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" America loves its holidays, and all the events, presents and parades that go with it. But each year, as the Valentine&amp;#039;s Day flowers stream in and the stacks of holiday gifts pile up, you have to wonder: Can we celebrate without commercialism? The resounding answer, in short, is yes. Though Father&amp;#039;s Day has been decried as yet another &amp;quot;Hallmark holiday&amp;quot; that&amp;#039;s not worthy of celebration, it doesn&amp;#039;t have to be this way. Why not trade in the slick toys and boring ties and use the day as an opportunity to honor family? New York-based writer Bob Brody, for one, is advocating this mindset, showing that the holiday doesn&amp;#039;t have to be about fathers receiving. Instead, it can be a reflection on the role itself and the importance of fatherhood. He&amp;#039;s just launched a blog, LettersToMyKids.org, which is the culmination of a year-long project in which he wrote a weekly hand-written letter to each of his two children, Caroline and Michael. Having typed them up and gotten family permission to publish, he&amp;#039;s now going to post his letters\u2014100 in all\u2014on the site. He&amp;#039;ll alternate posts, starting with the birth of his son, followed by the birth of his daughter; each one filled with anecdotes and incidents that spoke to him. &amp;quot;I guess I wanted to, as much as anything, express my love for my kids and celebrate being a father in front of the public, on a public stage,&amp;quot; Brody says. &amp;quot;But then beyond that, I thought, how cool would it be if other parents did something like this? What if I could get something like this [online] and inspire other parents to do something like I&amp;#039;ve done?&amp;quot;  The site features a widget where parents can pledge to write to their own children. Whether it takes the form of a blog, handwritten letters or even postcards, the idea is the same: connection. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m doing it to motivate other parents to share some family history, and, in the process, to illustrate how it might be done,&amp;quot; Brody says. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s all I&amp;#039;m hoping for.&amp;quot;  Here&amp;#039;s hoping, indeed.  \u2014Mandy Major, Associate Editor "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/family-friends/news/a44844/a-fresh-twist-on-fatheras-day-2630/>