Keep it simple, make it meaningful

This year you're hunkering down with just the family; here are ways to start some new holiday traditions

By Nina Metz | Special to the Chicago Tribune

December 14, 2008

You love the holidays. Really, you do. But dragging your spouse and kids across ZIP codes for a hectic family blowout is starting to look less and less appealing. This year, thanks to a downward-spiraling economy, you have the perfect excuse to change your plans. Big is out, small and intimate is in....Sometimes ideas are in short supply when the pressure is on. 

Here's one from lifestyle expert George Hirsch: "Instead of doing a drive-by to the large home center and buying the pre-arranged wreath, get the family together and make it. Go on a family hike, get some pine cones and make your own decorations."...

Scale back on feast

Most holiday dinners are enormous. "My background is Italian," says lifestyle expert George Hirsch, "and growing up in an Italian household it's very common on Christmas Eve to do the 11 fishes and the 11 courses. It's a bit excessive in today's time. And a lot of pressure on the host. Financially, it just gets out of hand. And how much are you really going to eat? So maybe instead of doing all that, making fewer courses and having everyone in the family help make things from scratch." 

Homemade gifts

Baking cookies is a holiday standard, but Hirsch's eMagazine (georgehirschliving.com and click on George Hirsch Lifestyle) has a novel twist: Hootycreeks (page 21), which are beribboned canning jars filled with non-perishable ingredients for cranberry oatmeal cookies, plus baking instructions.

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