Ornaments reminds me...after we lost our son, that first year of everything is really hard, so I bought an ornament "Merry Christmas from Heaven now don't shed a tear, I'm spending my Christmas with Jesus this year" And on back had his name & yr (yr he passed), and gave one to his 4 sisters and kept on for myself. Each year now I find a special ornament and give it to the girls & me, "from Christopher", and it's extremely important to them I keep this new tradition going. The ornaments always are extra special, with meaning & engraved with his name on back.
When we lose someone very close, it's nice to create a tradition that keeps them "alive" to us especially on a holiday. Since he's military, we always go to the Memorial Day service at the veterans cemetery, but his birthday also had tradition, since he was very little he always asked his birthday meal to be lasagnia & german chocolate cake, so each of us (4 girls families)make this meal on his birthday to remember him. Each daughter also has a memory shelf in their living rms for their brother's memory, we have a corner curio with all his medals & items of his (watch, class ring, etc)pictures, in our dining rm.
I think "traiditons" are important, we blend them when we marry, but it's nice to create something new to each newly made/born baby, family unit also. We make homemade caramel, my mom makes homemade popcorn balls for everyone, and my tree is almost all homemade ornaments too. Lots of rich traditions mean more than anything received "bought".