My first thought about family traditions is the song by Hank Williams Jr. I personally enjoy many types of music so often when I think of a subject, I relate that to a song. At any rate, today’s post is about something near and dear to my heart, and that is FAMILY TRADITIONS! To be clear, there are many types of family & friends. All of those could benefit from having some family traditions, so when I say “family” I mean all types of family. There are so many ways and reasons to have traditions, often things passed down from the past and carried forward into the future by family or friends. In addition to that, there are new traditions, and these I love as much as the old ones. The goal of this post is to inspire you to make plans for old and new traditions.
Bridging the gap of prior generations with family traditions…
I am a person who enjoys carrying down the traditions of those who have gone before me. One of those traditions is to go on trips with my husband and boys. These “adventures” as I call them, stem from my own childhood. As a child, we never had fancy trips, but we had many adventures. There were many times that we would come home on a Friday from school and my mom said that we were leaving for the weekend. We threw our clothes in a small suitcase, packed some two-man tents, and off we went. And we camped. We roasted hot dogs, swam at the pools, and did some hikes. So much fun was had. I loved all the places that we found and have so many fond memories of those times. It was our family tradition.
Inventing future traditions…
As an adult, I invent new traditions all the time. One example of that is something that we invented called the “porch party”. So, what is a porch party for us? It was invented out of necessity. Our neighborhood has frequent power outages. Whatever we are doing will come to halt. One summer night, the power went out. The kids were antsy, so I took them out on our porch which has a small table & chairs. With the kids complaining, I took out a portable phone charger and found a family movie to distract them. My husband picked up some donuts on the way home. He arrived and we had a movie and donuts by the porch light. It was fun! And the porch party was born. Now when our power goes out my kids are asking “are we having a porch party”. A new tradition was born that day.
Here are 5 other traditions that my family does each year:
1. Holiday lights
Many of our traditions are around holidays and seasons. It is fun to have things to look forward to each new year, things that you can count on no matter what happens. One of those things is holiday lights. Like many things, it takes me back to my childhood a bit where my mom decorated our house excessively with colored Christmas lights. It is definitely a nostalgic feeling. Our tradition starts with kids in pajamas. We load up into my Honda and do a splurge at a local coffee shop for hot chocolate to go. With a little ahead of time research, I find a few spots around town know for Christmas lights and off we go to visit those.
2. First day of school dinner with good friends
This is a tradition that started about 11 years ago when my older son was in preschool. While my son made friends, I made a mom friend. And a great friendship was born. We started that year meeting up on the first day of school. As the years have progressed, the kids are in different schools. But our tradition continues. We meet up for an early evening meal for a couple of hours and just listen to the kids talk about their day, their new classes, etc. It is a great tradition that I hope to continue for years to come.
3. Summer traditions
We have a few summer traditions, but I will put them all here just to give you some ideas. I like to take the kids and get together with a cousin, also a mom with similarly aged kids during the summer. We try and make time for a “pool day” which we have done at various places, and also a “river day”. Both are always fun and relaxed days where we pack lunches, wear flip flops, and let the kids enjoy themselves.
4. Pumpkin Patch/Apple picking
The pumpkin patch is a tradition that started when my children were toddlers. Of course, we started exploring the fall pumpkin patches. We took those cute pictures that everyone loves with children and pumpkins. I love looking back at those. But as my children grow older, one thing that has continued is the pumpkin patch visits. They seem to enjoy it, and it is such a fun family tradition. We like to include grandparents and also sometimes combine this with apple picking. We always seek out a new and different patch every year and love to find the new activities that each one offers. This activity is a great family tradition.
5. New Year’s snacks and family time
This one is no brainer because most everyone does something for new years eve, right? For my family, we like to stay home and celebrate with the kids. Mainly this tradition was born out of having young children and wanting to stay off the roads knowing that people are out drinking. But our tradition has continued. We love to make fun snacks like meatballs, chips and dip, and fun desserts. We buy or make fun hats and stay up late to watch the ball drop. Safe family fun! Also, invite some friends or family to join and enjoy time together.
Looking to the future…
I hope that you have enjoyed learning about some of my family traditions. One thing that I would like to explore further is the family traditions of other cultures. There are so many family traditions in the world, and we are always out to explore new ones. I feel like celebrating these traditions in many ways bridges the past to the future and gives your children traditions to celebrate for years to come. So, here’s to family traditions! I’d love to hear about some from your family!
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