Holiday traditions are developing some new wrinkles as the wrinkles of the generation that carried the torch for their forbearers become more evident with age.

Case in point—a colleague who is the principal in one of the district’s elementary schools where I now serve as curriculum director related this tale to me. She happened to be in a third grade classroom recently where the language arts activity was to work with a partner to talk and think about what you would need to take on a long road trip, say if you were going to a grandparent’s house a ways away for the holidays—“over the river and through the woods,” perhaps. She sat down with a boy and a girl who were beginning their conversation and asked them what they do when they are in the car for a long time. The boy replied that he played with his electronic, handheld game device (the digitalized name of the gadget escaped the principal).

The principal casually mentioned to the kids that when her family went on a long road trip when she was a girl they would all sing in the car. She said the look from both children was one of stunned incredulity. When asked what she did on long trips, the girl replied that she just turned on a DVD she could watch from the back seat. The principal said in her family they would play games like counting license plates to see how many states they could find or play “I Spy with My Little Eye” out the window. Same incredulous looks of disconnect.

I notice the same “keep yourself entertained” (usually with electronics) on the part of my grandchildren as well. “Are we there yet?” is predictably asked only at the end of a game or show when we happen to be in the van on a long trip. Noticing the scenery might occur if I shouted, “Look, a bear!” (which can occur in our part of the country).

On short trips we often don’t allow electronics so we can play “I Spy” and other car games, so perhaps they will choose to pass on these quaint traditions some day to their own children. (They secretly seem to love these games, though they complain about not having their digital delights.)

Perhaps you’ve noticed too, how much children have conversations about virtual reality rather than real life. Because they spend so much time in these pursuits, their conversations focus on telling each other with great enthusiasm about how many whatevers they have bombed into obliteration on level such-and-such in a game with some war-related objective. Note how quickly you tune out of this conversation because you have no common experience, but the kids can easily follow the shared story line and carry on for some time, especially if they don’t have the game with them.

As kids get older, of course, they now graduate to texting and tweeting and other forms of instant messaging. What this all portends is hard to say. The older generation, myself included, bemoans the loss of time-honored traditions, forms of communication and conversation and reflection that seem deeper and more meaningful. But then I remember my parents thinking the world was in serious trouble when television and the Beetles emerged on the scene.

One thing for sure. In America, significant relationships and family ties are more fragile and disrupted than ever before in our history. Those of us who work in schools experience the impact of this every day. Traditions are golden threads that help weave a stronger fabric of connections for children as they grow and as families change. They are worth holding onto and passing on both in our families and in our special school traditions as well.