Fall Forward: The Rituals That Ground Us in a Season of Change
From family recipes to annual outings, the traditions we return to each fall carry our memories forward and help us navigate change.
Published: Oct 04, 2026
Fall is a season of change, yet so much of what we love about it comes from repetition. Each of us seems to have a ritual we return to when the leaves start to turn, and those familiar habits make saying goodbye to summer a little easier.
For me, one of those rituals is an annual trip with friends to Long Island’s North Fork. Marylou and I join them for a day at the wineries, always stopping for strudel at Junda’s pastry shop. We also spend fall days with our grandchildren at pumpkin patches and apple orchards. And the season wouldn’t feel complete without decorating our porch with mums.
None of these rituals is complicated, and that’s part of their power. Autumn can be wistful, and familiar traditions are a welcome counterweight. Repeated year after year, they become part of our story and give us something to look forward to as the days grow colder and shorter.
A few weeks ago, I asked you to share your fall traditions and the stories behind them. Your responses showed how rituals gather meaning over time. A simple activity can become a connection to our past, a source of memories, and an anchor through life’s bigger changes.
A taste of tradition
Several letters showed that some of our strongest connections to the past are found around the table. A favorite dish has a remarkable way of holding onto memories. When we pass along the food we love, we’re also sharing a little piece of our history.
Renata, a community member in Arizona, is a case in point. She started making caramel popcorn balls when her children were young. They’re grown now, but the tradition continues: She mails the treats to them and shares extras with friends. “It wouldn’t be fall without them,” she says.
Alda shared a ritual that has grown along with her family. They eat outside as long into the fall as the weather allows, bundling up rather than surrendering the table to the cold. As she put it:
“We love it so much we eat outdoors until it’s too cold to be outside. It’s a tradition my kids and grandkids will carry on.”
What I love about these stories is seeing traditions move from one generation to the next. Someday, the popcorn balls may be made in a different kitchen, and the fall dinner may be around a different table. But they’ll still carry the family history that made them special.
Traditions bigger than ourselves
Some traditions stay within the family. Others draw us into a larger community, connecting our own celebrations to those shared by thousands of people over generations. In that way, a tradition can become part of a story much bigger than our own.
Karen’s family, for instance, welcomes fall with a trip to the Feast of San Gennaro in New York City. For her, it’s a chance to celebrate her Italian heritage alongside people who have made the same pilgrimage for generations.
Mark’s family heads to western North Carolina to see the changing leaves, stopping first in Helen, Georgia, for Oktoberfest. The festival has become part of the journey and something they anticipate each year.
Annette has been going to the State Fair of Texas for more than 40 years. She and her husband each attended before they met, then continued the tradition together. His parents joined them, and later they brought their daughter. Her in-laws have since passed away, and now their daughter’s fiancé is part of the annual outing.
Through it all, Annette says, the fair holds “happy memories from every life stage” — along with one day each year when the family can indulge in plenty of fried food.
What changes, what stays the same
Beyond the food and festivals, many of you simply look forward to being outside at this time of year. Angie loves walking in the park amid the sound of crunching leaves and the changing light. She also visits a farm for pumpkins and fresh produce, a trip she shares with her great-grandchildren.
Part of what makes those outings special is knowing how fleeting they are. The leaves reach their peak and then they’re gone, giving us a reason to get outside and enjoy the season while we can.
Even the rituals we associate with fall can change as our lives do. For parents, back-to-school season begins with lunchboxes and first-day photos. Then, almost before we’re ready, it becomes packing up the car and driving a child off to college.
Walter experienced that change last fall when he drove his son to Harvard for his freshman year. On the way home, the emotion caught up with him, and he had to pull over. Back home, there was an empty chair at the dinner table. The familiar fall ritual of sending a child back to school had taken on an entirely new meaning. Walter adds:
“It’s a double-edged sword letting them go, but one day, we’ll see them graduate, build careers, get married, and hopefully give us grandchildren of our own.”
Reading your stories made me think that perhaps our fall traditions have something to teach us about change. We return to them each year, but we never return to them exactly as we were. Like the season itself, they change with us, carrying a little of what came before into what comes next.
All the best,
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Written by 1-800-Flowers.com Founder and Chairman, the Celebrations Pulse letters aim to engage with our community. By welcoming your ideas and sharing your stories, we want to help you strengthen your relationships with the most important people in your life.
AUTHOR
Jim McCann is the founder and chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. as well as a business leader, author, and philanthropist with a passion for helping people deliver smiles. Devoted to helping others, he also founded Smile Farms, a 501(c)3 organization that provides meaningful jobs in agricultural settings to young adults and adults with developmental disabilities.
