Family History For Your Holiday Gatherings: Best Ideas

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We've been blogging at The Chart Chick for over 10 years, and Zap the Grandma Gap for 7 years, dishing out great ideas about how to share family history with your family.  Over that time, we've talked about how to utilize family history in your family gatherings to create more unity and strengthen your relationships.  And what better time to have a family gathering than during the holidays?  Whether your family is getting together for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, Chinese New Year or all of the above, be sure to talk about your family history together.  Here are some ideas to help:

1. Share Heirloom Family Recipes
We've shared many of our ancestors family recipes over the years, on our blog and in our Zap the Grandma Gap books, but a family favorite for this time of year has to be Kim's Mother's Cranberry Salad Recipe.  It is super simple and super delicious.  You can find it on our post at "Happy Thanksgiving from our House to Yours" and see the video my kids made about it on our YouTube channel.  While you are cooking this year, ask your family to help create a video to share some of your family recipes with extended family members and record them for posterity.  

2. Decorate With Your Family History
We're all about decorating with family history charts aren't we?  If you haven't created a chart with us yet, we'd love to get you started with a free consultation.  But we've also got lots of ideas about decorating with your photos.  You probably have family heirlooms that have to do with the holidays too.  Make sure you are sharing the stories behind these items as your family gets together this year.  Check out our posts about family history table decorations, the ChristmasTree my daughter made, and decorating using family heirlooms for ideas.  

3. Talk about Your Family History
Get the conversations going during the family gathering with our articles on 10 Questions to Ask Around The Table, or 20 Questions for Your Table.  The holidays are a great time to interview older relatives, create videos, and take lots of pictures.  Make sure you are capturing the resources you have now to preserve your history.  

4. Capture the History You Are Creating Now
One of the best ideas we have shared for a family activity during the holidays is to create a time capsule. Intentionally creating an heirloom for future generations helps you be thankful for the time you have now. It could be a collection of artifacts you store for a year, or 10 years but it will be a treasure in a very short time.  Check out our hints in our Time Capsules post for ideas of what to collect and how to store it.  

We hope you have a wonderful time together as you celebrate the winter holidays coming up.  We wish you all the best, from our families to yours. 

The Embrace of Family Traditions

Several years ago, I wrote on the Chart Chick blog about one of my favorite Christmas traditions (http://thechartchick.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-of-my-favorite-family-christmas.html) .  In my family, it is traditional to have English Trifle on Christmas Eve. I have British ancestry, and my Grandfather Darrell Dana loved it.  He loved all things custard and tapioca.  I get that from him.  We only have trifle on this one day of the year.  So it is really connected with Christmas to me. 

Christmas 1990 was my first Christmas away from home.  In fact, I was on the other side of the world.  My first marriage was falling apart and in those days you couldn't even call home much from so far away.  I was in the Middle East and the First Gulf War was about to break out.  It was a very stressful time.  I was lonely and it didn't seem like Christmas at all.  Some friends invited us over for Christmas Eve and when they brought out English Trifle for desert, it was like the heavens opened and the light shown down on my holiday.  It was a love note from home, from my ancestors, from the past.  Like a big warm hug.  The embrace of a Family Tradition.

When my Mom made trifle, year after year, she didn't know that she was sending that love note into the future.  But sometimes it is those little things that make those connections.  It can be those traditions and that shared history that ties us together.  Those are the pieces that make a family.  Traditions are part of the team narrative you have together.

This means so much more to me now that I have young adult children.  Next year, my eldest son will be the age I was in 1990.  All three of my kids are just about to leave the nest, and while I have them all home this Christmas, I find myself on the other side of this equation as the mother in the story. What have I done to create those bonds and establish the traditions that will bind my children to our family and fill their hearts with peace and love from us when they need it?  Like most well-intentioned mothers, I've made every mistake in the book.  And I'm trying to hug them enough right now.  But hopefully I've done enough that they will have those hugs from me in the future too.  Hopefully the right pieces will be there when they need it.

What are you doing in your family?  The holidays are a big time for traditions.  What are you doing this month to celebrate your family history and create a sense of heritage in your family?  Sometimes the best traditions are little ones that are practiced all through the year.  What will your family members have to embrace them during hard times?  Hug them now, but be intentional about the hugs you send into the future too.  My mom did, and I'm so thankful for that.

