We had a large garden before we had lawn when we bought our home in the early 1960s. During my “domestic phase†years I felt obligated to preserve—can, freeze, pickle, dry, etc. as much as possible. (We even have a root cellar on our suburban lot.)
One year I thought it would be a great idea to freeze corn on the cob from my husband’s garden to eat at our Christmas Eve dinner. So I picked eight of the nicest ears and froze them, carefully following the best information I could find and then I put them away for Christmas. On Christmas Eve I served them. Not at all what I expected. They were rather tasteless, hardly the best of the best. But hope springs eternal. The next year I tried to figure out what had gone wrong and do it better. Alas, the same result. So I concluded corn on the cob on Christmas Eve had been a bad idea not once, but twice, and I would not do that again. And I didn’t.
However much to my surprise, the next year and the next and so on for about 20 years, I heard, “But we ALWAYS have corn on the cob on Christmas Eve!†I would consistently remind the complainers that it had only been twice and a bad idea both times. But about ten years ago I finally relented (sort of). Since I was now out of my domestic phase I purchased frozen coblets for Christmas Eve. The complainers were so happy as they cheerfully reminded each other, “We ALWAYS have corn on the cob for Christmas Eve.â€
Moral of the story, anything you have done more than once may become a tradition, at least in some people’s heads.
P.S. The same principle applies to reading books to toddlers. Always pre-read a book with an eye to, “if this becomes the favorite book, could I stand to read it a thousand times?â€
Ha! I had dinner with a cousin today, and we talked about this very thing. We agreed that one of the joys of aunt-hood is doing wacky things with our nieces and nephews and starting “traditions” — even when we do something only once, the kids are all convinced that “we ALWAYS do that!” Fun post, because it feels so true.
Indeed. Avoid Green Eggs and Ham, as the repetition within the book itself is bad enough. When you multiply that by 1000 reads, what was once cute becomes intolerable. Go with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish instead. =)
One year we had a house fire 3 days before Christmas and I had 3rd degree burns BUT I still felt the need to tell my children – this is NOT a tradition and we will NOT do it again.:) Oh the power of “but we always”.
Remember, when you are 10 years old, two years is a fifth of your life and about a third of your life that you can remember. Something that had happened for two consecutive years would be the same as something that has happened for about 15 consecutive years to me now. That’s quite enough time to become entrenched in the “tradition†category. At least we “complainers†didn’t insist that leaving the yams in the oven, uneaten and unnoticed for two days become a tradition.
Corn on the cob on Christmas Eve is still a fond memory for me. It sure seemed like a tradition.
Ah– but the yams only happened once.
Cautionary note– See what happens when you raise a houseful of outspoken free-thinkers. (But it wouldn’t have it any other way.)