The holiday season has officially begun. With Thanksgiving less than a week away, the race is on to get plans made and executed in a well-organized manner. But is our society under a bit of pressure when it comes to celebrating the holidays? As soon as Halloween has passed, we are given no rest. The holidays are upon us immediately. Before we even have a chance to clear away the fake cobwebs from our doors, our neighbors are stringing colored lights from theirs. They inundate our senses. They imply tradition in every sense. But what is tradition?

From my own experience, I can say safely that almost every family I know celebrates the holidays just a little differently.

For me personally, the holiday season is going to be very different this year now that my grandfather has passed away. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations typically were celebrated in the same way every year – eating, eating and more eating, followed by hearty argument. Oh, and did I mention the eating? I highly doubt, however, my grandmother’s cooking, as good as it is, will be the main focus this time around. Instead, I imagine our time together will be spent reminiscing on what has made our holidays good in the past – and my grandfather was an essential part of that.

Tradition can be a comforting thing, but just like Christmas lights, it has a limited life-span. Every once in a while, a bulb needs to be replaced, and eventually, the whole strand needs to be taken down altogether.

I’ve always stood by the notion that tradition is what you make it. I have a friend who once said when he used to spend Thanksgiving alone, he always would cook a frozen pizza for himself. He said the frozen pizza became tradition for him, and when he is married and his kids and grandkids come to visit, he will have not only the entire traditional spread – turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and the rest – but also will have a frozen pizza thrown in there, too, just because.

Don’t get me wrong, some traditions are good to hang on to, like getting together with family and bonding over a warm meal, but that doesn’t mean the meal has to be turkey. If your family is partial to, say, Italian food, then go all out. After all, it doesn’t take a turkey to say you’re thankful. If ravioli and tiramisu are more to your liking, then ditch the bird!

If it was the food we were particularly thankful for, then Thanksgiving would have lost its meaning long ago. The first Thanksgiving celebrated a newfound bond between our forefathers and their American-Indian friends. It was their expression of thanks for the help the American Indians gave them during their long and arduous first year at Plymouth Rock. It was this expression of gratitude, more than the food – for the Indians introduced them to many of the foods that made up that first Thanksgiving meal – that brought them together that day.

The holidays are a time of family and friends, not of food, not of lights or tinsel, not even of gifts – but of the unbreakable bonds made between people. And each year is another chance to strengthen those bonds. That’s what we should be thankful for come next week, and always.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.