As the holidays are fast approaching many parents start thinking about traditions they can implement with their young ones. Traditions are fun and they are a great way to cultivate lasting memories (not to mention it ties children to their home as they get older. Win win!!).
Try out these fun family traditions this year, or use these ideas to come up with your own (and share your great ideas with us too!):
Halloween
Not everyone celebrates Halloween. Every family is different and will decide for themselves how or even if they will celebrate certain holidays.
When I was younger we did not go trick or treating. Instead, we would celebrate my Aunt’s birthday! Her birthday was October 31st, and so we would usually dress up and go to her house for a birthday party. We would pass out candy to all the trick-or-treaters, and my aunt would load all of us kids up with bags of candy too! It was always super fun for us!
So if you’re family doesn’t celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense, you could always throw a costume party at home for your family and maybe some neighbors.
Boo your neighbor. I didn’t hear about this fun tradition until we moved to Texas. You basically make up a Halloween goodie bag for a friend or neighbor and leave it at their door with a poem and a sign saying they have been “Boo’d”! The “Boo” is supposed to be reciprocated to someone else on the block. It can be a fun way to get to know your neighbors. Read this post for additional info on starting a Boo in your neighborhood!
Family Halloween Costumes. How fun is it to see a family in matching costumes! I love that, and I always try to coordinate the kids. This year is the only year that I have successfully gotten the kids to match. This year my 4 Littles are going as the Paw Patrol and I am so excited. For inspiration in coming up with a theme for your sweet family, check out these awesome families and their creative costumes!
My two little mummies... our first Halloween with matching outfits!
My Paw Patrol crew!
Thanksgiving
I LOVE Thanksgiving! All that yummy food! I love the stories I hear over and over and over again each year. My grandma LOVES to share this one story about me. I bet you anything I’ll hear it this year. It goes like this...when I was really little, probably 1, my grandma was feeding me on the floor. It was Thanksgiving and she was giving me all the delicious varieties of food. Apparently I just kept eating and eating and eating. And she just kept feeding me because I guess I was a baby glutton. She was baffled that I was still taking in bite after bite, until I literally just fell over. My grandma loves that story and will tell it to anyone she is sitting next to.
(I’ve since learned portion control and no longer eat until I fall over, thankyouverymuch).
Share favorite family memories. Obviously this one is already handled at our Thanksgiving dinners. But your dinner table can be full of fun and laughter if everyone will share their favorite family memories. We usually pick one special victim to gang up on and we tell embarrassing stories about that person all day. Don’t you wish you were in my family!! We’re so kind.
Share what you’re Thankful for. A lot of people think this tradition is cliche and a little hokey. Maybe it is. But I still love it. I think it’s important to be thankful (on a regular basis), and this holiday is just a great reminder for those blessings in our lives. Plus, it’s always fun to hear what others are thankful for as well. So jump head first into this hokey tradition and go around the table sharing what you’re thankful for this year.
Create a Family Cookbook. Everyone has their famous traditional thanksgiving dish they bring each year. My grandma makes the gravy. It’s always perfect and delicious. My mom makes the sweet potatoes (or rather, I tell her she has to make them because hers are my favorite!). Create a new family tradition by creating a cookbook with everyone’s signature Thanksgiving dish, and then have the little ones draw pictures of all the different foods. Print copies of it using Shutterfly or another photo creation program, and distribute it to all the family members.
Make a Thanksgiving Tablecloth. Get a plain white tablecloth and some fabric markers. Have everyone sign the tablecloth and leave a message/memory from that year. Use the same tablecloth each year, adding new memories and messages. Have fun reading the previous year’s memories.
Give back to the Community. Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter. You can teach your children the importance of thinking about other people first and letting them see that not all people have homes to live in and food to eat.
Invite a family. Not everyone lives near family or can get back home for the holidays. Something that has always touched my heart is when another family will invite us over to their Thanksgiving dinner because they know we live far from home. It feels good to know that others are thinking of us and care enough to let us join their holiday fun.
If you know someone that doesn’t have family in the area, invite them over to join your family. I bet they would love the gesture and appreciate spending the holiday with you and your family.
Remember loved ones who have passed. Thanksgiving family get-togethers can be hard for those that have lost loved ones that year. That first family gathering after the loss of a family member can be exceptionally difficult. Take time to remember those that have passed away, and share special memories of them with one another.
Christmas
When my hubs and I were first married we really enjoyed heading home for Christmas. I absolutely LOVED my family’s Christmas tradition of going to my Grandpa’s house on Christmas Eve and then spending Christmas Day with our families. But after having several kids AND living across the country from our families, we have started to reconsider our Christmas traditions. While I do still love getting to see our extended families on Christmas, it’s actually more fun for us to spend Christmas morning at our own house and begin new traditions with our own kids. Last year was our first Christmas away from family. We spent Christmas with our 4 littles here in Texas. And while we certainly missed our family traditions, we did have a lot of fun making new traditions and memories with our tiny crew.
4 Christmas gifts. We started a tradition of only doing 4 gifts each for Christmas; something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. The idea behind this is to simplify gift giving and focus on what’s really important. So often people get caught up in the frenzy of Christmas shopping and end up going overboard on ALL THE THINGS! With this four gift idea, you really focus on your individual kids and what would actually benefit them. Plus, I believe it helps them stay grounded when it comes to material possessions. Less is more, if you will.
Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree is used to tell the story of the Bible, from Creation to the Christmas Story, using various symbols and objects for each day/story. You can find out more about this neat advent tradition here.
Christmas Tree Ornaments. Have your child pick out or a make a new ornament each year. Then when they are older and move out, they will have their own collection of ornaments (complete with fond memories!) to decorate their tree with.
Christmas Lights show. One of my favorite traditions growing up was to go looking at Christmas lights. There was this one street near my grandparents house that was over the top amazing! It was a street full of mansions, and the owners literally spent thousands of dollars lighting up their homes. One house in particular was just ridiculous. Like...300.000 lights ridiculous! It was/is quite the scene! Now that I have my own kids, we pick a couple of nights to go look at lights. Everyone gets in their pajamas and brings their favorite blanket, and we just drive around looking at all the houses.
Christmas Jammies. I’m a sucker for matching outfits. I absolutely love putting my two boys and two girls in matching clothes. It does something to my mama heart. It’s adorable! And because I love it so stinkin much, I have decided that we will do matching christmas jammies every year! I’ve done it the past 4 years and I still think it’s fabulous!
Christmas Eve Tradition. Along with the Christmas jammies, is our Christmas Eve tradition. In the evening I will bring out one box for the whole family to open. In the box is everyone’s Christmas jams, a new Christmas movie, popcorn and snacks. We’ll all get into our new jammies and watch a movie together.
(side note: It sounds way better than it actually is. With 4 kids 5 and under, it’s sometimes a nightmare and doesn’t ever go according to plan. But, BUT, my hope is that as the kids get older, this tradition will become more fun and they will cooperate way better. Gotta start somewhere, right?!)
What are some of your family holiday traditions?