I'm bringing the trifle to our family gathering this Christmas Eve.  Thankfully my Mom and Dad will both be there and I'll get to share it with them and thank them again for this bit of light in my life.  How amazing that a simple thing like a trifle could mean so much. 

Decorating with Family History for the Holidays.

 My daughter Rachel and I had a great time making a fun family history tree a couple of years ago.  We've enjoyed this tree so much in the years since.  I hope you'll allow me: proud Mom here. She created this video to give you some ideas for your own family history decorating.  Hopefully it will help you inspire your family with their heritage at this time of year.

Every Grandma Should Take Their Family To See "Coco"

They say that the Disney movie Coco makes you want to visit your grandmother and give her a big hug.  Well my Mom did it just right.  She bought tickets for the whole family to go see Coco together this morning.  And we all came out very grateful for her.

I had high expectations for the movie and I wasn't disappointed.  As I've written about before, I love Dia de Los Muertos.  It is a day for honoring your ancestors and remembering them.  What could be better than that?  And Disney has done a great job of that lately with Moana and now with Coco.

Kim and I were in Disneyland a couple of months ago and we had a great time looking around the Coco displays they had up.  It got me really excited for the movie. I love anything that will help you teach children about the value of family history. Even at Disneyland no less. Here are some photos from our trip:  

 

While we were there, a band and some dancers came out and sang the song "Remember Me"  And I just melted.  Such beautiful lyrics about our ancestors.  Love it Love it!

They had a tree of life display and everyone was able to add a remembrance of a family member.  I wrote about my Grandparents and the times we had at Disneyland together.  So many wonderful memories.  I can't go there without missing them.  

What a beautiful simple way to help so many people remember their ancestors.  

Some of the things I loved about the movie were 1) that all families have problems.  I love that they didn't gloss over some of the hard things families deal with.  2) that Family History heals the present.  Family History always helps the problems we have in the present.  Always.  3) That we should keep photos up of our family members and remember them.  That's why we love what we do at Family ChartMasters so much.  We're honored to help people keep their ancestors memories alive and in front of them every day.  And 4) I loved the music, the flowers and just the beauty of the movie.  

Highly recommended.  Take some family members.  And then spend some time together honoring your ancestors.  Good stuff!

Last Minute Gift Ideas: Zap the Grandma Gap Ancestor Activity Workbooks For Kids

The Zap the Grandma Gap Ancestor Activity Workbooks are unique gift ideas for the children in your life, and if you order by midnight Monday, December 19, 2016 you'll get a free shipping upgrade so that you will receive them in time for Christmas delivery! Click here to order now.

The “My Ancestors” hands-on workbooks come in 8 different heritages including British, Danish, Swedish, Pioneer, Mormon, Civil War, German, & Jewish. These fun books create bonds between generations with hours of activities, puzzles, games, recipes, stories and crafts that can involve the entire family. Timelines, paper dolls, coloring pages, maps, music, dot-to-dots and crossword puzzles combine to give youth ownership of their own genealogy and the send them on a quest to bring their family history to life.

Studies have shown that greater knowledge about family history strengthens and empowers youth by creating self-esteem, resilience and a greater sense of control over their lives. Learning about the family's past also strengthens the relationships between living family members by creating a shared experience and core identity that no one else in the world can duplicate.  Our children’s workbooks are designed to help kids gain the benefits of family history and start asking their family members about their shared past. Order these meaningful gifts here to begin! 

Sharing Family History Through Food: Pumpkin Dessert Recipe

Zap The Grandma Gap is all about sharing your family's stories and memories through the generations. Food is a fun and easy way to connect generations and most likely the food you cook is already a mixture of the recipes that were handed down from your family members. Your comfort food is probably what your mother and father gave you as you were growing up, and their comfort food was most likely what the family made for them. Food has so many connotations and feelings attached to it. From celebrations to traditional ethnic foods, your cooking and eating patterns are probably already a demonstration of your family's background.

