Author: Jim McCann

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

I’ve been writing a lot about holiday traditions over the past month. From visiting Santa and decorating trees to baking treats and enjoying holiday feasts, this letter has covered the many ways we strengthen relationships and create new memories through rituals.

The celebration of the new year brings even more traditions that tie together families and whole communities. Tonight, many of us will be sipping Champagne with friends, singing “Auld Lang Syne,” or watching a ball drop in person or on TV.

When I was growing up, my dad had his own fishy ritual. He saw New Year’s morning as an opportunity to share his passion for food with his kids. Once everyone was awake, he’d open a jar of pickled herring, put one on a plate, cut off a little piece, and offer it to the kids to sample. We’d cringed but eventually relented before running to the bathroom to brush our teeth.

Each year, Dad would offer up a slightly larger piece – and our overreactions grew in proportion. It was both hysterical and nauseating, and something all my brothers and sisters remember decades later.

Why did Dad do this? At the time, he claimed eating pickled herring would bring good luck. And it turns out he was right: In Scandinavia and Poland, people say eating the vinegary fish on New Year’s Day brings prosperity and bounty for the upcoming year. (But we were an Irish family…)

Health and wealth in the new year

My dad wasn’t alone in seeking ways to improve his life in the new year, and that brings us to yet another holiday tradition: making the New Year’s resolution. A recent survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that 48% resolved to improve their fitness, 38% their finances, and 36% their mental health.

Part of maintaining good physical and mental health is having strong relationships. A study by Brigham Young University revealed that having a small circle of close friends holds greater importance for health concerns, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and cancer than both diet and exercise habits. Further, the impact of having close friends was found to be as positive as smoking on your health is negative.

As we transition into later stages of adulthood, many of our long-standing friends from our earlier years may have moved away to start their own families. This may be true of you as well. And, as we become more distant to friends from our past, and as the years pass, so do opportunities to reconnect. As such, we might feel apprehension about reaching out to those we haven’t heard from – or heard from us – in years.

It’s simple: If you want a happier, healthier life, you should resolve to increase your circle of friends. No pickled herring needed.

Where to start: Initiate communication

I recently spoke with New York Times Opinion columnist and best-selling author David Brooks on the Celebrations Chatter podcast. The author of the new book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David thinks we don’t spend enough time cultivating conversations – and our friendships.

His solution? Not being afraid to make the first move in initiating communication. While David concentrates on instigating contact with strangers, his suggestions are also viable as a way for us to reconnect with those from our past. He says:

There are three buckets to think about in approaching strangers for meaningful conversations. First, we underestimate how much fun it will be to talk to strangers. Second, we underestimate how deep people want to go quickly in a conversation. And third, we are just too shy to take the first step to initiate more meaningful conversations.

David said that we also don’t think we know how to start a conversation.

We don’t know what to say, or we’re afraid we’ll invade someone’s privacy. Or worse, we’re too egotistical because we’re just busy thinking about ourselves to care about other people. I often leave a party and think, ‘You know, that whole time nobody asked me a question.’

The benefits of taking the first step

Even though there are so many ways to reach out to a friend who has fallen off our radar, you might say, “Oh I don’t want to bother them.” Instead, we should take a page from David’s book and imagine how fun it might be to be back in touch with an old friend, and how much they might appreciate hearing from us. I know when I’ve reached out to friends from my past, we fall quickly back into meaningful conversations as if no time passed, and I always come away happy that I took the first step.

If you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, consider David’s newfound approach to reaching out beyond ourselves. Here are some tips if you’re considering making solidifying your friendships a resolution.

• Take some time to find old friends on social media and send them friend requests.
• Social media is just a starting point. Go through your phone contacts and inbox and see who you haven’t pinged in a while. And if you’re of a certain age and perhaps still have a Rolodex, give it a spin.
• Have a “Friend of the Month.” At the start of each month, find a person you haven’t spoken to in years, and make the first move by reaching out. By next December, you might be back in touch with 12 friends from your past.
• Keep a relationship calendar and make a point to reach out to a different person on set dates.
• Similarly, keep a calendar of important dates of friends such as birthdays, anniversaries, or memorable goals.
• Create group emails or texts so that everyone can be connected and be able to share news within the group.

