Although the holidays are often a time for families to come together and share stories with one another, it’s important to make sure that your elderly relatives feel included in the story telling, and that their legacy is being preserved. Take advantage of this time together to truly understand where your family roots are coming from and how they have grown and branched out to create the family dynamic that you all share.

You can plan your holiday activities around this goal of creating an inter-generational holiday. By making sure that your elderly relatives feel included, encouraged, and represented in the holiday activities, you will teach your children about the importance of legacy, and might even learn some family history in the process.

Below is a list of activities geared toward creating an inter-generational holiday:

Family tree / origin of your family name. Collaborating with your elderly relatives to flush out the map of your family tree is a good way to have them feel comfortable in telling stories and engage in the conversation. There are also many resources online to track the origin of your family name, which is an educational way to bring the family together and show how everyone is related.

Photos. Pictures are a great way to link generations together. Encourage your relatives to bring pictures that you can scan and upload to a digital photo album. They will also be grateful that you are inquiring about their past, and archiving photographs will bring up old memories.

Cooking. Create a family cookbook with all of your family’s secret recipes. Ask your elderly loved ones to participate in the holiday meal preparations. Take a few pictures of them cooking to add to the photo album.

Music. Have your loved ones bring their records and have the whole family listen to them. You can even take them in to be converted to MP3s so that the music will be archived for years to come.

Keep in the mind that the goal is to show how everyone in the family is connected by sharing stories and discovering common interests. Reminiscing in the past is a healthy way to keep your elderly loved ones engaged in the conversation, especially if they are having trouble staying focused in the present.

By making sure that your elderly relatives feel included, encouraged, and represented in the holiday activities, you will teach your children about the importance of legacy, and might even learn some family history in the process.