Creating Family Traditions this Holiday Season

Image courtesy of Disney Animation

Today, Disney is celebrating the digital release of OLAF’S FROZEN ADVENTURE starring the voice cast of Josh Gad, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff. The digital copy of Olaf’s Frozen Adventure will also add six classic Disney shorts to your holiday digital collection.

 In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 21-minute featurette “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” Olaf (voice of Josh Gad) teams up with Sven on a merry mission. It’s the first holiday season since the gates reopened and Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) and Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel) host a celebration for all of Arendelle. When the townspeople unexpectedly leave early to enjoy their individual holiday customs, the sisters realize they have no family traditions of their own. So, Olaf sets out to comb the kingdom to bring home the best traditions and save this first Christmas for his friends.

To celebrate, our friends at Disney Home Entertainment and Click Communications sent us a holiday box in order to sample the variety of traditions around the world.  From Lefse, a traditional soft flatbread, fruitcake, gingerbread, yule bells, candy canes and driedels. we plan to enjoy these treats while watching Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.  It got me thinking about our family traditions we celebrated as a child and what traditions did we continue in our immediate family. As a child, we would spend hours decorating the tree and talk about the different ornaments we unwrapped from the box as we placed them on our Christmas tree.  My mom would love to tell us how she made the ornaments while pregnant with me and I was in awe with how many she had created.  Unfortunately, these precious ornaments got lost in one of their many moves, but the memories I still hold dear.

Fast forward to our own family traditions and we basically have a hodgepodge of celebrations.  My husband is Jewish so we celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays.  When my friends complain how beat they are getting ready for Christmas I jokingly remind them I have two big holidays to prepare for.  But I am thankful that our family is able to teach our daughter about our respective customs and traditions.  We usually celebrate Hanukkah at my in-laws and Christmas (and grandpa’s birthday) at our house.  Our home is mostly decorated with Christmas decor but we do a pretty Menorah that is displayed and the candles lit during Hanukkah.

This year we started a new tradition and played a rather competitive game of Drediel.  Drediel is a Yiddish word literally meaning “little spinner” featuring four Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, hey and shin which stand for the Hebrew phrase “A great miracle happened there.” You don’t have to play with actual money (but is does kind of make it more fun… for the winner!) but chocolate coins would suffice. What are some of your family traditions?

We are offering this Digital Movie that includes 6 Disney Tales!  Good Luck!

Extras:   6 Classic Disney Holidays Shorts:

• THE HOCKEY CHAMP – Donald Duck shows his nephews the moves that won him his hockey trophy, but the boys have a few moves of their own.
• WINTER – Silly Symphony – In this musical short – the last of the ‘Silly Symphony’ series – see wintertime from the point of view of our favorite woodland creatures.
• THE ART OF SKIING – The first cartoon to use the now-famous Goofy holler, this short features Goofy learning how to ski at the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort.
• PLUTO’S CHRISTMAS TREE – While picking out their Christmas tree, Mickey and Pluto chop down the perfect one, unaware that they’re bringing home Chip and Dale along for the ride.
• ONCE UPON A WINTERTIME – While courting Jenny, Joe tries to show off on the ice, but events soon turn to a timely rescue in this musical December Valentine.
• POLAR TRAPPERS – The first cartoon to feature Donald and Goofy without Mickey; The duo are animal trappers in the South Pole with very different (and hilariously unsuccessful) approaches.

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Note: We were provided with promotional materials from Disney Home Entertaiment but all opinions are our own.