Regardless of the resolutions you choose for 2024, I hope you carry them all through, and that the new year brings an abundance of health and happiness.

Happy New Year!
Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

Christmas Eve marks a turning point in holiday celebrations. For weeks, we’ve been preparing for the big day by finding gifts, planning the family feasts, and decking the halls (and living rooms and bedrooms and roof…). Today, the anticipation peaks, and the celebrations begin.

At my house with my wife, my three children, and seven grandchildren, the rise in excitement can be tracked by the minute. Once everyone arrives, guests of a certain age start monitoring Santa’s journey from the North Pole while the rest of us enjoy the festive bounties from Marylou’s kitchen.

After church and final preparations for Santa, everyone retires for a long (or not so long) winter’s nap. By 6 a.m., everyone is awake – whether they wanted to be or not – unwrapping Santa’s presents, unpacking stuffed stockings, and tasting the treats baked the night before.

From the unwrapping of gifts and unstuffing of stockings to the feast and the White Elephant gift exchange, the rituals and traditions fill the hours in joy and togetherness. If only we could stop time and enjoy the magic for more than 24 hours. Christmas is over in the blink of an eye.

Or is it?

The week after Christmas

Our ancestors didn’t limit Christmas to just a single day. As the old song goes, there are 12 days of celebration from Christmas Day all the way to the Epiphany, which marked the Magi’s visit to the baby Jesus. Back then, every day held special meaning and celebrations.

These days, the period between Christmas and New Year’s is a relatively quiet time. Many of us take the days off work if our companies don’t shut down completely. Schools are on winter break, leaving the little ones with time to enjoy their gifts.

Last week, I wrote about how the holidays gave us an opportunity to unplug from our devices and connect with other people in person. The analog nature of Christmas doesn’t have to end at midnight on Dec. 25. Why not extend it all the way through New Year’s? (It makes for a great resolution….!)

In fact, many people in our community are already doing so, at least based on some of the holiday rituals you shared over the past couple of weeks. Here’s a sampling.

The giving continues

Many of you wrote about how important it is to give back to those less fortunate, and how the week after Christmas is a great way to extend the magic of the season. We feel honored to be part of such a caring and giving community.

Marianne, a single mother and grandmother to two children, shared how she and her son have gone through some difficult times, but she still gives back each year to people in need.

I have always worked two jobs, which doesn’t bother me. Every year if I have just a little extra, I try to give it to someone who has less than I do. I do not expect anything in return. The feeling of knowing I am sharing and showing someone who is less fortunate than me that they are thought about and cared about, makes me very happy.

No one, not even my son, knows that I do this. Just knowing that I made someone else happy is enough of a gift to me.

Linda shared that she and about 10 members of her church decided to find a local restaurant to say thank you to someone who works hard to make their meals enjoyable.

We bought a card for all of us to sign and purchased a gift box. Each of the couples pitched in $100, and we gave it to Rosa, our server. We now plan to do this every year as a way of giving back to those who have less than we do.

The stories of Marianne, Linda, and many others show how giving is a gift, and it’s not just the recipient who receives joy.

Building relationships

Giving back isn’t the only tradition that can continue after Christmas. This traditionally restful period is also an opportunity to work on our relationships – and on ourselves.

Here are a few ideas from the community for building your relationship with your family for the week after Christmas:

It’s hard to believe that in just 48 hours, Christmas will be “unofficially” over. But I hope these ideas will inspire you to extend the season for another week, along with the opportunity to create new memories and shared moments to enjoy the warmth of family bonds.

Merry Christmas,
Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

Our lives have been transformed by the accelerating advances of digital technology. PCs, tablets, and smartphones – combined with innovations in software and networks – have revolutionized how we work and play, as well as how we connect with other people.

But something changes in the frenetic weeks around Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s: We slow down. We spend less time in front of screens and more time socializing with people in person: attending services, singing carols, playing board games, and other activities that engage with the physical world.

