Trends & Traditions with Holly Lynch
Letit go
other than canning pickles and jams should have pretty much faded away by now. I know my mom pulled out some Mason jars for us to drink from back in my high school days, and with the rise of Mason jars as everything from candle holders to vases at weddings, I’m just about over the use of them. The trend to use Mason jars and burlap at weddings became really popular around 10 years ago. Can we all agree that it’s run its course? I would love to see the "rustic" look embrace a few more elements than these two. I would suggest vintage glassware instead of Mason jars, and calico prints or traditional flax-colored linen for table linens. Use quilts and enamelware plates. I think there are many more ways to have a country, casual event without having to introduce a tired Mason jar or itchy burlap. There, I said it.
GENDER REVEAL PARTIES Here is where I may lose some additional readers. We’ve discussed gender reveal parties in this column before, and I conceded by saying that any cause for celebration is a good celebration. I may be wrong. After talking with many who’ve attended these parties, it seems a baby shower is a much better celebration for the new life that is coming. I’ve known three couples in the last year alone who were told the baby would be one gender only to find out in a subsequent doctor visit that, in fact, the baby (babies, in one case) is an entirely alternate gender. From what I’m hearing, only the grandparents are really that thrilled about coming, and my experience with the generation above me is that they really just want you to cut to the chase. Phone up your family and say, “We’re having a ____!” and be done with it, or send a cute email or simply post a photo of something pink or blue. We get it. And please consider what you’re putting the ultrasound technician through. There’s a lot of pressure to get the prognostication right when there’s so much riding on the big gender reveal party. Ease up on the poor tech, they have about 20 more scans to do before going home for the day.
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E SPEND TIME IN this column discussing trends and traditions. Trends are events or behaviors that seem to be more common occurrences, which were not part of events or behaviors of the past. Traditions are events and occasions, and details within those occasions, which have historic relevance in that they do not change over time or change very slowly. I notice trends that are wonderful. We discuss trends that are fun and unique. This column is not about those trends. This column is about trends that have become so common and so overdone in the last few years that I would really love to see them fade away. Good trends should stick around and become traditions. Other trends need to go the way of big hair and legwarmers.
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MASON JARS AND BURLAP Whew. I’m just not sure where to start here, and I know I’m offending some of my readers. But, Mason jars for any purpose