Lenore, the founder of Let Grow and the Free-Range Kids movement, opened up to Bored Panda about the importance of having family traditions over the holidays. Even if they’re funny and quirky. Or is that _especially_ if they’re quirky? In short, these small, repeating, shared experiences help us stay together throughout the years.

“Quirky traditions that your family develop are a way of being and staying a unit. A tradition UNITES you. And because it comes around at a certain holiday, it threads the years together,” she told Bored Panda.

According to the childhood independence expert, it doesn’t matter what the tradition is. All that matters is that it exists and that you and your relatives stay true to it throughout all the holidays to come.

“Anything can become—or remain—a tradition. A special food, word, song, game, way of making something or doing something,” she said.

Some traditions are so deeply entrenched in our lives that we don’t actually notice them anymore and think it’s something that everyone does at home. However, it’s only when we go outside our warm and cozy social bubble that we begin to realize that every family has its own traditions. Some might differ from ours only subtly while others are truly unique.

“Chances are you already have some and just don’t think of them as ‘traditions’—maybe some special ornaments you always put on the tree, or a dessert you make even though it takes about three hours to prepare, or a place you visit, whether that’s a home, a park, a store, a grave,” Lenore explained that these holiday and Xmas traditions can vary wildly.

“Traditions are so important that even young kids can appreciate them more than gifts. If you weren’t going to put up the Christmas tree, for instance, that would be sadder for most kids than not giving them an extra gift. That’s because traditions ARE gifts—gifts from the past that give meaning and joy to the here and now,” Lenore told Bored Panda.

Lenore also revealed a quirky but fun family tradition that they’ve had in her family for years: a talking lemon. It’s a tradition that stuck with them.

“[It’s] a lemon that dried out perfectly that, for some reason or another, we decided to keep AND decided it could speak. Okay, so maybe it sounds a lot like me,” she joked about the talking lemon.

“My sons, now in their 20s, groan when I get out the lemon, who lives most of the year with our holiday paraphernalia,” she opened up about the bizarre tradition to Bored Panda.

“But we all also love the lemon because… he talks! And he’s cranky! Makes dumb jokes! And possibly no other family on earth has a tradition of a talking lemon who comes out and complains about the holidays.”