The shift in focus from the digital to the analog is a feast for our senses. We see the twinkling lights on trees, menorahs, and buildings. We hear the bells, songs, and the ripping of wrapping paper. We touch the ornaments and gifts. We smell the burning candles and fresh-cut trees. And we taste food – lots of it!

All these sensorial activities thankfully stick in our memories and get repeated year after year.. We pass along our experiences to our children and grandchildren who share them with their families, creating new holiday rituals and traditions. The analog magic of the season persists even as technology changes the rest of the world.

Understanding the persistence of the analog world

To understand what’s happening, I spoke with David Sax, who has studied the role of analog in our digital world. Back in 2015, he wrote The Revenge of the Analog, which called out several counterintuitive trends like the renewed popularity of vinyl records, film photography, and physical stationery despite the endless availability of streaming services, online video, and e-journals.

Last year, he published another book, The Future Is Digital, which explored how the pandemic forced us to rely more on digital technology as in-person interactions were limited. The results, he wrote, were far from a digital utopia promised by some Silicon Valley visionaries.

David argues that our affinity for the physical world results from the fact that we have always lived in an analog world. We’re hard-wired not for the ones and zeroes of computers but rather for the spectrum of senses that is reality.

We humans are analog. We are flesh and blood creatures. We’re souls living on the spinning rock called Earth. And that will continue to be true, and I imagine, and I hope it will be, for thousands of years, if not longer.

He adds that there’s a limit to what digital can give us because of the confines of our screens, and that we still relate to the world and one another in a way that is deeper, richer, and more meaningful than anything that we can build with technology.

Analog and our well-being

The pandemic, according to David, showed the dangers of an exclusively digital existence.  As humans, we must engage our senses with tangible realities rather than limiting ourselves to screens. Cultivating in-person connections, as opposed to relying solely on virtual relationships, is essential.

He points to statistics that show as reliance on digital devices and connections has increased, so have problems with our physical and mental health. The pandemic – and its over-dependence on all things digital – worsened the loneliness epidemic, wrecked educational progress, and destroyed work-life balance.

But David is not a Luddite. Rather, he believes digital solutions can make our lives better if we figure out the right balance.

If we can engage in critical thinking around digital technology, then we’re going to have a better relationship with it at the end of the day, regardless of how it evolves, or what the next iteration of it is.

A Christmas lesson

The holiday experience supports David’s point about technology. Yes, our smartphones help us find gifts, schedule get-togethers, and connect with friends and family all over the globe. But the tech is just a means of enhancing the analog end.

The holidays are also a reminder that our lives succeed or fail based on our relationships with other people, not gadgets. As we experience more of the analog world in the weeks ahead, perhaps we can figure out a better mix of the digital and analog for the new year.

After all, we don’t build rituals around our phones or computers. We build them around each other. Taking in those moments and appreciating the world around us are priceless, and there’s no better time to live in an analog world than at this time of year.

All the best,
Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

December is the season of rituals, 31 days packed with cultural, religious, and family activities that brighten short days and create cherished memories. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and don’t forget about New Year’s, rituals connect us to each other and to past and future generations.

My favorite – and one of the earliest I remember – is the annual visit to Santa Claus. As a boy growing up in Queens, New York, I recall my mom taking all my brothers and sisters to sit on Santa’s lap at a certain department store on 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan.

For me, as well as my siblings, the ritual instilled a sense of the magic of Christmas and resulted in photos that we still cherish today. The visits also reinforced good behavior through the year as we tried to avoid Jolly Old St. Nick’s naughty list.

Like all rituals, the visit to Santa carried multiple layers of meaning that revealed themselves as I grew older. Santa’s generosity and kindness (thank you for overlooking a few “naughty” incidents over the years!) served as an introduction to the power of giving to children everywhere.

The spirit of Santa

Aside from some milk, a few cookies, and good behavior, Santa shared his wealth of toys and candy without getting anything in return. The joy of giving – and lighting up children’s faces on Christmas morning – was his reward.

