Tradition and Women
 

Through the last couple of years I've noticed a small but emerging aspect from guys and tradition. As I've grown older I notice that women have a strong hold on keeping traditions like Christmas alive. Guys on the other hand would likely stretch out the tradition to the point where it's a week long and you can choose any convenient day to celebrate it, or eventually leave it to simply disapear. I've been talking around a lot about this and for some reason a lot of us guys simply don't care for fanciful traditions. In my family and my friends families, it's always the mother who pushes to have a holiday with all the icing on the cake. As a personal example: for christmas last year, it was just my dad and myself were living together and we had not bought a tree. My dads gf came over on christmas eve and saw this, instantly went out and got one. In all honesty I really didn't care for a tree. Last couple of days, I've been talking to my friends parents and asked them about this concept. They seem to agree. While in the topic, my friends father also pointed out "getting a tree is a pain in the ass, I really would rather not have one". I've seen single women who (again) on christmas still buy a tree for themselves, even it's a small one. So far I've used christmas as my base tradition, it is one of the most elaborate ones.

Do I have a point to say Women push for a solid tradition while Guys would let them eventually slope away?

Yes, most definately. Exploring why that is would be interesting.

Seems that way to me. I would rather just do away with Christmas all together, but my wife is all about tradition :( Couldn't tell you why though.

Not here. My wife would be the first in the house to get rid of holidays. In fact we didn't decorate or exchange gifts at all this year. Holidays are about getting together with family and spending time with friends. We did plenty of that but the materialism and commercialization of Christmas really ruins this whole time of the year for both her and I.

The stores deck their halls three months prior to the holiday to warm people up, make them open their wallet and turn them into mindless consumers. I say fuck that.

Family, friends, festival and food. And we do it well.

tradition = familiar = secure.

....aanyways, I've not much more enlightening to add (as I'm really not a philosopher) but, I'm female, and I am not *really* into the whole tradition thing.

trees, I couldn't care less, the decor, I like colored lights and shiny silver things and stars - year-round!

I appreciate the 'holiday season' for the family/friend aspect, as well as the material part of it.
I have been making an effort, starting this year, to refer to it only as 'xmas' as to remove the 'christ' part (thank futurama ;) )
for me it's not religious at all.

so, I guess my point is, that your generalisation has it's exceptions (as I'm sure mine does, with it's implication that women are primarily concerned with familiar securities).

This is probably going to seem sexist but here goes:

In my opinion women are more reponsible than men for holding civilization (including families and tradition) together. Women seem to be more centered whereas men take more chances and go off the deep end more easily. Family togetherness during the holidays means more to them than it does to us men.

Other than at war time I believe in general that women would make better leaders than men because of this. Keep in mind, I'm talking generalities here, LOL.

I'm not sure about ALL traditions, but as far as generalities go, DEFINITELY for family value traditions. The mother and sisters are oftenr esponsible for keeping the family in contact, else I have the feelings a lot of us men would bear not having any contact with other male families ;)

Thanks for responding.
This pretty much sums it up, Family oriented holidays are kept in tradition by Women (mother). If it weren't for the women, those holidays would not be solid as they are today.

I love Christmas but I hate the hassle of all the decorations. Seems way over the top for one day. When you sit back and look at the decorations it seems like a pretty dumb idea to throw bulbs and shit on a dead tree and lace multicoloured light around the perimeter of your roof. To be honest I don't even care much for the big dinner either. I much rather spend the time with my family and exchange gifts. The gifts part is the only thing I really like about Christmas. Don't get me wrong it's not so much about the recieving but giving something to someone who may not have been able to work that wanted item into their budget. I think without all the decorations and huge dinners that it would remove some of the stress from the holiday. But I think every woman feels a certain amount of pride to have a nicely decorated house and feed her family and friends well. Kind of like an annual event to show off their talents ???

I think the reason is that society places roles on women. Women are often raised as the cookers, cleaners, caretakers, etc. What better time for such people to make their presence known? Without family parties or such then housewives would receive no recognition for their efforts.

Again, these are generalizations based on stereotypes and the ridiculous traditional roles of men and women.

Biologically speaking, most women are programmed to embrace stability while men are programmed to sow their seed, move along, and repeat the process until no longer capable of doing so.

Certainly biology plays some role, but I think it has just as much, if not more, to do with socialization.

I hope that never happens to me! :eek:

My wife has always been into tradition and not just for holidays. Birthdays, anniversaries, mowing the lawn, etc. We must keep he tradition alive!

I always thought it had something to do with the maternal/family instinct. They embrace what they remember as children and carry it over to their adult life and children if they have any. I know the tradition thing got worse when my son was born. My wife also didn't grow up in the most friendly family envirionment, except during the times listed above. During those times, her parents were loving and caring like they were supposed to be. Thinking back to those times triggers her loving family memories and makes her try harder to keep those memories alive by keeping the same traditions.