With the holiday season in full swing, so are our holiday traditions. We all have them, no matter how big or small.
My husband and I have tried to take holiday traditions from our childhood and modernize them to fit our family. Growing up, my family used to watch Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" cartoon. Today, my family watches "The Grinch" starring Jim Carrey. It's different, but it's the same. We are still making memories with our children every time we pop popcorn and curl up to watch the movie.
One holiday tradition that needs to be modernized to fit the lifestyles of all Michigan children involves holiday parties, including classroom parties. I believe that parties and holiday celebrations are an important part of our children's lives. They give children a chance to celebrate the season with friends. With the childhood obesity rates reaching all-time highs in our state, I would like to see healthy options offered school parties and other holiday celebrations. I'd like kids to see that eating healthy can be easy to do — even around the holidays.
Typical classroom party snacks consist of high-calorie treats and are often the main focus of the party. A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Education and Behavior described the observations made at four preschool and kindergarten classroom parties. At the two parties where fruit wasn't available, the kids each ate an average of 344 to 455 calories. When fruit was an option, the counts dropped somewhat, to 259 to 405 calories.
While all children have different calorie needs, based on their age, height, weight and gender, a child between 4 and 13 who is moderately active should be taking in about 40 calories a pound or around 1,800 calories a day, and they should come from nutritious foods.
From classroom parties to the lunch room, we want our schools to help model that the healthy choice can be an easy choice.
Offering healthier snacks with some sweet snacks is a great alternative, as is offering creative or physical activities as a part of the classroom celebration. I have seen some teachers doing this in their classrooms with great success, and I applaud their efforts. Sure, we are used to using the frosting for cookies, but it can also be used to "glue" together the gingerbread house that will be too cute to eat.
There is no time better than the present to start setting healthy examples for our children consistently. Sometimes changing traditions can be difficult, but sometimes it is more difficult for the people who have lived with the traditions the longest, us.
It is time to start setting new traditions for our children so that we can keep them healthy and help them to live long enough to start traditions with their own children, grandchildren and, we hope, great-grandchildren.
Katherine Knoll is chairman of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan Steering Committee.