As the year wraps up, everything tends to feel chaotic…until it doesn’t. At some point in late December, things slow just a bit. In last week’s blog, Gabi Barragan wrote about the Japanese concept of Ikigai and the importance of slowing down and being intentional as we head into the new year. This time of year almost forces that pause. The holidays pull us out of our routines and into time with family, friends, and familiar traditions.
So this week, I thought it would be fun to talk about traditions.
I love learning how people celebrate and their traditions, whether it’s Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, birthdays, or something else entirely. Traditions can be simple or elaborate, created accidentally or with lore so deep that no one remembers how they began.
A lot of people I know have specific movies they watch every year around the holidays: Home Alone, Love Actually, It’s a Wonderful Life, or the famously debated Die Hard (which I will confidently say is a Christmas movie).
My family celebrates Christmas, and we had a similar tradition that started with everyone opening one present on Christmas Eve. The present was always a movie, and then we’d vote on what to watch. That tradition was abandoned when we got the extended-edition Lord of the Rings box set (at roughly 11 hours of runtime, it’s a serious commitment). And a new tradition was born. From that point on, Lord of the Rings became a Christmas movie in our house.
One of my favorite traditions I’ve heard about comes from a friend whose mom hides a small gift inside the Christmas tree every year, small enough to fit between the branches. This is a gift from the tree. I don’t know why it started, but I like the idea that the tree gets to participate. I’d never heard anything like it, which is exactly why I love it.
My favorite conversations are the ones where someone casually mentions a tradition they grew up with, completely unaware that:
1) no one else does this, and
2) it’s not just “how the holiday works.”
And I mean that in the best way. Those super niche traditions—the ones no one can quite explain anymore—are often the most telling. They’re little windows into what mattered to someone at some point, and why it stuck.
And while traditions are top of mind this time of year with the holidays, they exist everywhere. Some are widely shared, like Fourth of July fireworks, Groundhog Day, the Thanksgiving turkey pardon, and volunteering around the holidays. Others are specific to families, communities, or even companies.
At Ideba, one of our traditions is giving back through volunteering. It’s part of how we come together as a team and reconnect beyond the day-to-day work, and for a fully remote company, that matters. Jenna Gieszler touched on this in her Thanksgiving blog, reflecting on how those moments have become part of the fabric of Ideba.
After an incredibly busy Q4, it’s worth remembering that behind all the emails, projects, and meetings, we’re all just people with families, friends, and sometimes very specific traditions no one else has heard of.
Hearing about different traditions is a reminder that people rarely do things the same way, even when they’re celebrating the same thing. I see that play out in my work all the time. Context matters, and often, the small details usually explain more than the obvious ones.
Traditions are a huge part of culture. They show us where meaning lives. Whether they are widespread or deeply niche, traditions give insight into individuals, families, and even organizations. Traditions reveal the objects, experiences, and values that people hold closest. They’re the shared behaviors, inside jokes, and rituals that feel normal to the people participating in them, even if they don’t make sense to others. Especially in a world where many of us now work remotely, traditions help keep culture alive. They give people something to look forward to and something to share.
So whether it’s a holiday tradition you’ve had your whole life or something that accidentally happened one year and stuck, those are the moments that shape culture.
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season!
Kristen Higgins – Research Manager