Certain facts about Santa have come to light as we grew older. But his giving nature stayed with us, and as parents and grandparents, we use our own experiences to deepen the traditions for our children and grandchildren.

The rituals involving Santa are for many of us the starting point of a lifetime of giving. We give to others as Santa gave to us – for the joy we receive and the emotions it evokes. And it expands beyond family to our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers.

A few weeks ago, I asked the community to share stories about what motivates them to give, whether over the holidays or the rest of the year. The response was humbling, and it made clear that there’s a little bit – or a lot – of Santa in all of us, regardless of faith.

Why our community gives

For Patti, letting people know how special they are to her and how grateful she is for them, is the way she lives her life. She also remembers that it’s OK to be a gift recipient because she realizes other people most likely enjoy giving as much as she does.

The thought that someone is just thinking about you is such a special feeling, particularly when you least expect it. I believe, as humans, we all want to be seen and cared about. Gift giving is one way to do that. Small or large, goofy or practical, or maybe even just a card with a special note, it’s the love and thoughtfulness of gifting that really enhances life.

As a child, Rebecca tried to always listen to her grandmother who gave, shared, and prayed for family members and friends who needed assistance. Rebecca’s grandma always taught her not to be selfish by giving and helping others.

As an adult, I’ve carried my grandma’s caring thoughts throughout my life and given back to the community, family, and friends. As a child, our family didn’t have a lot, but we were thankful for what we had. Every day, I’m blessed that I can give back and share my blessings with others like Grandma did.

Connie shared how she learned how to give as a child, when her generous father allowed her to gift a makeup set with a friend who lived in a less fortunate family. The friend took it among herself to share it with other friends and spread the joy of the present.

Today, Connie sends popcorn and cookie gifts to friends and co-workers.

Life is meant to be shared. For me, giving gifts is a celebration of the abundance and richness of life. I have a fulfilling career and lots of loving family, friends, and colleagues. It’s my belief that sharing and giving back is an essential response to all the blessings I’ve received.

As the stories from our community show, Giving is the Gift.

All the best,
Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

What’s the best month for a birthday? Surveys show that most people prefer June to any other time of year, and it’s easy to see why: The weather is warm, friends and family are looking for things to do, and there tend to be few conflicts with other occasions.

Fast-forward six months, and you’ll find the least favored birthday month. Not only is the weather generally cooler, but December’s birthdays are more likely to collide with friends’ and families’ holiday plans, encounter strained budgets – or be forgotten altogether.

The internet is full of snarky memes like “All I want for Christmas is for someone to remember my December birthday” and “Thanks for my Birthday/Christmas present … said no one ever.” But what you see on the internet isn’t always the whole story.

I asked my team to talk to the real experts – hundreds of our employees who happened to be born in December. Nearly everyone responded, very quickly; clearly, I touched on a hot topic, but I was surprised by the range of passionate responses.

The difficulties of December birthdays

One theme stood out in the responses: While every birthday is special, the timing of December birthdays is often a challenge. Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve are big holidays, and each often requires weeks of preparation and can drown out anything in their midst.

Having a birthday in December can come with disappointment. My birthday is Dec. 5, so folks are concentrating on Thanksgiving and then Christmas, so in between the birthdays get blurred.

Elaine, customer service manager at BloomNet

Others talked about how the holiday festivities made it difficult to round up friends to schedule birthday parties.

School was always out for the holiday break, so no one ever wrote ‘It’s Carolyn’s birthday’ on the chalkboard, like all the other kids got. Most of the other kids were on their way to visit relatives, or had relatives in town, so a birthday party was nearly impossible to set up.

Carolyn, senior accountant at Harry & David

And then there’s the dreaded “combo” present:

If my family or friends remembered, I got the famous Birthday/Christmas present, which virtually every December birthday knows about.

Toni, operations trainer at Harry & David

My younger self had imagined conspiratorial conversations occurring in smoke-filled rooms where parents and other family members would plot to only buy me 60% of my potential gifts in lieu of ‘making up for it’ on Christmas. Was this true? Maybe. Had I imagined it? Likely. But childhood toy-based greed notwithstanding, I never did without and always felt very loved.”

