Culture is many different things, in a lot of different people’s eyes. Culture is your way expressing your way of life. In the culture of Dutch, for the holidays the Dutch wanted to celebrate everything together and become closer as a family. My family takes this very seriously. My parents do not want me to hang out with my friends a lot around the holidays because they want to bond and become stronger as a family. I am glad I have a strong bond with my family. The reason I like to have a strong bond with my family is because, I have people to depend on when no one else is there. But I have a big family so sometimes it gets really hectic, but my family means everything to me.

Thanksgiving is a time for giving in my house. In our family thanksgiving is a giant family reunion every year. We all come together a couple days before and catch up with everyone. During this week, the mom’s, woman, and grandma’s are all cooking for the final day. Thanksgiving week is a family bonding time for the Luinstra’s/Huffman’s. We talk about everything that is going on in our lives and how we could make it better. Then we start cooking and getting ready for the big day. Both of my grandma’s, aunt’s, and mom love cooking. My mom makes home-cooked meals every night. In the Dutch tradition of food is usually very simple foods. For example, just plain cooking of meat or vegetables, instead of intense, concentrated cooking. Our family just sticks with the simple, but amazing foods to make. (http://dutchfood.about.com/od/aboutdutchcooking/u/Basics.htm)

Christmas is one of the biggest holidays we celebrate. Our family is really motivated to just focus our attention on God around Christmas time. My parents encourage my brothers and sisters and I to be as giving as possible. Make someone else’s Christmas as good as yours will be. When December comes my mom brings out a card board, small Christmas tree. On the Christmas tree there are little slots for cards. Each day we pull a card and see what activity we do that day. We do this to count down the days until Christmas. Some of the activities or things we do are bring canned food to the homeless shelter, or we clean out our closets and donate some clothes or old toys we not use or fit into anymore. My family says “Giving is always better than receiving” (Luinstra).

One of my family’s longest traditions is if we get good grades we go out for a treat. My grandma was telling me how when she got good grades and her mom took her out to get ice-cream or to her favorite restaurant. My siblings and I usually go to Dairy Queen to celebrate our good grades. We always get ice cream cones. I like this tradition very much, because I have to work hard to earn this reward. This tradition keeps me very motivated and on track.

Some of these traditions have been in my family for years. Others are just starting when my parents were growing up. It’s weird to think about how something that you do every year or all the time your parents and grandparents and way before that were doing the same thing as you.


Works Cited
Huffman , Caroyln . Personal interview. 15 Feb. 2013.
Engelbrecht, Karin. "The Basics of Dutch Cooking." Dutch Cooking. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://dutchfood.about.com/od/aboutdutchcooking/u/Basics.htm>.
"Dutch culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d.

Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_culture>.
zantine. "Dutch cuisine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cuisine>.
MLA formatting by BibMe.org.