It's still the New Year! So with this in mind how will you spend time as a family enriching your traditions or creating new ones?
Why is this important?
You and your kids will remember these memories more than the tangible things they get. Even having a souvenir will only have value if there are some wonderful memories attached to it.
This almanac entry challenges you to think on what traditions you will do this year as a family.
What traditions have you been doing or did as a child that you remember?
Family traditions help keep your cultural heritage alive.
Think on that.
When I was a kid, our family would get together every Christmas Eve after the evening church service and we had a huge Christmas party. Now when I say family I mean aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc. We ate food, opened presents, and stayed up late just having fun being around each other.
When I grew up and married, my husband thought that tradition was odd. He was used to opening all the presents on Christmas morning.
And I thought that was weird!
As it turns out my German heritage and traditions shaped our Christmas festivities. In Germany, it is common to exchange presents on Christmas Eve. So for me Christmas morning was for sleeping in and as for St. Nick....well he was more of an after thought.
Now with our family we have almost blended our traditions. My husband and I exchange our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning is for all the presents for kids.
As for Santa
We leave out cookies and milk for him and some treats for the reindeer!
He has always brought awesome presents wrapped up in brown paper packages that are tied up with string. His elf comes after Thanksgiving and lurks around our house looking for nice and naughty behavior. It't not good ole Krampus but it will do!
If you were to ask my kids what their favorite Christmas tradition is,
they would say our Mini Van Express!
I got the idea off another mom.
We give them Mini Van Express tickets.
We all pile in the van to go look at Christmas lights and we eat treats on the road.
It is like a family Polar Express!
My husband and I even have a movie bucket list to get through for Christmas.
But it's not just Christmas.
We have traditions for the Tooth Fairy who brings a tooth report and money for those gross teeth.
On birthday's we have a special breakfast for the guest of honor.
It's usually pancakes
For Easter we always find a community egg hunt.
On Halloween we (I) carve pumpkins.
Thanksgiving is a feast and one of the only times a year I make my famous apple pie.
New Year's the kids can never stay up so this year we did a new thing where we had a picnic at the beach and watched the last sunset for the year.
So this year think about what traditions you want to create, strengthen, and pass on.
Remember too that with age and tradition both things change. We are never the same in age and traditions can always change. Tradition isn't a label to keep things the way they were. My Christmases are not like how they were. I am still fond of my childhood Christmases but I love my new traditions I have with my family.
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