Anthony, customer experience manager at 1‑800‑Flowers.com

Making December birthdays special

Even those who had complaints about their December birthdays said there were positives, especially as they grew older. After all, a lot of employers pause work for a few days around the holidays, creating an opportunity to stretch out celebrations without requiring any vacation time. And New Year’s resolutions don’t take effect until Jan. 1!

But the biggest reasons for very special birthdays were the people around them.

My parents always made sure to make it special for me. My sister and I were born two days apart (and a few years) and we have so much fun with it. We have our birthday dinner with all of our families together. Christmas decorations are always up, so it’s so pretty in the house. I love it.

Meghan, customer service at Napco

The one downside to having a Christmas Eve birthday is that I rarely get to see my friends since it’s usually more of a family day, but my friends in adulthood have all been really wonderful in still making me feel special when we celebrate before or after, even if we can’t be together on my birthday itself.

Shannon, copywriter at Harry & David

As to all those aunts and cousins who handed me a holiday-wrapped gift saying, ‘Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday,’ it meant I was there with them; I would not have seen them if my birthday was any other time of year, and they did not send gifts when other siblings’ birthdays rolled around.

Jane, merchandise manager for fruit at Harry & David

Brenda, who oversees research and development at our Food Group brands, was born on Dec. 25. She loved how her parents made a big deal of both events and ensured that she and her siblings received the same number of birthday and Christmas gifts. The lesson has come in handy later in life:

My son’s birthday is Dec. 21, and I know firsthand how hard it was for my parents to maintain the birthday celebrations and the holidays at the same time. I appreciate everything they did as we were growing up.

What you can do

December babies have no choice when it comes to their birthdays, but we – their families, loved ones, and friends – do. We all have the power to make sure their special day isn’t lost or forgotten amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

If someone you know is celebrating a birthday this month, make it a point to reach out and ask about their plans. Let them know you’re not forgetting and, most importantly, you won’t be sending a combo “birthmas” gift (unless, of course, it’s really, really fabulous).

All the best,

Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend full of friends and family, delicious food, and enriching rituals.

The funny thing about Thanksgiving is that its spirit never seems to fade even on the last day of the long weekend. Instead, it just morphs into the holiday season, where rituals, gratitude, and great food continue to abound. Perhaps this past week was just a trial run for all the celebrations ahead of us.

I was reminded of this while reading the Thanksgiving rituals shared by our community. In story after story, you wrote about activities that bring people together and deepen the celebration of gratitude. More than a few look ahead to the December holidays that are just a few weeks away.

I hope you find these stories as inspiring as I do.

Giving thanks all season long

At Kathy’s house, Thanksgiving is only the beginning of a multi-week celebration. She shared two special days with us: Soup Day and Fondue Night.

Soup Day takes place Thanksgiving weekend. Whoever cooked the turkeys for the big feast is responsible for making the soup out of the leftovers. Others then use an old family recipe to bake bread. After dinner, everyone sits down in the living room to look at Kathy’s photo albums – all 35 of them!

I have pictures going back from the late 1800s and the turn of the 20th century – all the way to today (or a few years ago, when I was still shooting film). Nobody seems to get tired of it, and we get to tell funny remembrances triggered by the photos.

Another tradition takes place at the end of the holidays. On New Year’s Eve, she celebrates Fondue Night – a tradition that started more than 60 years ago “mostly to keep folks off the streets.”

We can have as little as six folks or as many as 40, it doesn’t matter. We have cheese fondue, steak fondue, shrimp fondue, and chocolate fondue, with platters laden with stuff to dip in, and sauces for the plates. Little children under 5 have to sit on an adult’s lap to learn how to manage a fondue fork (no fork fights allowed!). We are five generations in now and I hope it will continue when I am gone.

Expanding the Thanksgiving table and other rituals

Last week, I wrote about how a relatively new McCann family tradition – Papa’s Turkey Tacos – has evolved in recent years. After we moved it from Thanksgiving to the following Sunday, we started inviting neighbors and friends to the backyard festivity.

