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Blend Your Family's Traditions For A Memorable and Multicultural Christmas

If you’ve been struggling to get your kids to enjoy or even just accept your holiday cultural tradition, don’t despair. I’ve got 3 tips for you that are going to change that and are also going to make the kids feel proud about their cultural heritage. Holiday preparations are usually quite stressful for a lot of families. There are things to cook, decorations to prepare, family to visit and invite, services to attend, traditions to respect and so on and so forth. Multicultural families get to do all that, too, only multiple times! Imagine trying to bake all the holiday goodies of two or more cultures or attending different services at different times of the day or different games or traditional activities to pack into one day. Things can get pretty wild!

Growing up in a multicultural family is truly a gift but trying to incorporate all of those traditions into one holiday? Well, it can be a little overwhelming.

In my latest YouTube video I share three tips to blending your family’s holiday traditions so that they become your very own, UNIQUE, traditions.

1. Pick and choose

Pick and choose which traditions to hold onto and which not to. Keeping all of them is often just not possible. Keep the ones that are dearest, even if it is just one or two.

2. Blend them together

Mixing holiday traditions isn’t about serving a full meal from one culture and decorating the house with things from the other. It’s about blending them together so that we come up with meals that have one course from one culture and another course from the other culture or if you really want to get creative, blend the ingredients together!

3. Share the culture

Kids don’t like to feel different because they are afraid that the things that make them different will be the object of mockery. Fortunately, it’s not always like that but sometimes it is. It’s easy to mock something we know little about or something that strays from the way we do things. What better way to embrace and celebrate your cultural heritage than sharing it with those that can make a difference in the lives of kids? People like teachers, other families, friends... When you open the door to sharing your culture you are opening the door to tolerance. Watch the video to see how you can share the culture!

What do you do to mix your holiday traditions? Follow me on Instagram and let me know: https://www.instagram.com/adrianacantisani/

5 life-changing tips to surviving (and enjoying) the Christmas break with your kids

I remember when my kids were growing up I couldn’t wait to have them home all to myself during the Christmas break. I envisioned evenings of tree decorating, singing songs, snuggling on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate reading Christmas stories, basically a composite of a Norman Rockwell post-war painting of family bliss.

Reality was quite different. They were soon in each other’s hair, fighting over trivial matters, bored out of their minds, and constantly reminding me of it. I was stressed out, running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done while feeding my supermom ego that I could -and would- always "be there for my kids”.

It’s just not possible. There are so many hours in a day. While it’s wonderful to spend time with your kids, there are other things that need tending to as well. Like work, dinner, laundry, grocery shopping (and I could go on.)

Tip 1: Don't overschedule

At first I tried to keep the kids super busy. We went to book readings, to plays, to the park, to a friend’s house. We had friends over, we made cookies, we painted rocks, collected twigs. Sounds great, right? Too bad it was all in one day. After three days of whirlwind activities, I realized that overscheduling was not going to cut it.

Tip 2: Don't underschedule

I then decided to just go with the flow. Let them sleep in and let them just do what they wanted. Hey, they were on vacation, right? Wrong. Underscheduling was just as bad. Those kids went WILD.

Tip 3: Silence Time

It seemed that the only thing I got right from day one was Silence Time. That’s what we called those two hours after lunch. Most people in Italy live in apartment buildings and most buildings have regulations with regard noise in the afternoon. (I guess that’s because Italy has a high percentage of elderly citizens that need to nap after their three course lunch!) At first Silence Time meant nap time but as the kids got older, it became down-time for the whole family and what a relief that was!

Tip 4: Get them outside

One of the best things about Silence Time was that the minute that clock struck 3.30 pm, they were out the door and climbing trees and I finally had a chance to do what I needed to do to keep the ship afloat.

Tip 5: Keep an intentions box

A few hours later, they were red-faced, freezing, and most of their energy was spent. It was time for a hot bath, a hot chocolate and our evening “intention”.

To find out about intentions and how they will literally CHANGE YOUR LIFE during the crazy holiday season, make sure to watch the video.

Follow me on Instagram and let me know what you think: https://www.instagram.com/adrianacantisani/

Ami l'inglese e i bambini?