Creating Lasting, Loving Family Traditions
When I was a kid, I always loved our family’s traditions. We always sang karaoke at the annual family reunion, drank milkshakes on long road trips to my aunt’s house (for which we’d leave at the crack of dawn, which was also fun), had homemade birthday cakes, and were treated to sundaes after going to the dentist.
As I got older, I realized that there were other traditions that other families had that ours didn’t—and I longed for them deeply. Singing around a piano at Christmas, first menstrual cycle celebrations, and family vacations (think Dan in Real Life rather than Disneyland) all had such a glittering appeal. Now that I’m a mother with a family of my own, I’m anxious to start our own traditions.
To start, I got a copy of Meg Cox’s Family Traditions when my daughter was still a baby. It’s completely filled with tradition gems from families all over the country, and covers everything from birthdays (and half-birthdays), holidays, family get-togethers, seasonal activities and plain old fun annual play dates, like “Crazy Food Day” and end-of-school rituals. There are so many wonderful ideas in this book that I’d recommend it for any parent.
Since our little one is still quite young, we haven’t done any of the school rituals or other activities for older children yet, but we have come up with some great daily, monthly, and seasonal traditions such as these:
- Weekly drives through neighborhoods to see Christmas lights in December—fun and free!
- A special song and book for naptime, and a separate set for bedtime
- Making pinky promises for activities we will do
- Pulling party poppers indoors on New Year’s and letting them land all over our heads, the cats, and even the fan
- Setting a bonfire and singing Halloween songs after trick-or-treating
- Painting our faces like animals (usually cats) on rainy or otherwise glum days
- Announcing the arrival of the weekend by playing dance music in my bedroom and spinning, dancing, drumming and sometimes even jumping on the bed
- Expecting something homemade from the “Easter Bunny,” such as toilet paper animals or rain sticks
- Hot cocoa with marshmallows on sleepless nights
- Making an annual Giving Tree for the holiday season and gluing hearts on it every time we give
What kinds of rituals or traditions does your family do? You may think you have none to share, but I bet if you looked hard enough you’d find plenty.