Susan, a community member, shared how the inclusion of more people is a highlight of the holiday:

I’m grateful for how every year brings a new member of our family, and I love seeing everyone around the table.

Many people shared that their biggest Thanksgiving tradition is kicking off the holiday season. Lindsay wrote about how she gets everyone moving and burning off calories after the Thanksgiving feast:

Once everybody eats, we pull out all the Christmas stuff, and every year we try to do a little bit of a different theme. Our favorite Thanksgiving activity is to decorate the Christmas tree.

And, lastly, we heard from Ann, whose growing family has developed some very competitive rituals thanks to her two grown sons. She tells me they’re 20 months apart, the best of friends, and brutally competitive. During COVID, they invented the Dirty Pot Turkey Trot, a run to the end of a long field and back that everyone heads outside to watch the moment the Thanksgiving meal is over. Ann shares:

The fact that their meals have not even begun to digest is half the point. The loser is responsible for the kitchen cleanup and dishes. Needless to say, we all do pitch in and help, but the Dirty Pot Turkey Trot is now a much anticipated tradition that brings howls of laughter the year through. (Did I mention that neither of them are above cheating, throwing elbows, and foot swipes to win the race?)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in our community!

Jim

Written by our Founder and CEO, 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.

If you’re like my family, on Thursday you’ll be enjoying turkey, stuffing, lots of side dishes, and too many desserts all wrapped up in a large serving of Thanksgiving rituals. Those activities – repeated year after year – are what make the holiday feast different from just another family dinner. They help build anticipation for the event and ultimately become the foundation of our memories.

The most fascinating part of rituals is how they evolve. Each year, we gather in anticipation of something familiar but keep layering on new activities and meanings. The rituals are grounded in the present, look to the future, and are rooted in traditions across generations.

Years ago, my sister Julie started one of my favorite rituals. As the dinner host, she required everyone to share one thing they’re grateful for before diving into the feast. Over the years, the answers have shifted from jokes and “no comment” to stories that trigger tears and deep reflection. It’s a great way to catch up with everyone at the table.

A more recent McCann family ritual is Papa’s Turkey Tacos. It started during the pandemic when we celebrated Thanksgiving in the backyard, and I got a bit creative. The tacos were a hit with the grandkids, and they started looking forward to them as soon as the leaves began falling.

But even this new ritual has changed over the years. After ruining a few appetites on Thanksgiving Day, we moved the taco celebration to the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The change gave us something to do with leftovers – and more importantly, extend the holiday celebration with family and open it to neighbors and friends.

Extending your Thanksgiving rituals

At a time when loneliness has reached epidemic proportions, we should be thinking about our rituals and how we can invite others to join in. I was reminded of this by Jay, a community member who shared a Thanksgiving memory:

I happened to be all alone on Thanksgiving five years ago, and a friend of mine sent out a blast text that said, ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’ I responded with a nice note, and she wrote back and asked what I was doing. When I said ‘nothing,’ she invited me to her home, and so I went. There were 14 women, and me. When I walked in, I almost died, but everyone could not have been nicer. It ended up being one of the most memorable Thanksgivings I’ve ever experienced.

Jay’s story serves as a reminder that not everyone has a place to go on Thanksgiving. In fact, it can be one of the loneliest holidays for people who are far from their families or have lost their relatives, among other reasons. That’s why it’s important to use your power, like Jay’s friend, and reach out to friends. If someone has no plans, consider extending your table – and rituals.

Even if you can’t extend an invitation to dinner, think about other ways you can broaden your holiday rituals. If you decorate your home, why not do it along with a neighbor? Or if you partake in post-Thanksgiving celebrations or donate leftovers, why not invite a co-worker or friend to join you?

Psychologists point out that rituals are profoundly important to our lives. They weave together our culture, identity, and shared experiences, providing a structure for us to express emotions. They also create a sense of community – whether it’s just the extended family or the whole society. Very importantly, rituals foster a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Jim