Celebrate the New Year with Your Family
by MaryJane Pierce Norton

More often than not, New Year's celebrations are geared toward adults and focus more on the party than on the milestone of a New Year. You can celebrate the New Year in your home either on New Year's Eve, on New Year's Day, or during the first week of January. Here are some suggestions:

• Sort through toys and clothes. Set aside those items that are in good shape to give to a shelter, a homeless center, or a church.


• Make New Year's resolutions. Although we often laugh at these and fail to keep them, the beginning of a New Year is a good time to ask the following question, "What do I want to accomplish in this New Year?" Ask each person to come up with three things he or she hopes to do in the New Year. Focus on a new skill to learn; a good habit to start; a bad habit to stop. Write these down. On the family calendar, circle a date four to six weeks from when you write these to look at the resolutions again and find out how each person is doing with his or her resolutions.


• Celebrate the New Year with traditional food. In many areas of the United States, greens or black-eyed peas are served. Other areas have different traditions. If there is no tradition for your family, decide together on a good New Year's food that you would like to enjoy together at the beginning of this year.


• Participate together in a time of devotions as a family. If you have a hymnal in your home, check to see if there is a service for the New Year. Or use the following for a time of devotions:
  
  • Sit together around a table. In front of each person, place a small votive candle. Light each candle, saying to one another, "Thank you God for another year of life and love in our family."
  • Sing together a hymn of your choice or one of the following: "Hymn of Promise"; "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"; "Joy to the World"; "Sanctuary."
  • Prepare for prayer by asking each person in the family to list one thing he or she hopes for in the New Year. After each person says what he or she hopes for, respond together, "O God, we give you thanks." End by praying the Lord's Prayer together.

MaryJane Pierce Norton is the Team Leader of the Family and Life-Span Team, General Board of Discipleship.

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