The power of story creates cultures, traditions and legends. This is true on the large scale, among groups of people and nations. It is true on the small scale as well, where families and even couples create a culture through the stories they tell and the symbolic gifts given throughout life.

Do we speak of our strengths? Our trials and hardships overcome? Some say that a story becomes family or group legend when it illustrates something essential about the characters. Whole segments of the psychological and counseling world are centered around “re-storying”, as in telling our stories in a way that demonstrates our character strengths and shows that we are, in fact, capable of triumph.

One way that stories and their power show up in popular culture - among us who adorn a tree or a home each year - is in ornaments. We take out the box from storage and each item recalls a time, a person or a memory. Handmade ornaments can be handed down, like stories, through the generations. We know in a real way as we hold that item in our hands, that stories and memories weave us back into the seasons and our loved ones.