Erin, one of Family ChartMaster's expert chart designers, shares a favorite family recipe for October.  This yummy pumpkin dessert recipe comes from her mother. Erin shares,"I remember when my mother first received this recipe, it became her new favorite fall recipe. It seemed like my mother was always looking for easy desserts to take to the church socials, neighborhood potlucks, or to the dinners my parents would have with their friends. We made this dessert at least 5-6 times every fall. By the time I was a teenager, Mom would have me make this for her at least ½ the time. Although my mother has been gone almost 4 years now, a part of her is always around when I decide to make these tasty pumpkin treats."

Visit Zap The Grandma Gap for more info on how to make family history fun and to purchase the Zap the Grandma Gap books with more recipes and activities for families.

Please share your thoughts when you try out this recipe and we'd love to know one of your favorite family recipes!

Mother's Day Infographic

Order the book

Family History Projects for the Next Generation

Rather than giving more stuff, the gift of an experience has become all the rage.  And what better experience can you give than working together as a family to learn about your family history?  This year you can give the gift of a family history experience by choosing Zap The Grandma Gap books for the youth in your family.  These books put the young person in the driver's seat and will have them asking you the questions about your family history.  With fun projects to do together, our activity books will ensure many hours of fun exploration.  Order by  December 16th for Christmas delivery. 

Five Family Photos To Take This Year

Happy Thanksgiving

Dia De Los Muertos

Last weekend, at a local event center Thanksgiving Point, my family and I got to attend a Dia De Los Muertos Event.  I'm not a big fan of Halloween--it just really isn't my thing, and I've always wished I lived in an area that celebrated Dia de los Muertos because that seemed a little more up my alley.  I love how it is a celebration of your ancestors and a chance to remember and honor them.  So we decided to go check this celebration out.  It was fun.  The decorations were beautiful with bright colors and Papel Picado flags representing the wind and the fragility of life. 

I love how happy this celebration is.  I love how it is a celebration of those who have passed on, not sad like a funeral, not scary like halloween, just fun--like a party. 

Waiting for the presentations.

There was great food and great signage everywhere to help people understand the significance of each part of the traditions. 

I loved the altars.  Families build altars to celebrate the life of someone who has passed on in their family.  It is a happy event to invite their loved one to return and enjoy some of the food, music, etc that they enjoyed during life.  It is also a great way to keep alive their memory and teach the younger generations about those who have passed on.  Altars can be built at home or in the cemetery and they are filled with offerings such as photographs, bread, flowers, toys and other things the person liked.  They typically have four elements to them: earth, wind, fire and water. Earth is usually represented with soil, stones, or pottery and wind is represented with the papel picado tissue flags (which I find interesting because in Hebrew, the word for wind is also the word for spirit). Fire is usually represented with candles that symbolize the soul of the loved one and help them find their way to return. Water is usually found on the altar to help quench the thirst of the loved one after they make the journey to visit.  Any family can build an altar for Dia de los Muertos as a fun way to teach the children in their family about their ancestors. 

I loved that they had a community altar where participants could leave remembrances of their ancestors.  And the marigolds (traditional flowers) were gorgeous and everywhere. 

All throughout the weekend there were performances, kids up on stage, etc.  We saw an awesome group that recreated Aztec dancing. They were fascinating. 

This would be a spectacular celebration to pass down your heritage with your family.  Especially if you come from a culture that celebrates Dia de los Muertos, but even if you don't.  There were lots of children's activities, face painting, sugar skull decorating, paper flag cutting, etc.  It is a great time to remember your ancestors, have fun with the children in your family and get together and celebrate the lives of those who came before you.  Enjoy. 

A New Book for Meaningful Family Reunions

Summer is upon us which means it's the most popular time for family reunions and gatherings!
We have heard many of you express interest in connecting with your families at family reunions.
Zap the Grandma Gap is happy to announce the new release of  "My Ancestor: Family Reunion" e-book version.  This multi-page resource includes 3 sections:

• A Children's Activity Workbook with rights to copy and use for the duration of the family reunion (Choose one workbook from Pioneer, British, German, Danish, Jewish, Civil War, Swedish, or Mormon) including over 50 pages of culturally specific activities
• 20 pages of FUN family heritage family reunion ideas
• 35 page children's workbook with interactive pages that are perfect for completing at the family reunion

Though every family member is a unique individual, these carefully selected family heritage family reunion activities will help the attendees find purpose, unity, and strength in their lives as they discover their common roots. Create new family history as family members engage in a shared family heritage using social media, blogs, and other online resources. 

