Your Kids Will Never Forget Your Family Traditions
In today’s fast-paced way of life, meaningful and consistent family time may fall by the wayside, if not vanish completely. As mamas, we want our babies to be able to look back on their childhood with joy, recalling specific family traditions we shared. I think it’s these little things that help us capture our children’s hearts, keeping them close throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Here are a few of ours:
Friday Family Fun
On Fridays (especially during the school year), we do something fun together as a family. This may be a family game night (Family Feud is one of our many favorites!), a movie night with popcorn and chocolate chips to snack on, a trip to the high school football game, a family football or basketball game, or any other fun adventure we can get ourselves into. It matters not what we do, but that we are spending time together as a family. This is something we all look forward to! Setting aside a specific night each week makes us more intentional about family time.
Birthdays
I like the kids to feel especially celebrated on their birthdays! On the morning of their special day, we always make sure to have a big balloon floating for them (usually the theme of something they’re into at the time), and chocolate chip pancakes are always on the menu. I put candles on the birthday boy’s stack, and we sing an early morning Happy Birthday song for him. I also try to have a sign or banner made for them (nothing fancy…just my finest work with some white printer paper and Crayola markers. I usually spend about 5 minutes on it ;)). They also love it when we have their gift wrapped and sitting out for them to open. When my oldest son turned 10 last year, my husband decided he was going to make it a tradition for the boys to receive their first hunter’s rifle on their 10th birthday. How excited he was to see that he was given a “real gun” from his Daddy!
Christmas Eve
Sheesh…Santa’s not the only one whose Christmas Eve is busy, stressful, and exciting, am I right? Whether we go look at Christmas lights, attend a church service, or get together with family, the nighttime hours seem to creep upon us especially quickly on this joyous night! The one thing we make sure to do each and every year (except for leaving cookies and milk for Santa, of course), is to read the Christmas story in the Bible. We read from Luke 2 and pray a prayer of thanks to the Lord for his gift of our Savior.
It doesn’t matter what our family traditions are as long as they’re present. It only takes a little intentional thinking and planning to create these special moments for your family. It is my hope that they always remember these simple but consistent traditions and pass them on to their own kids one day! I would love to hear your favorite family traditions you share! And…I reserve the right to steal them. 😉