Session One - Question #2

When I was growing up we always had a plum pudding for dessert after our Christmas meal. This had connections to my Irish heritage and was very important to my maternal grandfather. The plum pudding was soaked in brandy, set afire, and then carried into the room. Everyone cheered "Hurray for the plum pudding."

I continued this tradition with my own family. One day my daughter, Becky, came home from school and said that they had been sharing Christmas traditions. She mentioned the plum pudding and no one else knew what she was talking about. She thought that everyone did this. When you think about it, it is a crazy sort of tradition. I am not a dessert person but I do like a small bit of plum pudding -- I don't know if it's the taste that I like or that it just tastes good because of the meaning behind it.

Although this is not a religious tradition, it is a family one and one that celebrates my Irish background. Christmas is a mix of the secular and religious. I don't think secular celebrations are bad, but we need to also keep up the religious traditions.