Print the activity workbook pages and distribute as desired during your family reunion to explore your family history with fun and games! Youth will gain ownership of their family history and take the lead in learning about their ancestors and the culture that surrounded them.  As they accomplish these activities together with the help of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings at the family reunion, they will strengthen modern family bonds while strengthening their link to the past.

Click here to order now for use at your upcoming family reunion and we'll get it send right out to you.  This an e-book and will be sent electronically as a PDF, so it's perfect for last minute planning! 

E-Book Sale Ends Today

It's the last day of 2014, can you believe it? I don't know about you, but this year flew by for me.  Time is funny that way. But as it is, I am happy to mark 2014 in my books as an author again. It was a real labor of love to add three new workbooks to my Zap the Grandma Gap collection. And then taking my entire series into the digital, e-book age was an exciting step. I really am pleased to be able to offer more workbooks, covering a wider variety of family heritages, all while trying to do it in a way that suits as many folks' preferences as possible. I really hope it will help families strengthen their relationships with each other and their ties to the past.

That said, as we close the books on 2014, we also close the books on our final sale of the year. If you didn't get a chance to take advantage of our hardcopy/e-book sale for Holiday gifts, I hope you'll do so now as a "year-end personal bonus" for yourself or a family member. The sale was designed with building your "family history and children" toolbox in mind, and is best utilized to "stock the garrison," so to speak. In other words, the more books you buy, the better deal you'll receive.

As a quick reminder the sale is as follows:

1. Purchase a hard copy of any of my books or workbooks and receive the e-book of that same book for only $1.
2. Purchase 5 or more e-books and receive 50% off your entire e-book order. 

For complete details on how it works, be sure to check out the original sale post, over on The Chart Chick. But do hurry because the sale ends today, December 31. 2014.

As we head into 2015, I want to wish you and your family the very best of New Years. We, at Family ChartMasters, count ourselves quite lucky to get to work with each of you and are truly grateful for your support. We hope for you and your family to have a wonderful, healthy, and safe new year of family memory making and memory discovering. Happy New Year's, everyone!

Our Family Heritage Christmas Tree

Take a look at this video that my daughter put together of us decorating our Heritage Christmas tree. This is such a wonderful way to remember and honor your ancestors during the holiday season.  Rachel shows you step-by-step how to make the various ornaments and then pull your tree together.  She even finished it off with an heirloom tree skirt.  And best of all--she wanted it in her room this year!  Score.  Hopefully those ancestors are encircling her with all that love and hope that I want for her.

Making Your Holidays More Meaningful

Just before Thanksgiving, over on The Chart Chick, I blogged about some creative, holiday decorating ideas that incorporate family history. I am very proud to say that I followed through on my desire to accomplish one of the ideas for my own Thanksgiving dinner and the results were amazing! Take a look at my pictures. It was really awesome to have our ancestors there at the dinner table with us.  It sparked several conversations about specific ancestors and it made us all feel a lot more thankfulness for everyone who had come before.  I think it was really beautiful too.  So we have a new holiday tradition at our house.

I put the pictures together digitally and then printed the whole thing on vinyl.  It was was really durable--even when we spilled food on it.  While that is a little outside of the norm for us, we can still do one for you, of course, if you like what you see.  Send me an email or give me a call (801-472-1091) and we can talk about the particulars of how to put your table runner together. Another option for you is something Rachel and I pulled together a couple of summers ago. You can check out the original blog post and YouTube tutorial here. Either way, I can't recommend this idea enough. It made a huge impact on our family now to share a meal with our ancestors from the past.

So this idea of decorating for the holidays with your family history got me to thinking about all the ways we could make this holiday season more meaningful. Like you, I've thought thought about what makes for a "Good Christmas Morning" or "Perfect Chanukah Gift." It isn't stuff. I know we all know this, but do we really know it? So I'm issuing a challenge to all of you (and myself) this December. Let's think of ways to really make this holiday season a meaningful one. One that, when our children and grandchildren look back, they won't remember what they got (because let's face it, they won't) but rather what they felt.

