I love family traditions. I love the sense of identity and security they bring. I fondly look back on the family traditions we had growing up, especially around the holidays. We looked at Christmas lights in various neighborhoods on Christmas Eve while eating ice cream. We baked cookies. My grandma always gave us Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve church services. All of us decorating the Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music. Another one I can remember- not holiday related- is that every year on the last day of school, my parents bought a DQ ice cream cake to celebrate another school year done and the start of summer. Also, Friday nights were pizza and movie nights. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now. These traditions were so simple and easy, but the important thing to me- and what makes it tradition- is that they were consistent and I so looked forward to them.
It's fun as a new parent to think of all the traditions you can create- silly, crazy, new ones, or ones that are nostalgic to you from childhood. Traditions we have started: Steak on Thanksgiving- this is our 3rd year for this and I love not having to deal with a huge bird and an animal cavity. Decorating the tree and house for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day- looking forward to this tonight. This year on the night before Ethan's birthday I wanted to make a birthday tree- and put his presents under that and then decorate a little tree with small gifts or something. Michael told me it was weird, and I also didn't have a tree on hand, but I'm still considering it for next year. :) I'm most interested in creating a few unusual and silly traditions for each holiday.
I found this website that talks about having a close-knit family- I thought it had some good tips.
http://www.parenting.com/article/8-secrets-of-happy-families
What are your favorite family traditions? What ones are you creating now for your family?
And Happy Thanksgiving!
We have lots of family traditions I love - but Christmas takes the cake for me. My Dad is 100% Danish (though he was born here, Danish was his first language.) So we have Danish Christmas traditions. We celebrate Lille Julaften - which is Christmas Eve Eve. We make a traditional rice porridge for dinner, which is garnished with cinnamon sugar and butter. We drink purple grape juice with it and eat danish Christmas cookies (peppernodder, kleinjer, brunnekaer - terrible spellings I'm sure) for dessert. Christmas Eve is our big Christmas feast - pork roast or stuffed chickens, mashed potatoes, red cabbage, green beans, etc. Then the rice porridge left over from the night before is turned into a dessert that you eat cold with hot strawberries on it. In the big bowl of risa-ala-monde, there's 1 almond hidden. Whoever finds the almond in their bowl has to hide it until everyone has eaten every bite of the dessert. Then we all try to guess who has it. And whoever does have it gets a special present. After that, we clean up the kitchen, then we all hold hands and dance around the tree while singing Christmas songs. One song is a traditional danish one that works a lot like musical chairs. Lots of fun. Finally, after we've gone through every song we know, we open presents. Then, far too late for any Mommy's taste I'm sure, we all finally go to bed. When we were younger we just did presents with my Dad's family on Christmas Eve and then Santa came to our house Christmas morning. This is what we'll do with Dyl. I LOVED it my whole life, and still do. I can't wait to start making cookies. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool Kristy! I want to be Danish now. :) I think it's so awesome to have that kind of heritage and background to pass on to your kids. Maybe I'll research some English and French traditions (thanks ancestry.com!) :) Enjoy your cookie baking and fun traditions this Christmas!
ReplyDelete