We all have them. We all participate in them. Some need to be left by the wayside. Some need to be started. Family traditions - every culture has them and they will be a substance of each generation for all of time.

Now, we must be honest with ourselves. When our kids reach 16 and 17 years old - it may not be wise to continue with the tradition of leaving milk and cookies out for Santa. If you or your husband will thoroughly miss the Christmas Eve snack, just tell you kids to put the plate out for you. If you see members of your family no longer responding with joy to yearly rituals, then maybe it's time to set those aside - leaving good memories to look back on - and begin new traditions. Some people have a hard time with this concept, because we seem to have been taught over the generations that traditions are 'untouchable'. "We've done it for 10 generations and we are going to keep doing it as long as we have family on this earth."

Understandable, but sometimes they need to be altered or altogether dropped. I even remember as I grew older, I no longer anticipated - for a month straight - the joy of decorating the Christmas tree with my family. My older sister was never there, my dad would be working - and I suspect my mom would change the whole tree after we went to bed anyway - so what was the point. I actually enjoyed watching my mom decorate by herself. She loves Christmas and she loves her trees. It could take her hours to put everything on to make it picture perfect. I always thought her trees needed to be in a magazine. So, we dropped that tradition of decorating the tree as a family (and my mom was so thankful she didn't have to mess up her tree by us throwing those silver 'icicles' -in ugly bunches I might add -all over her tree). But, we did start a new one. She would decorate, I would watch with my younger brother looking on making dumb comments. Sometimes we'd videotape to capture the moment. All in all - the new tradition was much better for us and we enjoyed it better than 5 grumpy people decorating a tree.

So, how can we each, individually, create new traditions for our families - or maybe just better our old traditions? They don't have to be costly and they don't have to be stressful. Most importantly, it should be something you all want to do - or else it defeats the purpose. Talk with your family and see what they have to say about it. Get input from everyone and come up with some new traditions that will be enjoyed by all and special for everyone. Below are some suggestions to get you started on creating new family traditions.

- Each year drive through neighborhoods with the most decorated homes. If it's cold, bring hot chocolate in mugs to keep your insides warm. Some houses even give tours of their decorated homes. If they don't charge a 'tour fee', make sure you leave a tip or donation.

- If you always get a fresh Christmas tree, go as a family to where they allow you to cut your own down. That way you can all pick which one you like best. Dress warm! Make sure you take extra care of your feet since they'll most likely be in snow.

- Have a little pre-Christmas party for the women in your family and exchange gifts at that time. This gives you all a chance to open gifts more leisurely - no rushing. You'll get to enjoy visiting and have the chance to visit and laugh as loud as you want without complaints from the men in the family.

- If you usually open all your gifts on Christmas morning, start opening one special gift on Christmas Eve before you go to bed.

- Volunteer as a family to help feed the homeless at your local shelter, either on Christmas Day or in the weeks proceeding Christmas.

- If you are movie buffs, take a night the week before Christmas and stay in and watch movies, complete with pop, hot cocoa, popcorn, caramel apples and whatever else that would make the night perfect.

- Begin supporting your local Angel Tree Ministry (done through many churches) that allows you to pick a child of your choice to buy Christmas presents for. Most of these children don't have parents, or maybe their parents are in prison, etc. They would most likely not have as good a Christmas as you if it weren't for the Angel Tree Ministry.

- Bake and decorate cookies to hand out to neighbors or to take to a nursing home or senior care center.

- Visit nursing homes and volunteer to read Christmas stories to those living there.

- If you have a talent (music, drama, singing, etc.) contact a local senior apartment building or nursing home and offer to do a Christmas show for their residents. You will find that they enjoy it so much and it makes them happy. Many of these people don't have any family and Christmas is a lonely time for them.

- If you know of a family who doesn't have a lot of money and won't be able to buy gifts for their children, make a special shopping trip to purchase items for the children. Make them special, something you would buy your own child. Include your kids in this. Drop the gifts off (already wrapped) without them knowing and leave a note telling them to put them under the tree for their kids.

- You and your family can send signed Christmas cards to local prisons to be handed out to the prisoners. Many inmates will have no visitors this holiday season and a card will have so much value to them.