So let's talk about some ways to do that. Here's a ready to go list for you, for easy reference and personal application.  You can thank me later. ;)

• Decorate Your Home With Memories - Take a look at my Thanksgiving Decor blog post. It's jam packed with ideas that will work for your Christmas or Chanukah celebration as well. Not to mention easy-peasy, meaningful gifts. Or better yet, center your decorations around a custom made, decorative chart. You still have time for your domestic orders to make it in time for Christmas and Chanukah! Contact us today!
• Heartfelt Chanukah In 8 Steps - I love this article from Simple Kids. Robin, the author of this particular article, has got it right on with this! What amazing parenting advice for a meaningful, quiet remembrance of this miraculous holiday. She's even given links to help you plan your own tender moments with your family. She also offers advice on how she helps her children to understand and support their friends who celebrate Christmas, while still giving them the confidence and security of embracing their own holiday and traditions. She also gets to the heart of the whole aspect of teaching your children, through traditions, why certain aspects of Chanukah exist and how that affects them. Her words and perspectives are beautiful. What a great mom!
• Christmas Advent Activities - So this idea may be just a little late in the game (December came fast this year!), but it's worth jumping on now, while we still can. Maybe you remember those little cardboard Advent calendars from your youth with foil wrapped chocolates, or perhaps your family lit an advent wreath, or maybe you made a paper chain at school and relished in tearing off a link each day. In whatever fashion you know an advent calendar, Thomas over at Geneabloggers has a wealth of family history themed advent ideas. In fact, I have even seen tweets already of people clamoring for his collection of genealogy themed advents. Go ahead and take a look and see what ideas tickle your family's fancy. The children will love the countdown and you will love infusing your personal family narrative into the tradition. That will last longer than any foil wrapped chocolate ever could, I promise!
• Keep An Old Tradition - Talk to your children and find out what they think your holiday traditions are.  A few years ago, one of my employees and her husband were surprised to discover that their children considered dinner at their family's favorite restaurant in Salt Lake City and new pajama's on Christmas Eve to be "their family tradition." At the time it was something her family had only done once or twice, but the children identified it as what their family did on Christmas Eve. She and her husband didn't question it and decided that from then on, if the children felt it was a tradition, then it was. Over a decade later, they still celebrate Christmas Eve the same way.
• Storytelling - Dig back into your memory and pull forward everything you've ever heard about how your ancestors celebrated the holidays and share it! It's fascinating to learn how things used to be and I can promise your children will absolutely appreciate their holiday now when they learn about how holidays then used to go. There is a little bit of thankfulness involved there when kids see things as they used to be. Not to mention how curious your children may become once you start talking about how meals were prepared or gifts were made. They may even want to tackle some of those things themselves--which would be a parenting touchdown for you!
• Service - This time of year, we're all more tender hearted and aware of those who are having a harder time than we are. Opportunities to serve are endless and it seems like charities come out of the woodwork. Decide as a family on a particular charity or service project you identify with and go for it with gusto. It could be a gift tree at your local super store, Toys for Tots, Project Linus, Little Dresses for Africa, or any of your local charities. Children's hospitals are a great place to start, if you are looking for something really hands on to do with your family (meaning: your children actually see the impact of their service). One of my employees still remembers the gratitude she felt for families that came and served dinner at the Ronald McDonald House when her son was hospitalized for a week after an emergency surgery. While the businesses that ordered in pizzas were appreciated, it meant the most to her to say thank you to teenagers who had spent the day making fajitas or lasagnas with their parents. This is the easiest time of year to get your children and grandchildren invested in helping others. Start small and watch them catch fire--because they will. Service is contagious!

Hopefully this will get your gears turning on how you and your family can come together in different ways to create a more memorable and meaningful holiday season.  Televisions and Barbies only hold our attention for so long before they are just another everyday thing. But memories will light our minds for years to come--and they will be passed on for generations in future story telling. So when you get overwhelmed with your holiday to-do list, slow down and think about what really matters and what will really last. Make this holiday season one that will draw your family together and strengthen your relationships for the long haul.