merry Christmas, 30-somethings!